Theory of Karaoke Lesson 8: Using Vibrato
Jason Burchard

Not many of us can hold a note for very long, but even if we could, sound waves get distorted on one long continuous note. Because of this, any held note can sound unpleasant to a listener’s ears. That is why we must use vibrato on long notes. All you are doing is waving your voice over that note, above or below it, to hold on to it. Be careful not to get into what a diva like Mariah or Christina would do and deviate a great distance. If you can’t be a diva, or even if you can and do this too often, it just gets to be annoying.

You are going to find that once you understand vibrato and begin doing it correctly, it will greatly affect your singing. The beauty of learning vibrato is that it is going to be useful in every song you sing. You only need to waver around the original note. Generally, you also want to use vibrato at the same speed and pattern. There may be some instances in slow songs when you might slow it down a bit, but basically you can go with what you feel fits the song.

There are certain ways to help train your voice to do vibrato. Slightly shaking your head or your hand will make your voice waver and do vibrato without much effort. Try this in practice and you’ll get used to how it should sound and be spaced out. Be certain not to overuse shaking anything while performing, because you will just look silly.

Practice your vibrato technique and soon you will be able to hold those longer notes with a smooth tone. If you have a lot of cracking in your voice while singing, I’ll bet it happens more often while you’re trying to hold these longer notes. Once you start using vibrato regularly and correctly, your voice may never crack again.