When it comes to musical
instruction, Phyllis Young has a way with words. "Let's see
if you can make your arm so relaxed that all that fat on the inside
of your upper arm will shake like Jello!" she says while offering
tips on perfecting vibrato on the cello. "Hang loose. Let your
left elbow float in imaginary water."
A respected author,
former president of the American String Teachers Association, and
professor of cello and string pedagogy at the University of Texas
at Austin, Young is a leading authority on cello vibrato. She has
taught in nearly every state and 30 countries. At press time, she
was scheduled to teach the teachers about some of her vibrato-learning
methods at this year's ASTA with NSOA conference in Ohio.
No doubt about it, Young
has strong feelings about the technique she calls The Beautifier.
"The thing that has handicapped cellists more than just about
anything else," she says, during a break from her classroom
duties, "is a lack of a beautiful and expressive vibrato."
Shakin' All Over
What is vibrato? It
is a wavering effect of tone obtained by rapidly shaking the string
that the finger is stopping, notes the Schirmer Pocket Manual
of Musical Terms. The technique is used on notes of longer duration—notes
of shorter duration usually are played without vibrato. When the
vibrato is beautiful, the result is a note or a phrase that exudes
emotion. The desired effect, adds Young, is like shaking dice.
Sounds simple enough.
But the path to mastering vibrato is fraught with hazards. When
learning a fundamental skill on an instrument, it's better not to
rush into it and best to get it right from the start. In her 1978
book Playing the String Game: Strategies for Teaching Cello and
Strings (Shar Publications; $13.95), Young offers a detailed
set of "previbrato conditions" that should be in place
before a student tries to execute the technique.
Many of these conditions
are applicable to violin and viola as well.
Her teaching method
also uses a wide array of "mini games" and mental images
that ask the student to imagine her body and the fingerboard in
a variety of altered states—like the Living Fingerboard—and
capable of eliciting a desired response. Under Young's guidance,
the aforementioned shaking Jello makes perfect sense. "The
imagery is a must in my way of thinking," she says. "People
usually don't know where the muscles are located and they don't
think anatomically."
The Best-Note Principle
Young suggests that
a student who is beginning to use vibrato find the finger and the
note that is most beautiful and use it as a model for the other
notes. Her book features hundreds of creative ideas that can assist
in this pursuit. Young doesn't believe that exercises found in standard
étude books are always suitable for developing vibrato since
most etudes were not designed for that purpose. "It's much
more useful to stay on a single note while trying to find a beautiful
balance in the hand and arm centered on the playing finger,"
she says. "Find the most beautiful note in the world. I call
that the Best-Note Principle. When you find the best note on the
cello, then watch the gorgeous vibrato, and then notice how you
are balanced on the pad of your finger, and you'll have your own
model right there in the practice room. Then switch to a different
finger or try dragging it over to a nearby string.
But first, Young recommends
that you and your teacher assess your readiness by gauging these
important previbrato conditions:
Does the student
play with good intonation and have a good knowledge of the fingerboard?
These basic points, Young stresses, are essential before moving
on. After all, a student will feel insecure about vibrating on a
note if he or she is unsure of its location.
Is the left thumb
free of any kind of tension and not pushing up against the cello's
neck? A tight thumb can produce tension in other parts of the
hand and inhibit the production of perfect vibrato. The single biggest
obstacle preventing the player from executing perfect vibrato is
tension. "If you have tight joints, even a single tight joint,
then you can hear the result in the vibrato," Young warns.
"Never push up with the thumb–that's an important lesson
and one that's not easy to relearn. The thumb should just barely
touch the neck."
Is the power line
between the player's back and through—not from—the left
arm and hand and on through to the fingerboard, completely free
and unobstructed? If the live weight does not reach the finger
pad so the string sinks easily into the fingerboard, the player
will feel insecure when he starts to shake his hand in the vibrato
motion, Young coaches. His fingers will start to grab or push, actions
that are harmful because they tighten the finger joints. The larger
the motion, the more suction is required (see "Do the fingers
feel sticky?"); thus, the flow of energy from the player's
back must not be restricted.
Is the cello positioned
so that the player's left elbow does not feel tight? If the
arm is folded up at a sharp angle so that the forearm is cramped
against the upper arm, Young observes, it is impossible for the
student to execute the vibrato action freely. The left elbow should
"float" as if on water.
Is the left hand
positioned so that the base of the knuckles forms a line that runs
almost parallel to the strings (in the lower positions)? This
is important because the shaking of the hand will follow the line
formed by the base of the knuckles. If the hand is not parallel
to the fingerboard then the motion will be wasted and the vibrato
on the fourth finger will be restricted, she cautions.
Do the fingers feel
"sticky," creating a feeling of suction between the skin
and the fingerboard? Players possess two basic touches: One
is when they are tapping their fingers, Young says, and the other
is when they feel as though there are little suction cups—or
sticky wet glue—on their fingers. "These are two completely
different ways of sensing touch. When we play fast passages and
we're 'tapping,' then we feel as though the fingerboard is made
of wood," she points out. "But I want my students to have
that suction-cup feeling even more than the tapping at the beginning
stages. It's sort of a clinging, sticky feel, and it's out of that
that the vibrato grows so beautifully–if we just emphasize
dropping the finger as a separate unit, it doesn't seem to invite
a beautiful vibrato later."
Is the student able
to produce big, vibrant tones? Young recommends that students
begin with "wide and free" motions in which every part
of the forearm shakes. "When we play loudly, the amplitude
of the vibrating string is wide," she says. "I want them
all to start with a wide vibrato. If you start with a wide vibrato
it's easy to refine it later to a smaller vibrato, but the reverse
is very difficult and causes tightness."
A Balancing Act
In the final analysis,
it's all about balance. "The whole concept of vibrato is based
on balance and making of tension-free motions," she concludes,
"which are guided by the aural dream of a beautiful tone."
To help achieve the
feeling of balance on the playing finger, Young also suggests that
beginning students take a "spring check-up." In this exercise,
the student should play single notes using those metaphorical suction-cup
fingers to adhere to the strings while the teacher tugs lightly
on the student's left elbow. While this playful tug-of-war is taking
place, the student should imagine a spring in every joint—sort
of like the spring on a kitchen screen door—allowing the fingers
to remain limber and to spring back to their original position.
She also cautions against
thinking that the weight should be distributed evenly among all
fingers on the fingerboard. Instead, assign one of the fingers to
be the chairman of the committee. It will be the finger that determines
the pitch.
"So if all four
fingers are on the fingerboard," she adds, "the fourth
finger is the designated spokesperson and carries all the weight.
If the third finger is making the pitch then three, two, and one
are all there but one and two are just like little specks of dust.
The balance is always on the playing finger unless one is playing
a very fast passage."
For Young, the introduction
of vibrato is an extremely rewarding experience, for student and
teacher alike. It is "the high point" of a player's training
and marks "the transformation of the straight tone so characteristic
of the rookie player into the rich, warm tone usually associated
with the instrument," she says.
"Vibrato is the
thing that makes the cello a very expressive instrument."
