From Wobble to Wonderful! Fixing the vibrato speed.
When I first started taking voice lessons, I was thrilled to notice such progress. But then after a year or so, I began to notice a slower vibrato speed and shaky jaw. I was only 21!
So many singers and voice teachers are keen to blame all sorts of environmental factors, or make up other health issues to find reason for these types of problems. I began to think I had “TMJ” (temporomandibular joint disorder), which is basically excessive tension in my jaw muscles. My teacher agreed. We thought that my jaw was too tight/TMJ and therefor causing the wobble (slow vibrato speed). All I thought I could do was “loosen the jaw!” more and more and if I did that correctly, then maybe it would disappear!? It didn’t.
Then, I began to just experiment on my own. I got rid of about half of the shaky jaw symptoms, less wobble. But alas, it was still somewhat out of my control. I was always worried about it and constantly trying to make sure it didn’t appear!
It wasn’t until I finally started working with Dr. Joel Ewing that I began to learn and understand that these “symptoms” were actually “caused” by more serious functional issues in my singing technique that couldn’t be wished away, or blamed on a disorder. In fact, I had to work to rebalance my registration, the foundation to all good singing.
The two areas of registration, chest and head voice/falsetto need to be in proper balance, according to pitch. The vibrato and shaky jaw tell us that something is not balanced in registration. In my case, my technique was pulling way too much arytenoid activity into my upper mid range, causing over thickening of the cords, and other muscle systems to jump into action to “help out” (shaky jaw). So, the symptom helped me find the cause.
We began by rebalancing the registration, making sure the chest voice was active where it should be, and then allowing the vocal cords to thin ascending the scale accordingly as I went into head voice. NO pushing, NO extra volume, NO appoggio (to lean), while we settled the registration. Once this work was done, then I began to engage the proper resonators that allowed for more volume and depth, without disturbing the registration! This is key!
I have had many new students that come in with a vibrato that is out of whack, either too slow or too fast. It tells me everything I need to know! That’s the symptom, and the cause is what the registration is doing.
So, remember, the registration needs to be set up properly in order for the vibrato speed to be correct (between 4-7 pulses per second.) Always begin with registration, and listen functionally to what is happening with the muscle systems to solve the issue. There are no “quick fixes” in good vocal technique, only good functional training and listening!
PS. My shaky jaw and slow vibrato went away within weeks. Never again to appear. =)
