Shankar's Vibrato/Bend inquiry

[Winslow Yerxa <76450.3230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Shankar writes:

      I want to know if one can bend a note and simultaneously
      use throat vibrato on the note. I can use these techniques
      independently but when I try to vibrato the bent note I
      lose the bend.

Yes, you can. The *sound* of the vibrato tends to change from a variation
in the pitch to more of a pulsation in amplitude, but it's a
common enough usage. The fact that you're losing it means you
either need more control over your bending, or need to relocate
your throat vibrato a little - it should come from a glottal
contraction, the same as if you were coughing.

Listening to Howard Levy in this regard is interesting. He uses a
lot of deep bends on the low notes, and tends to use tongue
vibrato to subtly modulate the pitch of the bend instead of
throat vibrato for these notes, as it is better suited to his
style.