Do you ride the wave, or is the wave part of the water?

Vibrato, part one: additive vs subtractive

This is a big subject. I will devote multiple articles to this topic, hoping to describe most of the good vibrato I hear, offer some ways of thinking about teaching and producing vibrato, while leaving its actual use in music to the particular flutist and their teacher.

The goal of this first article is to qualitatively understand Vibrato in functional ways, avoid pitfalls, and show why vibrato is so much a part of the modern flute sound. If you are happy about either your vibrato or how you teach it, just read this as an alternative view. Variety in your vibrato is important and this series of articles might give you another tool in your toolbox. Additional articles will go deeper into the theory of why, perhaps how we got here, and tips for teaching/leaning this style of vibrato.

It is my opinion, and the opinion of some pretty amazing flutists, that vibrato is one the of most important expressive tools available to a flutist. It is a cornerstone of flute technique in this post-post-modern-neo-school of flute we are rocking in the 2020’s.
Many of us also use vibrato to teach the proper use of air when playing. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

What is it anyway (for flutists)?

If sound is a set of a waves, or if you prefer, “wiggling” or “sculpted” air, then vibrato is a wiggle of that wiggle. The beginner’s definition of vibrato is a periodic variation in the pitch. It is easy to see in string player’s vibrato: they pivot on the finger that pushes the string to the fingerboard, changing the effective length of the string, and so the pitch oscillates back and forth.

Singers have their own way of thinking about and accomplishing vibrato, and much has been written on this subject.

I do not think of flute vibrato as a pith oscillation; yes it can be, but, rather it is a oscillation in the timbre of the instrument. It is also, and I’ll repeat myself a lot on this, the most expressive tool we have as flutists.

“Additive” vs “Subtractive” Vibrato

Talking about vibrato as a “waver” in the wind, the question becomes: how do you do it? How do you make something uneven in a pleasing way?

Flute teachers have many images and metaphors they use when teaching vibrato:

• Spin the air.
• make it come from… (some part of the body)
• The vibrato need to be “inside” the tone

… and then those who feel that a good flute tone should be formed without vibrato, then the vibrato forms naturally. While most modern teachers don’t say this, I still hear it from time to time. This is a remnant of both a small portion of our “French heritage” and out of dislike for flute sounds that have too much vibrato. I get it… sometimes vibrato can sound like too much; however, I would suggest using less or a different vibrato. There are times to not use vibrato; however, you should have a reason for doing so. My belief is that the default American flute tone should have vibrato, so my teaching reflects that as the default. I think the reasons for vibrato, when done correctly, outweigh the reasons not to; therefore, when in doubt, use vibrato.

Before you run to your computer and tell me why I’m wrong: hear me out.

Here is what I tell students (feel free to quote this verbatim and observe what happens, or feel free to take a moment, grab a flute, try it without prejudice, and hear if things feel and sound different…)

Vibrato is an unevenness in the sound. If you want to make flute ground uneven, you can do it two ways. You can truck in dirt and pile it into mounds, or you can dig holes. I want you do dig holes into your sound to make the vibrato.

You will be surprised how many times this is all you have to say and it just works. Well, once you get past the strange look the student is giving you.

And, if the student says “I don’t know how to do that”, I usually respond with:

don’t overthink it. Just believe you can do it and believe you know what I am talking about. Just blow and think of the vibrato as “removing something” from your sound.

Digging holes into the sound with vibrato might be the most profound change that can be made to a flutist.. I’ve seen it happen, and once you know it is possible, it helps the teaching, as that belief helps the instruction.

One interpretation of all of this

I want to give correct language, and I will repeat this is just one way to approach vibrato on the flute. It is an examination on the style of vibrato I was taught, through my own lens with some additional metaphors.

Many flutists think vibrato as something “added onto the sound”. The flute tone is there, then we put vibrato into or onto the sound. I disagree: the concept of vibrato, how we set our bodies up to do this type of vibrato, creates a resonance in the flute sound that you know, you have heard, and you will want in your playing once you hear it.

I like to think about vibrato as a relaxation; that relaxation changes the sound of the flute, then we come back to “normal”. This set of relaxations in the body cycles, and can vary in size and frequency, which lines up well to developing a variety of speeds and sizes of vibrato, all adding up to making that sound more or less intense. This subtractive view of vibrato then becomes a series of relaxations in the body, instead of tensions and opens the body up to vibrate more with the air column inside the flute…

In my view, vibrato is part of the sound; you can’t not have it and have the same flute sound.

Some disclaimers:

• this is for the “modern flute” Period musicians who play one keyed wood flutes need not notice: they do all kinds of things different, not just vibrato!
• there are flutists that successfully “impose” a vibrato onto the sound and make it work well, many teachers teach this way without thinking if that is what they really want in their students. Many just repeat things their teacher said without reflection, leading to not seeing the forest for the trees, so to speak. While the vibrato I am teaching was invented/discovered in the mid 20th century mostly by East Coast flutists, it has been long enough and lots of people use it. I just developed a way to teach it to jr high kiddos so then it is habitial by the time it matters to the flutist (when they are judged).
• In the beginning the flutist will lapse into the vibrato sounding like metronome: the vibrations line up too much with the given subdivision of the beat in the music. This gives the type of vibrato I teach a bad name: yes, that sound bad and is not what we are going for. As a famous and very amazing flutist once said, “Vibrato is a non natural thing we want to make sound organic” (you know who you are… if I am lucky enough that you read my blog, I hope it makes you smile, you amazing musician). Time and energy must be spent to make sure the vibrato reflects the communication of the PHRASE, and not just a single note. Wait… that is another use for this: it encourages “longer lines” in flute playing, looking for the larger formal relationships in music… guess that is a positive, not a disclaimer.
• As with many things with the flute, I am teaching a path to get there: this isn’t an scientific paper on the topic. It is how to think to make a better sound and the flute become easier to understand how to play.

With that out of the way…

but… but… where does vibrato come from?

Of all of the questions I have been asked over the years, this is one of the few I refuse to answer. I have listened to many people talk about vibrato, been to many lectures on the topic, and, every time they state the mechanism to generating vibrato, the next time they demonstrate the vibrato, I hear and see the vibrato coming from somewhere else.

Part of this is language. We think about “doing something” while practicing vibrato, and we are always “doing something”, but it isn’t doing this thing we call vibrato then coming back to our non vibrato self: I preport that we are coming away, relaxing away, from our normal playing, then coming back to “normal”. This is a hard thing to describe. Instead of contracting a muscle to make something happen (doing something), It is more like relaxing a muscle then letting the muscle rebound and load again (letting something happen).

This is why I think the “old school” talked about vibrato being such a natural thing. When we focus on something, it can create tension, which gets in the way of the oscillating relaxation needed to do this style of vibrato. I think of vibrato as a way to cheat the tension cycle we all get into when we play.

A magic trick: some consequences

This section isn’t necessary to help students with their vibrato, but I do want to go over them for the teacher who is brave enough to try this with their students. There are some consequences to this style of thinking that out of sight of most students.

First, if they are truly “digging holes” in their air, there are times in the “vibrato cycle” that the flutist isn’t using as much volume/intensity of air then normal. Out of fear of the flute just not playing, the overall average volume of air will increase: they will start playing with a more appropriate air velocity and flux (average amount of air across the embouchure hold per unit time). See how this links up with the last article on air? If they are doing the vibrato I describe, the wind will move correctly. In practice with my own students, there is a period where I have to remind the student to back off on the air while keeping the vibrato moving. It is not the only timbre we want for our students, but it is a VERY useful one, especially with the types of sounds people find “impressive”.

when should you start teaching vibrato?

I teach vibrato in the first year for serious students. That might sound early for some people reading this, but its benefits are just good to pass up. It also takes time to really control the vibrato when we really need to, so what do we wait? Really… what are you waiting for?

Vibrato “moves the air” correctly

In the last article, I mentioned how moving the air, the wind, is the most fundamental thing we can discuss as flutists. Now, as soon as we can prove this to a flutist, I believe vibrato should be within the sound anytime we blow. This gets misinterpreted and stated that there should be “vibrato on every note”. This leads to kids “trying” to put vibrato on every single note, like a metronome. No, we don’t want that sound. Instead, encourage to use vibrato anytime we blow (and eventually, we can use this concept over rests…). This is a place where we should imitate the string player: look at good symphonies… they wiggle their left hand before they draw the bow. Why? … because vibrato is a concept that connects things, and the violinist wants that change to the sound from the moment the tone starts.

Great: but what do I do when my teacher tells me to not use vibrato?

No problem… that will be a big topic in the second part of this series on vibrato. For now, I’ll leave you with a question: is there a difference between a tone with no vibrato and a tone with vibrato so slow or small that you don’t hear it as vibrato? My answer to this is a resounding “YES”, and we will explore it together in (hopefully) next week’s article, where we dive a little deeper into this controversial topic.

This is a biggest divide in my mind from the way a string player approaches vibrato and us flutists. While it is appropriate, and even considerate, to think about these things and have “straight tones” when performing transcriptions from the string literature, as string players can not vibrate open strings, and much care is given to fingering to make sure that “open strings” are appropriate for musical content. We should strive to replicate that in our interpretations of the string literature. Actually, I think more flutists should listen to string music: you learn how to play the Mozart flute concertos by listening the the violin and piano concertos.

In the flute literature, we should strive for evenness throughout the range of the instrument first, not constrained by what is “easy” or “hard”.

Also, Flutists don’t always think about vibrato while playing because there is usually something else to focus on: a technical passage, an uncomfortable interval. The just “forget” to do the vibrato, thinking they can put vibrato just when they want to ficus on it. The is sometimes justified as an imitation of the string or vocal vibrato. What the audience hears is quite different: the less important notes of the phrase now sound so different, produced by a different quality of air, that the less important notes stand out, then the flutist overcompensates for this fact by really forcing the important parts of the phrase. The interpretation of the music becomes a caricature of what is intended, the overall expression of the implied musical form suffers, and people like me roll our eyes. All because the flutist is letting technical aspects affect their interpretive intent. We can do better.

Try this style of vibrato. Embrace what vibrato can do for you: feel what it does to the body, and how it makes you sound. You can always dial it back to inaudible for those that think you are using too much (it takes control of the instrument to do so). It takes practice, but it really worth it, as you won’t have to worry about air related things with the instrument. Some of you Texas flutists want the “secret” of some of the best conservatories on the East Coast? Why some of those flutist you love seem to have an amazing sound…? Well, this is one of the secrets, for free. It isn’t hard: it is just hard work.

Next time, some, graphs, ways to think about vibrato in phrases, and more tips.

Did you like this? Do you agree or disagree? Do you have a flute question I haven’t covered (yet) or a request for a future article? Or, do you just want to say hi ?

Feel free to email me with questions/comments/rants: [email protected]

Copyright 2024 Jason Blank Feel free to use and distribute this information: I want it shared! Just be sure to link back to me, give credit where credit is due, and take what I write in the context with which it was intended.