How to Make Your Vibrato Sound Contemporary

This lesson is especially for you if you know you need to learn to minimize your vibrato (or maybe you suspect that you need to!). Vibrato is a beautiful thing—but a lot of worship team singers tend to use so much vibrato in their songs that their voice ends up sounding more classical than contemporary. It’s really important for singing in the context of contemporary worship that we learn to control our vibrato and learn how to use it in a subtle, tasteful way—and that’s what this lesson is all about!

See the lesson resources below to:

download the lesson notes (in Downloads tab)
download the vocal workout for offline use (in Downloads tab)

Audio Workout

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12 Responses

One other question – have you ever done a demo video singing Faithful Now or Build My life? That would be extremely helpful.

Charmaine Brown says:

September 4, 2020 at 7:20 pm

I haven’t done a tutorial for those ones yet but thanks for the request—perhaps in the future!

I have sung with vibrato for quite a while but my goal is to seriously limit it because I know that is one of the things my church’s worship team is looking for in my audition. It is very impressive that you can demonstrate literally everything, good and bad. But as I listen to you explain and sing examples, it seems as though there is also less sustaining of notes and less definite cutoffs. Is this accurate and does it work together with the more subtle vibrato used sparingly?

Charmaine Brown says:

September 4, 2020 at 7:20 pm

Hey Felecia! For sure, it’s important to work on that, especially if that’s what your church worship team is looking for. Vibrato is a very subjective thing—and I didn’t have time in this video to demonstrate all the possible ways to use it—but to answer your question (which I think I understand but please clarify if I don’t answer your question!), there is definitely a place for sustained notes (with or without vibrato) in the contemporary style. The key is to not have a wide, wobbly vibrato at the end of your held note.

Charmaine! This is so good. I never thought about vibrato in this way, just always had it. I would really like to purchase some kind of microphone to decently record through a computer. Can you please recommend a system preferable under $500 – 800?

Charmaine Brown says:

August 24, 2020 at 5:06 pm

Hey Lyuda! Depends on what you’re hoping to do! The simplest setup is to buy a USB mic that connects directly to your computer, and then record via some DAW software (“Digital Audio Workstation”… GarageBand comes free on a Mac, Reaper is free for Windows/Mac, or plenty of others, here’s a good list: https://blog.landr.com/best-daw/)

USB mics aren’t the pro studio choice, but they’re simple and still quite effective. Here’s a good “shootout” of some popular choices: https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/usb-mic-shootout-sound-samples/. We’ve used the Blue Yeti Studio a lot, it’s great!

For more of a pro setup, you’d need an interface and studio mic, and the options are extensive (and can get expensive). Interface depends on how many inputs you need to record at once, and what kind of computer connection you’re working with. Here’s an overview: https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/audio-interface-buying-guide/. And then you’ll need a mic, likely a large diaphragm condenser mic… overview here: https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/studio-microphone-buying-guide/.

For a pretty cost-effective setup, we use a Zoom UAC-2 (https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UAC2–zoom-uac-2-usb-3.0-audio-interface) and an Audio Technica AT 4040 (https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AT4040–audio-technica-at4040-large-diaphragm-condenser-microphone) into a Mac running Avid Pro Tools (https://www.avid.com).

1. Lyuda Komendant says:
  
  September 6, 2020 at 2:36 pm
  
  Thank you so much for this information! Honestly, I just need to record my self decently to reflect my voice for the purpose of auditioning to a worship band. My camera or phone makes my voice sound very dull and does not really catch tone. I’ll look into some of these options.
  
  1. Charmaine Brown says:
    
    September 7, 2020 at 1:15 pm
    
    You’re welcome!

Hi! I just joined TWV, and I can’t believe this was the highlighted video! Reducing vibrato was one of my primary goals for my training. I can’t wait to get started! Thank you so much for an amazing resource!

Charmaine Brown says:

August 10, 2020 at 1:46 pm

You’re so welcome! That’s so great that you’re aware of it in your own voice and want to improve in this area! Excited for the journey ahead for you! 🙂

This is exactly what I needed. I cannot seem to control my vibrato. It sort of just is there.
Thank you

Charmaine Brown says:

August 8, 2020 at 1:32 pm

You’re welcome! Hope these techniques will be helpful for you!

How to Make Your Vibrato Sound Contemporary

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