William Fitzpatrick - violin expert

Videos for Violinists: Continuous Vibrato

Learn how to perform uninterrupted vibrato on the violin

In this new short video, Prof. Fitzpatrick tells you how to master "continuous vibrato" on your violin.

Released on December 7, 2022

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DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions expressed in this video are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Virtual Sheet Music and its employees.

Video Transcription

So let's talk a little bit about continuous vibrato. But first, let's establish this sort of little exercise. We call that one, two, three.

You can go on if you want. And we do that with every finger. First finger, third, fourth.

Now, what if we use our third finger and we do this, we release it.

We can even do.

Or one, two.

I think doing this on every string could really help with the idea of doing a continuous vibrato.
Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com
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Comments, Questions, Requests:

Tosh * VSM MEMBER * on December 7, 2022 @5:52 am PST
When I was young violin student, the idea of a continuous vibrato throughout a piece of music was drummed into me as an ideal. But as I began to listen to many different "singers" in movies and television, I began to realize that a continuous vibrato could not only be boring but also not always appropriate to different phrases or notes. Also that if one was going to use a vibrato, one should have the ability to "vary" the speed and amplitude of the vibrato to give different colors to the music as needed if a vibrato was used at all. It is refreshing at times, for example, to listen to a singer like James Taylor who uses no vibrato at all in contrast to someone like Kathryn Grayson in various movie musicals who tended to use a continuous vibrato that was unvarying in its amplitude and was, at least to me, utterly boring and unimaginative. Fritz Kreisler, who began the craze to use a continuous vibrato on the violin, had the good sense to vary its amplitude and speed to give charming nuances to his performance. To me, an ideal violinist model, as regards the use of vibrato was Isaac Stern.
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