diff --git a/sklearn/mixture/gmm.py b/sklearn/mixture/gmm.py
index bb2a3fed630e5..6021df6ce854c 100644
--- a/sklearn/mixture/gmm.py
+++ b/sklearn/mixture/gmm.py
@@ -461,6 +461,12 @@ def _fit(self, X, y=None, do_prediction=False):
             observation.
         """
 
+        if len(self.means_.shape)<2:
+           raise ValueError(
+               'GMM means_ is one dimensional.  use reshape(means_,(-1,1))')
+        if len(X.shape)<2:
+           raise ValueError(
+               'X is one dimensional.  use reshape(X,(-1,1))')
         # initialization step
         X = check_array(X, dtype=np.float64)
         if X.shape[0] < self.n_components: