Every day for about a year, I've done the collapsing exercise, pushing the 4th finger knuckle down with the right index finger. About two weeks ago, with great concentration, the 4th finger collapsed without help. Now it does the exercise as easily as the other fingers. If I can do this at 76, so can anybody else.

Until I discovered these exercises I spent a year trying to learn vibrato with zero success. I'm 73, so I don't have a lot of time to waste. Since watching Nathan's video (numerous times) and practicing these exercises (almost) daily, I finally get it. While I still have a long way to go, I'm making progress and believe vibrato might actually be a possibility. Thank you Nathan.

1st exercise starts at 8:05. I put it for myself to watch every day when I warm up. 🙏Thank you, Nathan!

For quick review and re-study: Intro to Vibrato, Simon Fischer, Warming Up #1 8:04 finger rolling #2 9:30 finger/knuckle collapsing back #3 10:27 finger/hand pull-ins #4 11:42 hand in wheel motion 12:25 Review for daily use / Use with metronome 15:03 Speed Conclusion / Decreasing Arc

This lesson is the only crystal-clear guide to vibrato I have found, and that includes paid lessons. Now my subconscious is getting informed along with my muscles. My fingers have become flexible and relaxed, finally, and they know what they should do without any doubts or desires to fly away. Vibrato is starting to just happen in my playing. I am very grateful for this lesson and for the tip about Simon Fischer's books. Thank you!

Mr Cole, please continue posting videos. You are truly an amazing instructor.

Vibrato has been a giant challenge for me. I am an adult learner dealing with arthritic changes in my hands. I have a hard-won vibrato of sorts but it is not consistent I think this might finally be the answer I have been looking for. Thanks you

Thank you. As an adult, mostly self taught, learner, the vibrato has been elusive. Neither of the "professional" violin tutors I hired provided a clear path of exercises and development. Your short explanation here is utterly astounding, and gives me hope that I will develop a working vibrato.

What you're doing there seems to be a psychological trick called "chunking" - grouping the movements by only focussing on the "up" movements, just like you could group sixteenth notes by focussing on the first one - the rest falls in line automatically. Since the human working memory can only contain 7 +- 2 elements, the solution is to enlarge the single elements - perceiving up and down as one unit rather than two 😉.

Exercises #1, #3, #4 seem to mobilize three different groups of muscles, #1 related to each finger itself, #3 those rotating the left arm, and the fourth those on the opposite side arm. In my mind a different image naturally appears for each exercise. Thus helps to better coordinate and control movements. Some are easier to do at different positions. And the position of the thumb also seems to be significant, particularly on the lower positions helping stabilize the violin. I have not yet absorbed exercise #2, it seems to mobilize other muscle groups, perhaps oposed to the others, and foster relaxation, which seems very valuable and important. Update: exercise #2 is great, now that I understand it is very very helpful. I did not understand it at first, but it really adds up Altogether I wish that 30 years ago someone would have taught this to me as explained by Mr. Cole. In only one week it has helped me improve vibrato with surprising results! Congrats and thanks!!!

Extremely helpful video! I decided to finally learn vibrato since the coronavirus is forcing me to stay at home, and this is one of the best videos I've come across!

Hello. I have been playing guitar for a lot of time and recently got into violin. I was trying to learn vibrato because it's a thing I do very often on the guitar and I understand how important it is... but it is incredibly different for violin. Now I wish I could make you understand HOW VALUABLE YOUR VIDEO IS. I have watched over a dozen videos on vibrato and none of them have helped me almost in any way... but this info you gave is incredible. I have already started to do some kind of beginner vibrato just by lifting the finger a little and tilting it slightly backward (but very slightly, it's pretty hard to do for me) and it already sounds a hell of a lot better than what I've learned from the other videos. The one motion instead of two thing has even got me to get over the part where I usually go higher than the note I'm on instead of lower (because on the guitar when you do vibrato you can't go lower, you always bend to higher notes). THANK YOU. I have a long way to go but things are starting to sound a lot more pleasant :).

Thank you so much for this, Nathan. Really. Exactly what I was hoping to find after first having been given Simon's book recently.

Thank you so much ! I am learning by myself at home and have watched so many videos on vibrato and thought it would take me forever but after watching your video I found it much easier to grasp. With some practice over the next couple of months I should have it sounding really nice😀

"The vibrato never goes above the note, only below." I wish the various KZfaq professional violinists would get together and discuss this, because no one can agree on this point. There are some very accomplished violinists who say you should oscillate around the note, both below and above.

i have a question about vibrato: i was taught to do it by rolling the finger back and forth, as if following the curve of my nail. this produces the sound that other techniques do, but i’m afraid that it’s wrong to keep the finger curved and the wrist moving with that motion. should i reteach myself in a different way, even if it feels natural to me?

Thanks for the video! You've completely changed the way I think about vibrato.

This seems like a great way to develop more control and independence between each finger. My problem is speed. I have a relatively slow vibrato, and whenever I try to vibrate faster, my whole arm tightens.

Very good tip! The best of them all is that they all help, somehow, to use MUCH LESS tension, for the idea behind them is to free the fingers according to each individual needs and limitations. Thank you!

Excellent! I can't thank you (and Simon Fischer) enough for this very simple and clear presentation on vibrato motions. The varied close-up camera angles you've used are right on, and even the backdrop is thoughtfully chosen. Well done; this demo is exactly what is needed on the subject!

Best teacher. Thank you!

I always took Fischer's #4 exercise as using the full arm to produce the wheel, whereas exercise #1 as the "wrist only" motion.

Thank you for all your time and investment in us. I don't know how you balance this with your performing and family, but I truly appreciate your knowledge which inspires me.

This is just what I needed! My vibrato is twice as decent now! I'm thrilled! Thank you so much for this video!

This realllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy helped me, thanks sooooo much!

this is the only video that actually helped me get my vibrato. Thanks for explaining the mechanics, that really helped!

Has that calm, humble, scientific (teaching) style... --- reminds me of Lord Menuhin...

I find your videos very helpful, thank you.

Thank you for all your videos, Mr. Cole. They help with cello too, and I always am inspired to go practice after I watch you. I recommended you to my colleagues in Akron Symphony and they are enjoying you too. Merry Christmas!

Very well shown and very well spoken! Thanks!

This video is so incredibly helpful! I put way too much effort into my vibrato. These exercises are so good for relaxing your hand. Thank you!

Easy to grasp. Thank you.

Thanks. A new way to look at it. Looks like it will be helpful.

Thanks for this, Natan. Wonderfull.😊👍

Nathan thank you very much for this wonderful lesson. As a beginner it has been very helpful and also , thank you for the book recommendation...a copy of "Warming Up" is on its way to me.

Thank you! Time to go practice.

It's very helpful! Thank you!!!

excellent teacher !!! lot of thanks :)

I watched this video on Facebook this morning and found it very informative. On occasions when I have a lot of playing to do I find my vibrato tightens and I lose control of the speed and width. I have ordered the book and will try the exercises to see if they loosen up my vibrato when it happens. Thanks for a very informative video.

Thank you! I really love it.

Amazing video. Very detailed 👌

in my opinion, this is the easiest way to vibrate (i used the rolling technique before which requires more effort). totally worth the time to learn

Thank you teacher

thank you so much. very helpful

i dont know why im seeing this almost 10 years after it was posted but this actually helped me so much😭 the only videos and tutorials i saw were the same ones over and over, and they didnt help because i couldnt get my fingers to be flexible but these actually helped a lot. thank you🙏🙏

Thank you for the tips, they helped me do the violin vibrato better and easier

Great video man!

Thanks for the video. To develop finger flexibility and strength, I go to Paganini's 24 Caprices, no. 6. Do just one line the first thing before I do any thing else. Once a day. Every day. Finish the 2 pages and start from the beginning again.

Yes, your very helpful thank you

ahhhhhhh I got it at last. Thank you!!!!

It's really very helpful... Than you very much sir..

Thanks!!!!! 🎶

Hi Nathan! Can you please make a video on position shift without the shoulder rest? That would be so great!

Thank you so much...👍👍👍

Good luck finding that book. I’ve looked for some time now.

Thank you. V helpful

Could you further explain What you meant by "circular motion", and "as a wheel" in movement #4?

Thanks, Nathan! I really need help with vibrato. I'm self-taught KZfaq playing one year. I learned vibrato late, meaning I suck at it. Almost takes away the pleasure of playing.

Merci beaucoup, Nathan. I did watch this tutorial some months ago and should've bookmarked it as, "This is the best tutorial on vibrato technique don't get side tracked by other methods!" Hence, it is now booked marked ! I'd forgotten about the way you described the 'Up..Up.. approach...kind of like a triplet figure approach to the rhythm?

Happy New Year, Nathan!

Oh wow. I've been attempting my own terrible self-taught vibrato and all I did was take on board the concept from this that I should slide the pitch up repeatedly from below, and immediately my vibrato sounds a lot better because I'm focusing on that instead of wagging my arm/wrist/fingers about

@Nathan Cole: I agree with you for not defining these exercises for particular vibrato. However if someone is weaker in arm-vibrato, then which exercise would you recommend practicing more out of these four exercises? #3?

Well thought and made video. Thank you very much. Nathan, you say you use these exercises for warming up every day. For how long do yo use them? For how long do you warm up?

Hi Nathan, I love your videos! I am a violist who has been using Warming Up for about a year now. It's great having a visual for the vibrato exercises. My question is regarding the subtle difference between exercise #1 and #4. Is #4 in some ways just a "bigger" version of #1? More wrist motion? I have basically a wrist vibrato so to me the difference between #1 and #2 seem pretty minuscule. Thank you!

Hah! I’m still using that book everyday too. It just seems to work so well I sometimes feel one can get away with very little scale and etude work and still improve. It’s pretty old now so I really delighted to see a great player like yourself using it. Hopefully Simon’s royalties will support him on a comfortable little island in the Bahamas. Warmest regards, Buri.

Nice . . . YOU ~ ROCK ! !

Hello Nathan. When doing the movement back and forth I noticed some people involve upper arm movement and others don't. In your case for example I don't see movement of the upper arm here and it all seems to come from the forearm, but in the artistworks lesson on vibrato (maybe) there is a slight upper arm movement. Should I focus more on having a still upper arm? Thank you.

subscribed already !

Very cook. Thanks

Very helpful, thanks. I have been working with these exercises for a bit and am just starting to wrap my head around some of them. Already, the concepts of small motions and the fingertip sort of leading the motion have changed my vibrato immensely. I wonder if you could answer three questions for me: 1) When you say “up”, could it also work to think forward? Like you are rolling the fingertip or hand wheel forward? I almost feel like my fingertip is actually coming back down into the string and forward into the string on the beat, rather than “up”? Not sure if I’m thinking that correctly? 2) Is the sensation of the first basic motion a bit like feeling as if you are leaning into the front of the pitch/fingertip and then allowing the finger to relax back into a no pressure position more on its pad? It almost seems to me like the four exercises are all the same thing and you just move down the length of your hand and finger until the whole wheel is combined into a complete unit....fingertip...fingertip and first joint...fingertip, first joint, and base knuckle...fingertip, first joint, base knuckle, and joint where finger and thumb bones (ie. Palm) attach to wrist joint. Does that sound right? Like each exercise involves a component (or components) of the whole, rocking back and forth in an arc/rainbow...at first you just have the outer wheel (fingertip), then the rim (the first knuckle and base knuckle), and then the full wheel rotating on its access (full hand arcing with thumb as the axel). 3) Is the direction of the wheel and fingertip aligned with the trajectory of the string, so that you are essentially thinking of rolling into the correct in tune pitch and then allowing a slight relaxing backwards? Basically, I’m asking where you think if directing that “up” or forward impulse? Towards the bridge?

I'm such an amateur at music that I feel like I don't deserve your videos, but nonetheless, I enjoy them greatly. Very helpful and informative. Thank you. Edit: My fingers have difficulty "collapsing back" as you call it. My digital hinge joints seem to be actually incapable of opening to that extent. Will this pose a problem?

Hi Nate, I know this is off topic, but I wonder if you might discuss the advantages of going without a shoulder rest.

I'm interested in that clothe on the left shoulder, where one can get it from...?

Thank you so much for this! I happened to have Warming Up on it's way to me when I came across your video. Now I'm really looking forward to getting it. I'm coming back to violin after 20 years, and I just never learned vibrato well. Do you do these exercises with each finger separately, or as a group (especially #1 and #4)?

This is the best video. I have been struggling with vibrato and even purchase a vibrato course through a respectable teacher but I watched this and it made total sense. I was able to vibrate and make a vibrato on the second and third finger with in minutes of watching your video . Forth is harder as expected but my first finger seems not to have enough room to move. Any suggestions? I'm going to purchase Simon Fischer book and DVD. Thank you for sharing.

One good example to understand this is if someone try to hit you with a stick, you can flex your knees by yourself, or you can relax them and let your body fall until you are low enough to avoid the stick damage. orchestra directors jokes aside, try it and notice what way is faster and effortless

Nathan, how are exercises in warm up different from Basics?

Anyone know where I can get the Simon Fischer 'Warming Up' book in the US? I can only find it on the Simon Fischer website in the UK and shipping costs are a bit prohibitive.

hi Nathan. do you have any advise for helping me to relax my fingers I'm very stiff and can't seem to slide along the strings

Thank you for you videos! I bought the viola warming up book more than 3 years ago and had not been able to use it. I ask my teacher but he was unfamiliar with it and not interested. Now I know how to use it. What other exercises do you do from the book? What is the 'cloth' over your shoulder? Is it rubberized? I have difficulties holding the viola (16 inches) steady because of the extra weight compared to my violin. Where can you get it from?

nice

It's as if Simon Fischer's methods are more focused on a finger vibrato (which may be better for pieces with less vibratos dispersed throughout it with a relative shorter period and so with a "shorter" sounding vibrato as opposed to wrist or an arm vibrato which require longer but less repetitions than a finger or wrist would if that makes sense, kind of like the length of time determined by the annotation of the music and which requires for I to press on the sustain pedal on the piano with the piece telling me where with the indication of where to start and stop) than in a wrist vibrato though I do not know if he developed exs for different players with different types of vibrato? Thanks for sharing edit: oh there we go at 5:35 you did mention that, I was in the right chain of thoughts there then

good

any tips for keeping your violin still?

so when ur saying" up" you are actually lowering pitch. I like the way you demonstrated with the weights. ty

Thank uou for this video. Pity that the explanations were not subtitled in french.

nathan cole, I LOVE YOU. I have tried this for the better part of a year. nothing. not even close. disgusting. I watch this video. This video alone. I have a nice sounding vibrato almost instantly, just from doing exercise 1.

10:21 i can't even do it with my 4th at all; finger just locks :S

I seem to understand this guy a little better, but all are good, because everyone seems to really want to help.

When doing vibrato, do you give 80/100 pressure on your finger? Or full?

up!

my vibrato seems to be the opposite, i release the pressure but my fingers bend inward rather than outward

Nathan - The only site I can find to buy the Fischer Warmup book is in England. Is there anywhere you know of that you can just buy and download a PDF?

Another easy exercise that helps build vibrato muscle when you’re away from your violin is shaking a pill bottle. Hold the pill bottle as you would your violin neck and shake it forward.

I can't find the book you mentioned . Have searched Amazon and the local music dealer.

Nathan...violinist and teacher here. The Fischer teachings are interestingly related to what I teach, though I've never encountered that book. I fear, however, that with intermediate students making a first foray into vibrato study, that first bowless exercise could lead to hand tension, and more specifically, squeezing. How would you suggest to alleviate or prevent that? I don't anticipate that issue so much with more mature students...but tension's a killer, bro...

Only 4 listening Vengerov! (Old cit. by You) LOL great work!

hi, do you have advise for helping me , because every time I try vibrato it sounds scratchy

Hi Nathan! You spoke of flexibility in the finger while vibrating, and if no flexibility, your finger would just be sliding up and side. I had a teacher who had no flexibility in his pinkie, so he slides his finger up and down the string, and he recommended to me that if I have troubles flexing my pinkie, I could just do the same. I am just wondering if this is actually 'allowed', if you know what I mean? What do you think? Do you recommend it?

I keep trying to get it right but when my finger collapses the sound changes like I'm not pressing the string enough. How can I fix it cus I feel like I'm still holding the same pressure. I have only been learning for around a month and a half on my own. I started with "twinkle twinkle little star" and started learning "silent night" but it still doesn't sound right to me without vibrato. I am hoping to be able to play it by Christmas. Anyone have any tips?