Hi there! I'm going to sit for my grade 4 abrsm examination next Wednesday. My first piece's tempo is slow. My teacher told me to use vibrato for the entire song, regardless of the notes' values like crochet, quaver, semiquaver etc. All this while I thought vibrato is only used on long notes to make it sound more expressive; not the whole song. =/ . I need to be enlightened on this matter. Help and advice would be much appreciated. =)

well ..... you really ought to have kicked in with your vibrato for grade 4 but i don't think it will be desperate so much for the shorter notes, make the most of your vibrato on the longer notes (even if it's just to show the examiner that you can do it) so don't worry about it, however, it will be slightly different for grade 5 as they like a more polished performance. good luck, angie x

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what pieces are you playing ??

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what pieces are you playing ??

vibrato on fast notes sounds like a goat being choked, don't do it, leave it to the long notes

^^ exaclty. Practice it but don't over do it.

Well, a well developed vibrato done by an experienced player will not be omnipresent. There are no rules like "If the note is longer than a beat, do vibrato" or "Anything worth a quarter beat or less should not have vibrato applied" or "Only use vibrato on the third Thursday of every month, but only so long as the moon is orange, and an owl hoots thrice between 4:38 pm and 5:14 pm the day before." You will need to develop a sense of when vibrato adds to the music, and when it actually takes away from it (which can only be done through experience). Be sure that you have a wide range of depth and speed of vibrato available to you (and that you can choose not to use it at all), and then use it as the music dictates. I can't tell you about the ABRSM tests, as I am not familiar with them beyond the general idea. I hope this was at least mildly helpful. If not, feel free to ask us more questions until we tell you what you need to know.

here, here