"Sorry to hear what the music teacher said. That's just wrong."

That was my thought. I can't even imagine a voice teacher who would make that kind of a statement about vibrato.

And I still cannot think of a good singing voice -- anyone famous for their good singing -- who does not have/use vibrato.

Just like any other tool, it takes time to learn how to use it correctly.

But the nature of the question of this thread is not how to learn to use it correctly -- it is WHAT THE HELL IS IT?!?!?!

Where does it come from?!?!

Someone upthread mentioned that they can tell when vibrato is "forced" or not natural. I agree. I love Ella Fitzgerald's voice (one of the best voices ever recorded). I did not like Dinah Shore's voice. Dinah Shore's vibrato was of such a slow "wavelength" that it sounded like an affectation --something she had to work to create. Ella's is so rapid (but not so rapid as to sound like a munchkin) that I just have trouble believing that it is anything other than something that just happens when she sings.

I cannot, for love or money, just sing and have vibrato happen. I can attempt to add a little color for a half-beat at the end of a line, but absolutely nothing I could hold. I can't make it happen and I still don't know where I would feel it if I was going for it naturally.

Like anything else -- swinging a golf club, doing caligraphy -- one has to *feel* what the right thing IS -- at least ONCE -- in order to repeat it. If one never feels what the right thing is in the first place, one cannot practice to perfect it.