The Elements Of Style In Song: How To Use Vibrato

When you’re learning to sing, you start by imitating others. But eventually, you want to be able to craft your own style, so you don’t sound like anyone else. After all, there’s only one you. Your body, your life experience, and your musical style and taste are unique.

It’s also important to sound authentic within a specific genre.
Whether you sing classical music, heavy metal, pop, or jazz, there are stylistic norms you need to be aware of. Once you know what they are, you can find your own sound within them, or ignore them entirely.

When you know how to use these stylistic tools, you’ll have more to experiment with, and you’ll expand your artistic possibilities.

Early in my artistic development, everything I sang sounded the same. I found myself boxed in by a limited stylistic palette. Some songs seemed to fit my voice. But others fell short. The sounds I heard in my head weren’t coming out of my mouth. It was so frustrating!

When I learned what to listen for in the recordings of other singers, and in my own singing, it changed everything.

Now, when I learn a song, I have options; artistic choices that I couldn’t have imagined all those years ago.

Vowel color, rhythmic phrasing, diphthongs, and vibrato are some of the most essential elements of any genre or style.

But for now, we’re going to focus on just one of them — vibrato. Read on to learn:

• What vibrato is and how it functions.
• How to use it to sound authentic in different styles of music.
• And ways to experiment with it to make a song your own.

I’m excited to share these tools with you. I know they’ll expand your artistic possibilities too!

All About Vibrato

So, what is vibrato, and how is it created?

The straight line up above is the center of the pitch.

In acoustic instruments, there are slight oscillations that take place above and below the pitch when a note is played or sung. That’s what the wavy line above shows.

When the wavy line (the oscillation) becomes more evident, we call it vibrato.

The ‘extent of vibrato’ is a term that’s used to indicate the amount of pitch variation. In other words, it’s how far the wavy line moves above and below the pitch.

The “rate of vibrato” describes the speed at which the wavy line moves forward — how fast or slow it’s sung.

What we want is for the wavy line above and below the pitch to be even. If it’s above the pitch, you’ll sound sharp. Below the pitch, you’ll sound flat.

When people make fun of opera singers, what do they do? They sing a sound like this:

The oscillations aren’t even above and below the pitch, they’re actually on the lower side, so they drag the pitch down. The rate of vibrato is wobbly and wide too. While comical, that sound is what a singer’s vibrato sounds like when their abdominal support and vocal mechanism aren’t functioning well.

Stylistic Considerations

Now that you know what vibrato is, and how it functions, let’s listen to four examples of vibrato sung in different styles of music.

While listening to these examples, close your eyes and ask yourself these questions:

• How much vibrato is there?
• What is it’s rate — is it fast or slow?
• When does it begin — at the beginning, middle, or end of a phrase?

So what did you hear?

• Which singer had the least amount of vibrato?
• Which singer had the fastest vibrato?
• Which example had the widest vibrato?

The singer with the least amount of vibrato was Chet Baker. Snow White had the fastest. And Eileen Farrell singing in Tristan und Isolde had the widest vibrato.

In general, pop and jazz styles are sung with less vibrato than classical and musical theater. If you want to sound authentic singing in those styles, be aware of the rate and extent of vibrato you’re singing and whether it fits into that particular style’s parameters.

For the last two examples, I used Eileen Farrell. She’s one of the few singers I’ve heard that sings both jazz and classical styles authentically. Her tone, vibrato, and how she gets into and out of notes make her sound like a native in both styles of music.

Sidenote: There’s a long-standing myth that you can’t sing pop music if you’re a classical singer because it will ruin your voice. It won’t. When Eileen put out a recording of jazz standards, people thought she was going to ruin her voice and her career. She proved them wrong on both counts!

In or Out of Style?

Styles of vibrato go in and out of fashion. The faster vibrato that Adriana Caselotti used in her role as Snow White was popular in the 1920s. You hear it in some folk and country music today, but not very often in pop.

One Song — Two Styles

There’s a song from the musical “Show Boat” that I like to use to illustrate how vibrato is used to create style. Here’s “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man” sung by pop/jazz singer Natalie Cole and classical singer Kiri Te Kanawa:

Natalie Cole

Kiri Te Kanawa

One song, totally transformed by key, vowel color, and the vibrato style of each singer.

Expand Your Vibrato Possibilities

If you’re having trouble controlling the extent or rate of your vibrato, try using exaggeration. First, sing as straight a tone as you can on an OH vowel. Then, sing as wide and slow of a vibrato as you can, slowly making it faster as you hold the note.

You can also try playing with where the vibrato starts and ends. Sing it throughout a phrase, or sing straight tone for the majority of a phrase, and then release it into vibrato at the end. Don’t worry if you sound goofy. This is all about exaggeration and experimentation!

Experiment. Play. Create!

Outside of fitting into a genre, there are no rules on how to use vibrato. As an artist, you can sing it in any way that feels and sounds right to you. Just be aware of the kind of vibrato you’re singing and whether it’s helping or hurting your interpretation of the song.

Vibrato is just one element of style. Vowel color, the key you sing a song in, phrasing, diphthongs, melodic variation, and tempo all play a role in your interpretation.

For more about these other elements of style you can download this free eBook and checklist: The Elements of Style In Singing: How To Make A Song Your Own

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