Posted on May 24, 2008 by Matthias Ebner in Vibrato - Left Hand/Arm

I find that the more I talk about left hand balance, the better my students' vibrato is. The entire left hand and arm should rebalance every time the finger changes. This is true as a general rule, but is especially important for good vibrato. This often means that the student must bring the entire hand slightly closer to the fingerboard, especially when playing on the lower strings. This also means that the thumb will have to move around on the back of the neck to be more or less underneath the finger that is being vibrated. Many students resist this idea, both because their thumbs are tense, and because they were always told that the thumb must remain behind the second finger.

To illustrate this idea, I often have the students stand and shift their weight from one foot to another, feeling how the muscles in the non-standing leg relax when the weight is shifted to the other foot and how this relaxed leg moves naturally toward the weighted leg. I tell them that it is the same with vibrato, except that rather than having only 2 legs as possible balance points, they have 4 fingers instead, each of which balances individually. Watch out for students who keep their non-playing fingers up in the air when vibrating. Like the non-standing leg, the non-playing fingers should automatically move toward the playing/vibrating finger, causing the hand to look like a blob.

I hope this is helpful.