Vibrato in Singing, Part 4: Troubleshooting the Wobble - Too Slow, Too Wide, Uneven
15/04/2026
You made it through the theory in Part 1 of this series on vibrato. You survived the terminology in Part 2. You even tried the bouncing in Part 3.
But what if your vibrato is there… and you don’t like what it’s doing?
Maybe it wobbles like a ship in a storm. Maybe it used to be smooth and steady, and something has changed.
Welcome to the first troubleshooting episode!
This series of blogposts is a summary of one of last year’s Ask-Me-Anything webinars, in which voice teacher Dana brought a question on vibrato.
If you want the full vibrato experience, including some truly questionable facial expressions on my part, you can watch the recording in The singsing! Sofa Library!
What Is a Wobble?
As we discussed in Part 2, a wobble is a vibrato that has become
- slow – roughly 1–3 oscillations per second
- wide – sometimes exceeding a whole tone
- and often irregular.
It can be linked to muscular weakness, technical imbalance, and / or aging.
A wobble is one of the most common vibrato concerns I hear from singers and voice teachers, especially when they are working with mature voices. So let us unpack this one properly.
By the way: the strategies I offer here are helpful for any wobble. Not just the one caused by aging.
Why Does Vibrato Change with Age? (Presbyphonia)
Your voice ages along with the rest of the body. The vocal fold muscles thin and lose bulk. This condition is called presbyphonia or presbylaryngis.
In plain terms:
- Think of your vocal folds as two small cushions that need to come together with just the right amount of firmness and flexibility to vibrate well. Over time, those cushions lose their padding. They become thinner, stiffer, and less plump.
- The tissue layer that makes them supple and bouncy (the superficial lamina propria) becomes less pliable.
- On top of that, the cartilages of your larynx can ossify (harden) over time, reducing the flexibility of the joints that help control pitch.
Additionally, laryngeal tremor can develop: an involuntary, rhythmic movement of the larynx, much like the way hands may shake in older adults. When this tremor combines with reduced muscle tone, the result can be a vibrato that is slow, wide, and difficult to control.
And it does not stop at your larynx. Lung capacity decreases, respiratory muscles weaken, and overall muscle coordination becomes less precise. All of these factors can contribute to what we hear as a wobble.
The good news? Quite a lot can be done about it.
Strategy 1: Use Hand Gestures to Speed Up Your Vibrato
In Part 3 we discovered that hand gestures are one of the most powerful tools for vibrato training, thanks to the neural proximity of the hand and voice areas in the brain.
But gestures are not just for finding vibrato. They are just as useful for adjusting it.
Want a faster vibrato? Rapid finger wiggles. And here is a key detail: do not get louder as you speed up. Going faster is actually easier when you make the sound lighter. This is counterintuitive for many singers, but it works beautifully.
Here is a short demonstration by Lisa Popeil. She also shows how placing three fingers on the upper belly can support breath management while you gesture. Wonderful stuff.
As always: practise until you no longer need the gesture. Conducting yourself looks quite funny on stage 😉
But what if this strategy is not enough?
Strategy 2: Why More Effort (Not More Relaxation) Fixes a Wobble
This is perhaps the most important mindset shift of this entire article.
Joanna Cazden explains it beautifully in a voice pedagogy forum: when muscle tone is decreased, relaxation and stronger breath flow are likely to make instability worse, not better.
Let me translate that. Many singers have spent years being told that the secret to good singing is relaxation. Let go. Release. Don’t push. And for many situations, that is absolutely valid advice. But for a voice that wobbles, the direction of help is the opposite: increased muscularity, targeted effort, and firmer adduction (bringing the vocal folds together). Not more release.
Think of it this way: if a bridge is swaying because its cables have gone slack, you do not fix it by loosening them further. You tighten the ones that matter.
In that same forum, Kenneth Bozeman offers a very practical way in: initiate the effort from strong, deliberate affects: emotional intention, commitment, a sense of conviction in what you are expressing. Think hilarity, authority, settled certainty. These kinds of affects naturally activate appropriate muscular engagement without creating the kind of squeezing we want to avoid.
Why does this work? When the larger structures around your larynx become entrained with your vibrato, basically, when they start swinging along with it like passengers on a rocking boat, your vibrato slows down and widens. Stabilising your pharynx (the throat space) through deliberate affect and muscular engagement helps prevent this. The structures stay put, and your vibrato can do its thing without dragging the whole neighbourhood along.
Strategy 3: The "Beep" Exercise — Building Vocal Strength Over Time
Here is my go-to exercise for wobbles:
- Start with short, loud “beeeep” notes. Think of a car horn – loud! Not a subtle supermarket scanner. Short bursts of sound with committed breath management. Engage those muscles!
- Then gradually extend. One long, loud note, still without vibrato. The danger on the road is still there — keep honking with conviction!
- Then three long notes in a row. Then five.
- Then experiment with gradually reducing the volume while keeping the same muscle coordination and engagement. This is the tricky part: the muscles stay active even as the sound gets softer. Like speaking with authority without waking a sleeping baby that happens to also be in the room. (Try it. It is harder than it sounds.)
- Now it is time to add vibrato. Do not relax that muscular engagement, on the contrary! Alternate: with vibrato and without. Louder volume and softer. Playful experimentation is your biggest friend here.
No judgement, this is data gathering! If you cannot control the wobble yet, it does not necessarily mean you are doing something wrong. Your strategy might be perfect, but maybe your muscle tone needs some more time.
Be patient. This can take a long time, because you are genuinely building muscle coordination and tone.
Strength training is essential, especially as we age. As Kim Chandler and Henrietta Carter both emphasise, yes, in that same voice pedagogy forum: basic cardio and core strength training are just as fundamental for singing as they are for life.
A strong physical foundation strengthens everything, including a wobbly vibrato.
Strategy 4: How Tongue Engagement Affects Vibrato Speed
This one might surprise you, but it is backed by a growing body of evidence.
Kerrie Obert, speech-language pathologist and singing voice specialist, teaches that a firmer, more energised tongue can help speed up a slow vibrato.
The logic: increased tongue engagement improves the speed at which nerve signals recruit the laryngeal muscles. A soft, overly relaxed tongue can actually slow things down.
Think of your tongue as providing a certain amount of healthy energy and resistance that helps stabilise the whole system like a well-tensioned trampoline versus a saggy one.
But here is the nuance: if you have a straight tone with no vibrato at all, your tongue may be too rigid. In that case, you need less energy in the tongue, not more. As Kerrie points out: it is a dynamic system, and different situations require different balances.
Rebecca Moseley-Morgan’s doctoral research adds another layer. She found that tongue root tension (gripping at the very back of the tongue) can also contribute to erratic vibrato. But tongue position during vowel shaping also matters: high tongue vowels (like the “ee” in see) tended to produce more stable vibrato in terms of both extent and rate.
She also found that excessive air pressure below the vocal folds (basically trying to push too much air through your vocal folds) can make vibrato more irregular.
So the picture is: you want a tongue that is active and well-positioned, but not gripping at the root. Engaged, not clenched. Like holding a pen: enough grip to write, not so much that your hand cramps.
Strategy 5: The Horizontal Giggle — An Imagery Trick
If your laryngeal vibrato feels very “vertical” in its movement, like a heavy up-and-down lurch, try pulling it closer to a hammer vibrato. Think of a giggle. And imagine the oscillation as more horizontal: side to side.
Combined with hand gestures in that same direction, this imagery can help stabilise and speed up a sluggish wobble.
This is an imagery trick, and not every singer responds to it equally. But for some, it is the missing piece. And it costs nothing to try… except perhaps a few strange looks from your housemates.
Strategy 6: Audiation - Train Your Brain to Hear It First
Audiation is hearing a sound in your imagination before you produce it. The term comes from music education researcher Edwin Gordon, and it is used extensively in vocal pedagogy by Heidi Moss Erickson.
In everyday terms: it is like singing the note in your head (with full detail) before you actually open your mouth. Not just knowing which note you want, but imagining how it should sound: its colour, its speed, its movement.
Here is a striking client story from my practice:
A singer wanted a faster vibrato. I tried every technique in my toolkit. Nothing worked. So I recorded him singing a long note with his natural vibrato rate, sped up that recording, and had him listen to it through headphones.
Suddenly, his brain understood exactly what it should aim for. And there it was: a faster vibrato.
Your brain needs to be able to imagine the sound before it can send out the right motor commands to create it. This principle is well supported by neuroscience. Zatorre, Chen, and Penhune’s influential review on auditory-motor interactions in music demonstrates that the auditory and motor systems are deeply intertwined: what we hear (or imagine hearing) directly shapes how we move, and vice versa. The two systems are not separate departments with a memo system between them. They are more like dance partners, constantly responding to each other in real time.
Heidi Moss Erickson’s work on vocal learning across species takes this even further. She describes how both songbirds and humans use a process of auditory templating: hearing a target sound, forming a mental representation, and then shaping motor output to match it. The same biological strategy appears in bats, whales, and other vocal learners.
Audiation, it turns out, is not a uniquely human invention. It is a shared strategy for learned vocalisation across species. We are in good company.
So if you are struggling to find a faster (or slower) vibrato, try this at home:
- Record yourself,
- speed up (or slow down) the audio – most editing apps allow this
- and listen on repeat. Let your auditory imagination lead the way!
In Conclusion: Trust the Process
Remember: if your vibrato used to be different and has changed with time, that does not mean you have lost something permanently. Muscles can be trained. Neural pathways can be refreshed. The voice is remarkably resilient – at any age.
Be patient with yourself. Be kind. And keep experimenting.
Coming up in Part 5:
What if your vibrato is too fast, too tight, or your hammer vibrato hits too hard? Plus: visual feedback tools, and why stacking strategies is the smartest thing you can do for your voice. Stay tuned!
This is Part 4 of a 5-part series on vibrato in singing:
- Part 1: What It Is, How It Works, and What Science Says
- Part 2: Different Types of Vibrato
- Part 3: How to Develop Your Vibrato
- Part 4: Troubleshooting the Wobble (you are here!)
- Part 5: Fixing a Fast Vibrato, and the Power of Stacking
Want to go deeper? The singsing! Sofa Library is where this whole series started: as a live webinar with demonstrations, Q&A, and the occasional weird noise that only makes sense in context.
The full recording is waiting for you there, along with 50+ other webinars covering everything from breath management to performance anxiety, resonance to song interpretation
Over 70 hours of content at the time of publication, with new material added every month! Think of it as a voice studio you can visit in your pyjamas.
Ariane De Dom, Avocational singer
This session was a great add-on to my voice lessons with Sarah!
M.J. Johnson - Singer & Voice teacher
Bec Tilley, Voice Coach & Singer
Susanne Vahle - Vocational singer
Ariane De Dom, Avocational singer
Susanne Vahle - Vocational singer
Frequently Asked Questions About The Vocal Wobble
Why does vibrato get worse with age?
As we age, the vocal fold muscles thin and lose bulk (a condition called presbylaryngis). The tissues that keep the vocal folds flexible become stiffer, and laryngeal tremor can develop. Combined with decreased lung capacity and weaker respiratory muscles, this can result in a vibrato that is slower, wider, and less stable.
Can you fix a vocal wobble?
Yes. Targeted exercises that build muscular engagement, increase breath resistance, and energise the tongue can all help stabilise and speed up a wobbly vibrato. Audiation (imagining the desired sound before producing it) and consistent physical fitness also play important roles. Progress may take a long time, but the voice is remarkably trainable at any age.
Should I relax more if my vibrato wobbles?
Usually not. When muscle tone is decreased, more relaxation tends to make instability worse. The more effective direction is increased muscular engagement, firmer vocal fold closure, and strong emotional intention. Not more release.
RESOURCES:
- The Role of Vibrato in Group Singing: A Systematic Review by Helena Daffern (2025)
- Operatic voices engage the default mode network in professional opera singers by Adél Bihari, Ádám Nárai, Boris Kleber, Judit Zsuga, Petra Hermann & Zoltán Vidnyánszky (2024)
- A Longitudinal Study of Vocal Functionality and Longevity in the Mature Female Singer by Rebecca Moseley-Morgan (2024)
- Lecture “The Art and Mechanism of Vibrato” at PEVOC 2024 in Santander (ES) by Lisa Popeil
- Complexity of Vocal Vibrato in Opera and Jazz Recordings: Insights From Entropy and Recurrence Analyses by Helena Daffern (2023)
- What Garcia Got Right: Understanding Cortical Signaling of the Glottis by Heidi Moss Erickson (2023)
- Vocal Learning and Songbirds: An Evolutionary Tale by Heidi Moss Erickson (2022)
- Enhancing Vocal Performance through Body Movements and Gestures as External Foci of Attention by Sebastian Brand (2021)
- Presbyphonia by D’Alatri et al. (2018)
- Blend in Singing Ensemble Performance: Vibrato Production in a Vocal Quartet by Helena Daffern (2017)
- Vibrato Rate and Extent in College Music Majors: A Multicenter Study by Nix, Perna, James & Allen (2016)
- When the brain plays music: auditory–motor interactions in music perception and production by Robert J. Zatorre, Joyce L. Chen & Virginia B. Penhune (2007)
- Video Controlling Vibrato Speed by Lisa Popeil (2001)
- Learned birdsong and the neurobiology of human language by Erich D. Jarvis (2004)
- Birdsong and human speech: common themes and mechanisms by Allison J. Doupe & Patricia K. Kuhl (1999)
- NCVS – National Center for Voice and Speech
- Complete Vocal Institute
- “Minding the Gap: Connecting Research from Neuroscience to Vocal Pedagogy” — Heidi Moss Erickson’s ongoing column in the Journal of Singing (NATS)
- Joanna Cazden, Kenneth Bozeman, Kim Chandler, Henrietta Carter (contributions from Voice Geek Group, Facebook community for voice professionals)
As always, feel free to send me your thoughts, questions, and feedback in the comments below this blog, via the contact form or in the singsing! online community 
Cordially,
Sarah