I absolutely have to reply!!!! I've had the same problem and it was
finally CURED by participating in masterclasses with Richard Miller
in the summer. The sort of excercises he made me do were, for
example, saying "I am a ghost" and doing a wobbly, ghoul sound on the
word "Ghost". He would also ask me to talk like an American Preacher
with vibrato in the voice. This helped me to really FEEL what the
vibrato was like.
Then I moved onto singing with a laugh on long notes AND doing La-a-a-
a-a-a-a each "a" being a sort of pulse. At first you are "pushing"
the vibrato but with time the muscle groups take over and the vibrato
begins to appear.
Another trick which is supposed to help vibrato is trilling. I have
to admit that it never worked for me before although now that I am
learning to trill properly, I am losing a lot of the tension I had
previously as it is virtually impossible to produce a trill when one
is tense.
I actually have a recording of the lesson I did with Richard Miller.
I'm not sure how big it is if I MP3 it but I could try and e-mail it
to you for a listen or put it on my website just for a week for you
to download and see what sort of suggestions he was making? I would
also highly recommend reading the section on Vibrato in Miller's
books "training soprano voices" and "Vocal Technique" (something like
that ...).
-- In vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com, Naomi Gurt Lind
<naomi@n...> wrote:
> L wrote:
>
> >I have been singing for only a few years and am a 30 y.o. with
lyric
> >soprano qualities to my voice but only occasionally do I sing with
> >any vibrato. I am looking for suggestions on areas to begin
looking
> >for tensions that may be inhibiting vibrato. I do have a sense that
> >somehow I am "controlling" the voice thus not allowing vibrato to
be
> >produced. The times I have sung with vibrato I haven't trusted that
> >it wasn't "put" there somehow, in other words not natural.
>
> You're probably right that tension is interfering with the
appearance
> of vibrato. It's my experience that tension acts as an anesthesia
to
> itself -- but once I become aware of it, it's much easier to
unlock.
> You might consider taking some Alexander Technique or Feldenkrais
> lessons. Both of these techniques deal in body awareness. I have
> experience with Alexander (fellow list member John Link has
extensive
> experience with Feldenkrais) and can say unequivocally that this
work
> is what put my voice technique over the top in terms of dealing
with
> lingering problems.
>
> Good luck!
> Naomi Gurt Lind
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