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Spring Cleaning for Singers: 

Reflections on Vibrato and Straight Tone

(a personal blog about vocal expression)

Springtime means cleaning and refreshing, making room for growth. This piece invites us singer folks to take a spring inventory on how we think about vibrato and straight tone. I’ve felt moved to reflect on this topic and share my personal thoughts and experiences, just as one goes through that back corner of the closet that may not have been cleaned in years. Someone out there might find a use for that old item that has a story behind it! Spring is also the time for spring singing in many arenas - solo & ensemble festivals, church choir preparations, concerts, recitals, and more. So, I am inviting others to reflect with me on that corner of the closet in our minds containing vibrato and straight tone thoughts and memories. Whether you are reading this as a casual or aspiring singer, experienced singer, teacher, or director, there should be some small take-away in here for everyone if you can spare the time. 

All singing begins in our imagination, moving us to create sounds with our breath and body. Only you can feel how your voice works in your body; you develop singing with your thought patterns, imagery, and technical/mechanical knowledge, often with lots of help from teachers, directors, or trusted friends or family members. As I share some of my own story and experience, it could be helpful to journal or simply notice what thoughts or memories come up from your own experiences. I welcome any feedback and commentary and hope you read to the end, forgiving for any holes that a long-term serious study article on this subject would cover.

Before I give a short reflection through my personal story regarding vibrato from very young Sarah to today’s Sarah, soprano, D.M.A. - I want to acknowledge that my pursuit of vocal studies is a privilege; and also recognize there may be individuals reading this with conditions preventing vocal sound or the full vocal expression which many of us enjoy on a daily basis. I am exceedingly grateful for my vocal health, innate gifts, and every individual who encouraged vocal expression at every stage of my life - my parents, church music directors, teachers, coaches, family, and friends and hope my work continues to inspire vocal expression in general. Let us all reflect on how we engage or promote full vocal expression, while allowing all the various refined ways we can learn how to sing as fun and exciting, but secondary to the singing itself. 

Like many my age, I grew up belting to my heart's content along with Disney's Ariel (Jodi Benson), Pocahontas (Judy Kuhn), Whitney Houston, Shania Twain, and LeAnne Rhymes, just to name a few. Sometimes even my friends in elementary school would sing for each other and sort of have our own kind of sing-offs. I remember debating vibrato and how some liked it and some didn't. While I don't remember exactly how these arguments went, I remember arguing that straighter was better than vibrato because if you are moving the note in that way, you aren’t staying on the pitch. I realize now that this was most likely because I didn't know how to sing with vibrato yet, and like many young kids, I wanted to be doing it the “right” way! I also wanted to please my audience, so if being able to make the pitch wobble on some notes was the popular thing, it was frustrating that I couldn't do it, or do it on command. I didn't understand why one of my best friends could do this so easily, but I hadn’t figured it out. In hindsight, I was also jealous! Fast forward to my first voice lessons in high school where I started to emulate singers I heard on recordings for my first classical solos - Cecilia Bartoli anyone? Now, my motivation was for an actual class in school where you receive a grade and I wanted to please my teachers. I was motivated by the choir culture of the time and the sense of accomplishment from making the sounds our revered and wonderful choir director wanted for our WSMA classical solos. With some lessons from my choir director, and aunt who was studying opera in college, I made a conscious switch in my mind to singing with vibrato, in mostly “head voice,” was the way to sing well. I perceived this as the best and healthiest way to sing. I fully jumped on the bel canto band wagon. I was ready to leave straight pop singing behind. I’m sure I still used straight tone here and there, but this over-arching “rule” was firmly in the back of my mind.

Through college vocal degrees, I worked with so many great voice instructors, choral directors, and coaches who rightly promoted that steady spin of vibrato for all the classical repertoire I was working on and I grew in my ability to sing the arias that mesmerized me as a young teen. So this “rule” continued in the back of my mind as the inherently healthy thing and that straight tone was the riskier or even unhealthy thing for a budding opera singer to use. We all absorb what our teachers tell us in different ways at different levels of our education and maturity, and I know now that I interpreted some instructions as black and white “rules” for every sound as opposed to something my teacher was simply emphasizing for the particular style or even for a particular song. It wasn’t until after all of my academic credentials that I first went through a spring-cleaning of how I think about vibrato and other vocal styles when I attended an Estill Voice Training workshop (one of many voice training methods promoting holistic vocal education of all styles). I knew I needed a bit more outside-the-box thinking and more teaching tools to help my students who were not seeking the operatic sounds I had focused on in my training. So, thanks to this workshop, a couple of new pedagogy texts, and some lessons with Dr. David Hoffman who introduced this method at UW-Milwaukee several years ago, I studied and embraced the reality that all styles of singing can be healthy or potentially harmful. There are specific vocal habits we can all fall into that lead to injury, whether you are belting pop songs or singing Queen of the Night - as I learned the hard way when I developed a habit which led to slight bruising of the outer edges of my vocal folds during the second run of Milwaukee Opera Theatre’s production of Zie Magic Flute. I felt that something was not right and had my vocal folds examined as soon as I could. I had to make the difficult and quick decision to continue with the performance, but shorten the length of one of opera’s most famous arias to hopefully prevent further issues and heal. While it was a frustrating and humbling experience, it allowed me to grow. It is important to note here that versatility in styles is great and healthy, but this is not to say that it can’t also be helpful to focus on one particular style for your own personal goals and career aspirations. I may never have had the opportunity to sing that iconic role had it not been for focusing on operatic singing in the practice room for many years. This is something young singers have to explore for themselves along with trusted teachers and mentors.

If you find yourself nodding at all in relation to my story, let’s keep going! 

So as one starts sorting through old items from the corner of the closet into piles in the middle of the floor, lets make some piles! Which pile or piles of ideas do you find in that closet corner containing memories and thoughts on vibrato and straight tone?

The Vibrato Cheerleader Outfit 

(my cousins and I literally had a cheerleader outfit we fought over when we played “dress-up” in grandma’s closet - that favorite item that holds so many good memories, but might be covered in stains and coming apart at the seams)

• Vibrato generally makes you feel positive associations

• healthy, free, sounds good, feels easy and is fun to do 

• you’ve paid good money and spent hours training to sing with free and steady vibrato

• it is your go-to mode in your muscle memory; when you aren’t focusing on any particular sound, this is what will come out

The Vibrato Someday Outfit

(that item you bought because you WILL wear it someday, just waiting for the right occasion)

• Vibrato could be a new or recurring topic

• neutral, mixed or uncharted associations in your vocal work

• mixed level of control and/or ability to use it purposefully

The box labeled "Miscellaneous" - but definitely some vibrato in there somewhere:

(who knows what’s in there, or maybe you do know, but would rather save it for another spring cleaning)

• you may have negative associations with

• you just do not enjoy hearing vocal vibrato as a music consumer or when you try it yourself 

• it just doesn’t feel like it fits right in your voice when you try it on; not able to access it

• would like to avoid this vocal sound if possible

Straight-tone Cheerleader Outfit

• This is your happy place; smooth vocal sounds with no detectable pitch variation or disturbances

• healthy, free, sounds good, feels easy and is fun to do 

• you haven’t really needed to use vibrato in the music you like to sing; no desire or obvious need to use vibrato

• this is your go-to mode in your muscle memory; when you aren’t focusing on any particular sound, this is what will come out 

Straight-tone Someday Outfit:

• Smooth sounds without vibrato could be a new or recurring topic

• neutral, mixed or uncharted associations in your vocal work

• mixed level of control and/or ability to use it purposefully

The box labeled "Miscellaneous" - but definitely some straight tone in there somewhere:

• you may have negative associations with “straight tone” term and sound

• you do not enjoy it as a music consumer; is just not aesthetically pleasing to you

• perhaps you have been told it could be harmful

• don’t like the sound or feeling of straight tone in your voice

If you find yourself identifying neutrally or more negatively with vibrato, but you also want to learn how to use it like I did, try this:

First, remind yourself that singing is movement. Turn on some favorite singers that use vibrato in songs you enjoy, summon your childlike curiosity, and start emulating and playing with your voice. A vibrato requires a buzzy clear tone with an intensity that doesn’t have to be loud, but has to feel exciting in your body and breath. Too much breath pressure or breathy sounds tend to make vibrato difficult to release. Feeling like you are about to laugh or cry could help you feel vibrato. Making silly ghost wails, fast sirens, anything that lets you feel free to move pitch up and down without strict control is a great place to start. You might stumble upon how vibrato feels in your voice and start using it intentionally, finding that pleasing pitch wobble more and more on your own. There are also exercises with different ideas you can seek out through a vocal instructor. Remember we all have different types of natural vibrato and there are different types of vibrato sounds. Check out this website for some examples: https://cvtresearch.com/description-and-sound-of-vibrato/ 

If you find yourself identifying negatively with straight tone, but you also want to learn how to use it healthily, try this: 

First, remind yourself that singing is movement. It may help you to completely replace the term “straight tone” with “smooth sound” - sort of a rebranding. Picture your lovely warm vibrato as that free sound moving above and below the pitch like this:

Now picture your vibrato getting smoother and calmer until it is not readily detectable, and looks more like this, where your moving and vibrating tone is still variable and ready to grow bigger again when you need it:

Your buzzing, clear, smoothed out sound is still just as colorful, resonant, and moving with balanced breath support. Every voice is unique, so you might find you need to lighten your sound and breathe a little more often to maintain a smoother sound. This should help prevent unwanted tension or a forced sound often associated with straight tone or smoother sounds.

Sound is movement. Every voice is beautiful. We’re all capable of expressing beauty that the world needs. 

Thank you for reading, sharing, reflecting, and staying curious with your voice and vocal work! As we all continue through this springtime of cultivating and expressing beauty with our voices in performance, praise, worship, or in the shower - keep singing, keep sharing, and keep growing.

posted 3/10/2026