Can the Voice Be Vibrant Without Vibrato?
Contrary to the opinions of many instructors, and even many who are highly respected master teachers, I dont believe that vibrato is essential to good tone or singing, at least not the type of feigned, overly apparent vibrato that is generally heard in contemporary singers, but also in many opera singers. A singer can sing with full vibrancy in the absence of a noticeable or exaggerated vibrato, with the fundamental and its overtones fully present. (Vibrato can also be present in the singing voice without it being overly prominent.) There are many instructors who reject the idea of so-called straight singing, calling it an unhealthy and inferior style or claiming that singers who sing without very present vibrato have inferior technique and imbalanced vocal production. They argue that suppressing vibrato through constrictive controls affects the vibrancy that is essential to the professional chiaroscuro timbre by creating an imbalance among the fundamental and its overtones, and thus r
