Last night I told my teacher about the 2nd rehearsal we had playing the Popper Requiem with the orchestra. We were all louder, and hopefully can get even louder. I felt like my volume compromised my tone, and my vibrato pretty much disappeared. For a long time I've had a problem with vibrato that I've known about - that I'll start a long note with vibrato, but then I'll stop doing vibrato before the note ends. Plus I haven't been happy with my vibrato anyway--it's always sounded a little tight and felt very uncomfortable. It's that pat your head and rub your tummy thing, I think. Now seemed like the perfect time to start fixing my vibrato problems!
So, we went back to something he had told me a while ago but finally clicked. Funny how many times this has happened during my cello journey (like we joke...everything we need to know about playing the cello is in Suzuki Book 1). He told me to concentrate on doing the vibrato from my arm, not my fingers, and to remember to keep my bow arm relaxed (as I've been working on for the last few weeks to get my volume up). Shake shake shake from the arm! And it worked...I could hear my tone warming up, and for the first time my vibrato looked, sounded, and felt pretty good.
I played the Popper during my lesson concentrating on vibrato...my vibrato got better but my bowing and timing went haywire...so I'm going to spend time this week trying to pull things back together and concentrate on shaking....from the arm.
meaning... practicing my F# minor scale with lots of vibrato. Today I started doing a shortened version of my shifting exercise but practicing doing a lot of vibrato as soon as I land the shifts...and everything I'm playing this week gets a lot of vibrato whether it requires it or not. I need to burn that shaking feeling in all sorts of positions on the fingerboard into my brain....the next thing that I want to become automatic!
4 comments:
Sometimes I find I have to stop and focus on just one thing at a time, be it volume, speed, intonation, tone, or (rarely) vibrato. Hopefully some day they will all come together.
From week to week I focus on working on one thing at a time. I too have a hard time thinking about many things at once. I've found that improvement in one area helps the other facets of playing, and over a long period of time adds up. Also, if I concentrate on making one thing better, then at the end of the week I can feel like I've made progress, even if it's a very small increment!
Good luck with the vibrato battle! From a fellow soldier against bad, tense vibrato... ;-D
I was taught how to practice vibrato anytime, anywhere, without even a cello -- what you do is touch your collarbone with a finger, and shake your arm, keeping the finger in place. Practice a little at various times throughout the day -- you'll get it!
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