Vibrato on the Oboe
What is vibrato?
Vibrato is a regular pulsation or
undulation of pitch added to our sound for expressive purposes. Both the speed and
depth of pulsation/change of pitch can and should be varied as the music necessitates.
Why is it used?
Vibrato adds a human touch to our sound, replicating the human voice. The depth and speed of undulations can add power/confidence or a sense of vulnerability or frailty/intimacy to a musical line, depending on how it is used. A very rapid vibrato can also add a shimmering quality to your sound (My teacher Marc Lifschey was a master with this expressive capability!) Please note that vibrato should be used
to enhance an already beautiful sound, never to mask and poor one. One should
be able to turn it on and off/start and stop it at will; it is not an uncontrolled, constant bleating to an oboe sound.
When should vibrato be introduced to a budding
oboist?
I find that many oboe
students naturally develop vibrato during their high school studies as their
tone quality and pitch mature from proper air use and support. There is no “magic”
age at which vibrato should be taught, as each student is on their own path of musical awakening and development. One of the comments that MOST irritates me from
seemingly well-intentioned (but non-oboist!) judges at solo/ensemble contests and festivals is
when they write that a young student should be using vibrato already. The 5 minutes they spend listening to a student often isn't enough to make this judgement!
However, if a student is
interested in studying oboe at the college level with the hopes of professional
studies, then the concept of vibrato should definitely be introduced and
hopefully mastered before they begin college work. On occasion I have had entering college freshman in my
studio who did not use vibrato. This is either because they didn’t have a
pre-college teacher help them develop this skill or because they still needed work developing proper air use/support that can facilitate a successful
vibrato. Most often the student is
using far too much tension in their back/chest area to ALLOW vibrato to sound.
If this is the case for your or your student, first take some time to stretch,
release all unnecessary tension, and learn how to permanently remove this
tension from your body for greater ease of playing that will be receptive to
playing with vibrato.
How to learn it/teach oboe vibrato
First, if you are learning
vibrato for the first time, listen to great violinists, cellists, and classical
music singers to hear how it is produced and used by other musicians. Don't skip this most important step! Notice how the
vibrato speed and depth these artists produce can both be changed. The speed of vibrato can speed up
or slow down and the undulation can be deepened or narrowed.
The way that I first
teach vibrato is actually different than how I use it in actual practice. I’ve
found that the best way to teach vibrato is to have a student learn how to
create an undulation in their sound with their abdominal wall (this is often incorrectly
called “diaphragmatic” vibrato), then move that undulation higher up in the
body.
First, place your hand
on your lower abdominal wall, just under your navel and say “hah.” “Hah-hah-hah.” Now say “ho-ho-ho” with a really robust
voice like you’re Santa Claus. Really “punch” out those sounds with your
abdominal wall and notice how your abdominal wall is engaged to create these
sounds.
Next, place a reed in
your mouth and blow a constant air stream through the reed then begin to engage
your abdominal wall as if you are saying “hah-hah-hah” or “ho-ho-ho” slowly
through your reed, without your tongue. Maintain a steady air stream through the
reed at all times. You never want to hear “ha-(silence)-ha-(silence), etc” but
instead a steady sounding “haaaa-haaaa-haaaa” with no silence in-between undulations. Make sure that your embouchure is not changing,
nor is the reed moving in and out of your mouth. Try your best to make the
undulation of pitch as large as possible; really exaggerate the sounds you are
creating---this will help your work in the forthcoming exercises.
Once you feel
comfortable with this, turn on a metronome to 60 beats per minute. Using the
reed only still, create a clear, even “ha” every beat. Next create “ha-ha”
every beat (eighth notes). Once that feels comfortable and sounds clear,
progress to “ha-ha-ha” every beat (triplet division of the beat), then “ha-ha-ha-ha”
every beat (16th notes). Honing this assignment may take up to a
week of methodical practice to acquire ease with this endeavor. Be patient with yourself!
The next assignment is
to slowly move the metronome speed up a few notches until the above exercises
can be performed at 70 bpm. Once you can comfortably
and clearly produce a regular “ha-ha-ha-ha” 16th note division at 70 bpm
on the reed, you’re ready for your oboe. But be patient enough to not move to
the oboe until you can produce deep undulations on the reed alone! Move the metronome
speed back down to 60 bpm, then play a half-hole D on the oboe and produce the
quarter note “ha” sounds again. With the reed in the oboe, the sound you
produce will likely be shallower that what you produced on the reed alone. If
this is the case, then use more lower abdominal force with each “ha” sound.
Maintain a steady embouchure at all times and don’t “wind” each note, The air
should always be moving through the reed like an electric fan, but the
abdominal wall punctuates the sound.Progress on to producing
eighth notes, triplets, and sixteenth notes on a single note at 60 bpm.
At this stage we take a leap.
Without the oboe or
reed, place one hand on your abdominal wall and one hand on your throat. Put on
a metronome at 80bpm and produce quarter note “ha” sounds. Then move to eighth
notes, then move to triplets and sixteenth notes. At this stage, you’ll likely
notice that you’re shifting the “ha” sounds from your lower abdominal wall up
to undulations in your throat (otherwise, after some time your abs will become
quite exhausted!). Move the metronome up to 90bpms and progress from quarter
notes, to eighth notes, then triplets, and sixteenth notes. (refer back to previous musical
examples), but with the voice only. The undulation sound created will not be as
deep as when you used a forceful lower abdominal wall vibrato, and that’s OK.
Now go back and use your
throat vibrato on the reed only at 60, 70, 80, then 90 bpm. Try to make the undulation as deep as possible.
Record yourself and listen to your vibrato to make sure that the undulation in
pitch is discernable. If not, go
back to the lower abdominal wall exercises then shift back to the throat
vibrato.
Next, work on the same
exercises with your reed in your oboe. Practice on a variety of pitches—you’ll
likely find that lower notes are slightly more difficult to produce vibrato
than middle and higher range notes.
A good "all-purpose" vibrato speed to aim for is to create 16th notes at a quarter note tempo of 90 bpm.
Now we take another leap—using vibrato in music!
First add vibrato
sparingly to long notes in slow passages in your solo music and during
rehearsals of large ensemble music. You’ve got nothing to lose! Just TRY it. Slowly add vibrato to your
music until it becomes a regular feature of your melodic line, enhancing your
already lovely tone. Maintain an even vibrato as you change notes, never
starting and stopping the vibrato through big leaps, etc. Realize that vibrato is
not needed in rapid passages. It wouldn’t be noticed there anyway, so in those
instances spend your energy on perfecting the technique, pitch and sound needed
to execute the line instead.
Develop the ability to change vibrato speed
and depth of undulation over time.
Add vibrato into your
long tone exercises. As you create dynamic sound shapes (see post on long tones/dynamic sound shapes) speed up your vibrato as you crescendo, creating faster and shallower
undulations. As you dimenuendo, slow the vibrato as you get softer. Be careful
that your vibrato pulsation is not overly wide, as this can give a flatness and dullness to your sound.
Once you can comfortably
vary your vibrato speed and depth of pulsation, use these skills to enhance
your musical line. Here’s seemingly "magical" bit of oboe expression, a gem I honed from
careful listening to great artists: increase the vibrato speed and frequency
just as you are going up and over the highpoint of a phrase—really “step on the
gas” to produce a shimmering-like sound.
Hope that helps.
Oboe and out,
The Oboist
