Teaching Cello Vibrato to Beginning Cellists Part I

A sequence for teaching cello vibrato to beginners. The student is a trumpet player at Central Michigan University. See CelloProfessor.com for additional information on cello pedagogy nd cello technique.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• cello
• technique
• vibrato
• beginner
• beginning

[SatchmoSings]

Vibrato is usually a cheap way of having something sound "nice."

Listen to Toscanini's 1929 recording with The New York Philharmonic of Haydn's "Clock" Symphony; the whole thing is performed with the strings NEVER using any vibrato and the strings are wonderful.

When you can play a piece expressively WITHOUT using vibrato, then you are a REAL player!

Vibrato, while necessary, is all too often a "fallback" cop-out of 2nd rate playing and singing.

[CelloProfessor]

This isn't a video about the aesthetics of vibrato but a technical explaination of how to do it. Of course Haydn can sound great without vibrato; they didn't use vibrato much in Haydn's time. Try playing the Elgar concerto without vibrato!

[rabemama]

CelloProfessor has the only vibrato instruction videos on YouTube that are based on reality. Though he is too kind to say it, the "doorknob" motion and moving "from the wrist" are easily proven not to exist in professional cellists though they appear to to the unanalytical observer.

These slow forearm rolls seem unhelpful. You were focusing on momentum only to take it away. It is possible to practice different speeds with momentum. Too slow forces constant muscular control, not pulsing.

[CelloProfessor]

In response to the slow forearm rolls: Yes, the momentum is temporarily suspended in order to coordinate the rotating motion of the upper arm with the pronating and supinating action of the forearm. In many cases it is difficult to coordinate both motions *and* feel momentum. By practicing slowly the student can feel how the two motions work together.

[CelloProfessor]

BTW, thanks for the compliment! 

[sibelius27]

I have always introduced the student to vibrato when they start to do it themselves naturally, I let them dictate the pace but then move in to stop bad habits. I feel until the hand has acclimatised and become suppler, vibrato will be learnt as an unnatural thing and something more to be "got right".Vibrato is a very personal thing and I believe in letting the pupil develop themselves so as not to stifle. Vibrato is a living thing and it varies from person to person as well musical context.

[CelloProfessor]

I'm sure what you do works well. I find that I've had a lot of success with the exercises I use. It's just different teaching styles.

[Mizzles240]

robot wave also works on your date

[eschelar]

lol oops

I was doing the chicken wing until you said it... and I'm not a younger student! hahah.

[Villanelle2Ashes]

Ooh my shoulder.

[xorachieex]

I've been playing cello for 6 years and only just began vibrato. The way my teacher is teaching me just doesn't work for me, but I was just trying these exercises while watching this (not playing the cello) and I think it's already making more sense! Thank you! Also, I am 13 years old.

[MademoiselleSwann]

I'm an adult woman who has been taking cello lessons since October (2010). My awesome teacher recommended that I begin with a tennis ball or a ping-pong ball and I had neither plus have very small hands so I have started with a small stressball. Tonight, my non-classically-minded BF recognized the first two notes of the Elgar Cello Concerto! And said, 'That sounds cool." Imagine how thrilling this was for me! And it proves that it's true, I don't need to press down SO hard. ;-)

[asianfoodlover123]

i love this! i have been playing the cello for years and i was never taought how to cello vibrato! so helpful Thanks a bunch for posting this!

[TheSickTaboo]

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