A spectrogram of a singer’s vibrato presents a striking way to introduce students to frequency,
Fourier spectra, and modulation. Vibrato is discussed from the perspectives of the physicist and the
musician. A dramatic spectrogram is included where coauthor soprano Michel suppresses her vibrato so
that acoustical characteristics can be compared to the same note sung with vibrato. A video (Ruiz
2017 Video: vibrato http://mjtruiz.com/ped/vibrato/ [http://mjtruiz.com/ped/vibrato/] ) is provided
of this demonstration.