hello my fellow double-reedists. so, how do you accomplish vibrato?? i wanna figure it out. please let me know. thanks

Hi,

Sadly enough, i asked my teacher and he said soemthing like "it`ll come naturally....or just wait" or something that wasn`t useful!

a bassoonist i know does it like on a saxaphone by moving her jaw up and down.....but she knows....it doesn`t work at all....so somehow i imagine you need your throat to "sing" or something...

well that wasn`t useful at all, if you do find out please tell me

bob

It will sort of come naturally in time if you develop good voicing to start with :-) Think about opera singers ...

Being a sax player that converted to bassoon, I recommend learning the diaphram vibrato of pulsing air rather than the saxophone vibrato of jaw movement for two reasons - 1, sax vibrato on double reeds can become too wide and take the beauty out of using it (especially in the upper range, I kind like it in the bottom range, though) and 2, sax vibrato alters pitch, something I`d rather try to avoid once I`m in tune :-)

It isn`t difficult to learn, once you have a good singing tone to start from (again, think about opera singers ...)but takes time to develop a natural feel to it. I learned it this way:
Begin by playing whole notes (middle range, scales are good) and pulsing the air to beat subdivisions in the measure: quarter note (no pulse), 8ths (two pulses), triplet (three), 16ths (four),etc. At first it will be `rough`, but over time the `hardness` of the vibrato should being to disappear :-)

A vibrato isn`t a thing to be "accomplished." A vibrato is naturally found through consistent practice. It`s basically your major "wind muscle" doing the "vibrato"ing, which is your diaphram. It is also partially your throat too, but that dont` worry about vibrato until you have a nice tone.

I`m a 4-month bassoonst that switched from saxophone. I knew vibrato on the saxophone and then switched to bassoon and had to re-learn it. Sax vibrato is nothing like bassoon vibrato. As the other guy said, diaphram vibrato is your best bet. And really, it`s not that hard once you get the hang of it.

I`m a 4-month bassoonst that switched from saxophone. I knew vibrato on the saxophone and then switched to bassoon and had to re-learn it. Sax vibrato is nothing like bassoon vibrato. As the other guy said, diaphram vibrato is your best bet. And really, it`s not that hard once you get the hang of it.

I don`t agree that sax and bassoon vibrato are different, but I only used diaphram vibrato. Don`t try doing anything with your embouchure or jaws-- it`s all in the lungs-- support the tone.