What does vibrato mean in music?

Left hand & fingerboard

Vibrato

Italian, "vibrated"

Vibrato is a small, regular oscillation of pitch produced by rocking the left-hand finger on the string, used to warm and sustain a tone.

The motion originates in the arm, the wrist, or the finger joint depending on the school and the instrument, and the pitch oscillates below the true note and back up to it rather than above and below, the ear takes the top of the oscillation as the pitch. This is why vibrato added to an already-sharp note makes it sound worse, not better.

Vibrato is a late technique on purpose. It requires a left hand relaxed enough to rock without gripping, and it cannot compensate for insecure intonation: applied to a note in the wrong place, it broadcasts the error instead of hiding it. Most curricula introduce it after the first position frame is reliable, typically in year two or three.

Speed and width are expressive variables, not fixed settings. A slow, wide vibrato on a romantic melody and a narrow, fast one in a classical slow movement are different musical decisions.

Intonation: Intonation is accuracy of pitch, on a fretless string instrument, the ongoing skill of placing each finger so the note is in tune with the harmony around it.
Shifting: Shifting is moving the left hand to a new position on the fingerboard, and it is the technique that gives a string player access to the instrument's full range.
Position: A position is a fixed placement of the left hand on the fingerboard, numbered by which note the first finger falls on, so that a set of pitches is reachable without moving the hand.
Tremolo: Tremolo is the rapid repetition of a single note, played on strings with fast, short bow strokes near the tip, and notated with slashes through the note stem.

Every term in this glossary is taught in context somewhere in Arco's curricula, on the staff, on the keyboard, and on your own fingerboard at the same time.

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