Why do professionally trained singers wobble when they hold a long note?

March 31st, 2010 | by admin |

When you hold down a keyboard note for instance, it plays one constant steady note.
When professional singers hold long notes (I’m talking proper singers, not popular ones) there’s an ululation to the note, it’s clean and steady. This seems to be the effect that they are going for though.
Why do they want this? Wouldn’t a clean clear single note sound better and more neat than a wavering one?

It is called vibrato. Vibrato is a natural sound that is a cause of proper breathing and technique. However, they can control it and make their voice steady. But vibratto adds colour, emotion and effect to the music, just like a song would have an arpeggiated chord.

  1. 5 Responses to “Why do professionally trained singers wobble when they hold a long note?”

  2. By acameronfan on Mar 31, 2010 | Reply

    Vibrato comes out naturally in voices:

    "Vibrato is a musical effect, produced in singing and on musical instruments by a regular pulsating change of pitch, and is used to add expression and vocal-like qualities to instrumental music."

    It almost always sounds better and adds more expression.
    References :
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrato

  3. By HI on Mar 31, 2010 | Reply

    Well obviously, it’s called vibration. It makes the note a little less… "boring" so to speak. Like when you have an electric piano, you switch the ‘tone’ to a sound that plays forever. When you press it, it’s just like daaaaaaaahhhh. Boring. But when you, for example, play a violin with vibrato, you feel it.

    I don’t know, it’s pretty hard to explain. It’s just something singers do to sound professional. I can tell you this: it’s a lot harder to vibrate than to just hold one clean note.
    References :

  4. By Azucena on Mar 31, 2010 | Reply

    You’re talking about VIBRATO, which is a naturally-occurring part of the human voice. It’s simply a by-product of proper breathing and tone production.

    Singers don’t purposely produce vibrato — it just happens in healthy well-produced voices — and, except for those who specifically try to sing without vibrato for expressive or stylistic reasons, they usually don’t vary it on purpose. Studies of great singers have shown that the average speed of a beautiful vibrato is between six and seven oscillations per second, although in musical passages that increase in volume and excitement the vibrato generally speeds up and widens.

    When a singer’s vibrato is too fast to be considered pleasing, it’s called a tremolo, Italian for "trembling." (Tremolo has a different meaning for instrumentalists.) When it’s too slow, too wide, or uneven in speed and/or width, it’s usually called a "wobble."

    The vibrato adds vibrancy to the voice, and allows it to carry over a large instrumental ensemble. Opera singers, for example, must be heard over a full orchestra, and they must do it without amplification — they don’t wear microphones. "Flattening" out the voice, eliminating the vibrancy, reduces this effect considerably.

    Ideally, effective vibrato deceives the ear: we don’t notice the actual oscillations in pitch, we just hear a beautiful, warm tone. Unpleasant vibratos make the vibrato noticeable, and it becomes a distraction. For singers, the culprit in tremolos or wobbles is usually vocal tension of some kind, caused by nervousness, fatigue, or improper technique, especially improper breathing technique (or inadequate "breath support," as it’s called). Advancing age can play a part, too, although older singers who sing "right" — in a relaxed, properly supported manner — have far fewer problems than those who sing "tight."
    References :
    http://www.kennedy-center.org/nso/classicalmusiccompanion/vibrato.html

  5. By amber_ice on Mar 31, 2010 | Reply

    its called vibrato and it makes the voice add expression and feeling into the song that you’re singing
    References :
    http://www.voiceteacher.com/vibrato.html

  6. By Black-n-White Keys on Mar 31, 2010 | Reply

    It is called vibrato. Vibrato is a natural sound that is a cause of proper breathing and technique. However, they can control it and make their voice steady. But vibratto adds colour, emotion and effect to the music, just like a song would have an arpeggiated chord.
    References :

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