Vibrato is a quick oscillation of the sound used to embellish the tone. Vibrato can be used on longer tones to heighten expression. The most common way to produce vibrato on the bassoon is to create pulsations in the airstream from the abdominal muscles. The following vibrato exercise, and the ones in the following lessons, are meant to be done at a slow tempo, to gain control over the speed and depth of your vibrato.
While sustaining one long tone, create sudden surges of sound on each beat, and then every half beat, as indicated. Make the surge of sound very powerful and sudden, and then make a quick diminuendo. You should be able to feel your abdominal muscles pulsing inward. To practice the vibrato motion, shout:
SFZ stands for sforzando, which indicates emphasis, or sudden force. A sforzando is similar to an accent (>), except that in a sforzando, the emphasis comes more from volume rather than articulation. An accent usually indicates a harder tongue to the attack.
Repeat the exercise on the following notes:
