Does vibrato = tone?

I don't think that I've ever considered this question thoroughly.  For years in High School I constantly heard "The vibrato is NOT the tone, it is an embellishment of the tone."  a concept  which I still agree with in simplicity.  However, how many people use their vibrato as their tone successfully?  Could those same people play without vibrato successfully?  What is so alluring about vibrato?  How do you learn to play with vibrato?

Personally, I never once took a lesson or played one single exercise involving vibrato.  One day, my Director said to me "You know, you should try playing with vibrato."  I was off.

I went to two people I respected as musicians and said "So, how do you do that?"  The first, a supreme Alto Saxophonist said "Don't try too hard, just vibrate your air, from your lip and your diaphragm, don't try to do too much of one or the other."  The second, a supreme Bassoonist and Saxophonist, started outlining all these exercises that required vibrating with the metronome.  I said "Cool, thanks" then went on my merry way.  So, I never practived it, I just started doing it.  

Rehearsal was the best place to work this stuff out because I was at the front of the section and no one was questioning me.  I furthered that by being tactful and not making the vibrato known until I thought I could do it tastefully.  A few months later I was using vibrato all the time.  Well, what kind was it?  I don't know, my vibrato is probably as broad as you can play it before people would recognize it as slow.  Back then the only vibrato title, and still the only, I knew was "french vibrato."  Ewwww, the dastardly french vibrato.  Too fast, too intense, too much vibrating, not enough sound.  Probably the reason I tend to play on the slow end.

So, is it acceptable on Bass Clarinet?  Is someone going to yell at you if they catch you using it?  Well, I've been jumped all over more than once by sectionmates in an adult band because the vibrato was messing them up.  Sorry, that's just how I do.  Funny thing, nobody ever complained before.  So, you might step on some toes, but the toes you're stepping on are not super sure what's going on, so they may just rebel, that's ok, we're all human.

How do I do this stuff?  Well, look at it this way.  Vibrato is a slight flucuation of the overall tone and pitch.  In order to play with an effective vibrato you have to have a good ear.  If you're not sure what "in tune" sounds like, then you are not ready for this.  Perhaps doing an intonation chart is a good place to start.   Get a sheet of paper and warm-up.  Tune the instrument to open G.  Now, start at the bottom of the instrument and play chromatically all the way up the horn.  Play every note "mezzo mezzo" (if you don't your volume will distort the pitch.)  Write down for every note how flat or sharp it was.  Now, you have somewhere to start.  As you begin to vibrate you'll now what you're doing to certain notes.  Without this information you'll be continually vibrating notes that are already out of tune, meaning they are most likely vibrating even MORE out of tune.  

Don't attempt to vibrate too much.  The vibration comes mostly from your air column, meaning down deep.  You've got to be able to have the air column vibrating before the air leaves your mouth.  Solely using the lip will sound more like a novelty act than classical music.    

Don't attempt to vibrate all the time.  The vibration needs to be reserved for notes that sound good vibrated.  For example, when "An American Elegy" begins the first note is in the low woodwinds and brass.  Just a simple low F I believe.  You can't vibrate this note.  It doesn't make sense.  You've got to use some musical sense.  Moreover, you can't attempt to vibrate this note to try to make it sound good.  You've good to have another method to enter and sound nice.  Vibrato doesn't always equal pretty.

If you are incapable of beginning notes without slapping the note upside the head then vibrato isn't for you.  If you cannot "non-articulate" or breath attack a note, then you can't substitute vibrato for poor fundamentals.

If you don't sound fundamentally good, meaning you can't produce a characteristic tone on the instrument, then you cannot substitute vibrato for the tone.  Vibrato will only make you sound worse.

So, as you can see, at its base vibrato does not equal tone.  However...

I've been messing around with a french-style vibrato for a couple months.  Let me tell you something, this stuff really works.  Now, I'm 31, so this means I've got 15 years under my belt playing with a vibrato but I've found that with a massive amount of control will allow you to vibrate so tightly (notice I didn't say quickly) that the vibrato and the tone meld into one unit, it's pretty cool.  So, a french vibrato is NOT fast and obnoxious, but tight, controlled, and blended. 

Does that mean it equals the tone?  No, but it does have "refrigerator rights" with tone.  There's big difference here.  Find it, and a solid french vibrato you will have.

How would I recommend practicing vibrato for vibrato's sake?  Play stuff.  I tend to stay with the Rose Studies.  32, 40, who cares, as long as it's solid music.  Teach yourself how to put the vibrato in there and how to control it.  As before, the other best place is rehearsal.  When you're tactful no one is going to know you're folling around with a vibrato, but it will improve because you'll be playing it pretty regularly.  

So, to answer the question;  No, vibrato does not equal tone.  It just has equal rights.