Tremelo and Vibrato
Anybody get on board with their tremelo and vibrato pretty quickly? I've been playing about 2 1/2 going on 3 years and I just 1) hate coughing and 2) I don't hear it from the players on the records I'm learning from. For example, in Little Walter's Blue Midnight I only hear 4 tremelos (probably vibratos now that I think of it), but I'm guessing he's playing them on many others. I hear a faint, faint, faint really fast vibrato--I think) and this is on a mac, with bose speakers with the Complete Chess Masters CD and my hearing is very good.
Just found David's videos on vibrato and tremelo. Knowing how the vibrato worked helps, because I feel more inspired to do the coughing thing.....hard to muster it up when Ihe only time I hear it is David demonstrating it.
Hi Anne Marie,
I dont have the best technique, but something i am working on. its not really coughing, but it is often described as being "like a cough" because there is some movement involved in the throat which is also in a cough. but it is much more controlled and gentle than a cough. Adam Gussow has a video on the technique where he talks about his experience of learning to play with vibrato. i recommend it. starts about 3 minutes in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pUqFV7T2dA
he advocates 5 minutes work every day and says that over 6 months you body will adapt and relax and you will sort it out...and my experience suggests that is pretty right.
also alex paclin has a you tube clip too which i liked, about getting control of the rhythm.
Thanks, Dave! That was great. Now I have a plan I can believe in, and I think I'll enjoy doing the vibrato and will want to it that way. I especially liked his explanation because I'm a meditator, so the learning approach makes sense to me.
Namaste!
Useful thread - I'm trying to focus on vibrato too. It seems very difficult to control the speed of it.Anyone any tips on slowing it down?
I seem to have two "natural" tremolo speeds, one fast and one slow.
Getting anything in between takes a lot of concentration, for me.
I'm working on it by practicing playing long notes while concentrating on almost "articulating" straight 1/8 notes, 1/4 notes, and triplets with my glottis (incompletely closing), trying to get it to feel more natural at those speeds.
I think triplets sound best.
The trick seems to be to not quite completely close the glottis (more like soft laughing, or a hard "h" than coughing, to me).
Vibrato is another whole level. Getting and maintaining the tongue in the "almost bent" position and letting the pulsatile air pressure of the tremolo "push" it intermittently into the bent position happens more often by luck than by intention at this point!
I went back to Big Mama's Jelly from The First Lessons book and it sounds like a vibrato to me, so too discouraging to cough my way through. I will try to think of it like bending. Sounds like crap at first, but it's te only way to a vibrato.