“Teacher! Some musicians came to our school the other day and played for us. There were violinists and they were shaking their left hands like this while they were playing. What was that? Do you do it, too?”
(an 8 year old beginning student)
That is wonderful observation ! 😀
Does what you are talking about sound something like this ?
***my vibrato is stiff now due to my tendinitis… 🙁 ***
” Yes !”
This is called vibrato. And of course, I use it, too. 🙂
It is a very important, sophisticated, profound, and difficult technique to master.
Without vibrato,
the notes sounds simple.
With vibrato, on the other hand,
what kind of impression did you get from the sound?
I think it is more expressive.
We use vibrato in order to add expression to the sound.
First, you need to learn one kind of vibrato which will work for you, but eventually, you need to be able to control and add more variety to it according to who wrote the work, which period the music was written in, the context of the music, for example which notes are more important than the others, etc.
You will learn to control the width and speed of vibrato and you will add your own expression to the sound you make.
Just as our bodies or voices are never the same, a vibrato is unique to each violinist.
You’ve been learning the violin for only 3 months.
We cannot start working on the vibrato yet, but you will find that it is a very good goal to achieve! 🙂