Fluttering finger

Whistle
1

Hey,

I’m a relative beginner and notice that sometime players flutter their finger over a hole while holding a note.

Is that for vibrato? And should the finger come into contact with whistle? Or just come close enough to bend the note?

Here is an example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0grDZNBDh7M

Thanks and best,

Joe

2

Hey Joe!

Yeah it’s vibrato. If it’s possible, you should flutter the finger on the hole two below the one you’re wanting to effect, so have one open hole between the hole you’re covering and the hole you’re fluttering. You should cover and uncover the hole you are fluttering.
If you do it on the hole directly below the note you’re playing I guess that would be more of a trill. If you want to vibrato the second to bottom note so E on a D whistle, you can half cover the hole below to get a similar effect.

Hope this explains well enough for you, bare in mind I’m relatively new to this too and I could be playing completely unorthodox-ly!

Enjoy :slight_smile:

3

Yes.

Yes. :wink:

Think about it. If you’re fluttering on the first open vent hole below the note you’re fingering, and you make full contact (closure), what’s going to happen?

On that same note, if you flutter on a lower hole (or holes), leaving an open hole (or holes) in between, and you make full contact, what’s going to happen?

Answer those questions, and the technique follows from there. And as a practical matter, I never “hover”, but flutter to a half-hole (partial) closure instead. Much more control IMO.

4

Nice tune. Nice tutorial. Here’s the tune in action…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbo0-S_KeXs

And if you want to listen to the tune in heels…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLpapasDBbs

Enjoy :slight_smile:

5

I like that at 2:10 the camera[wo]man apparently can’t find the guitar soloist, who is buried in the back behind the keyboard and piano and Sharon. So the camera starts saccading around at random. :stuck_out_tongue:

6

There are actually four different ways that I use to create vibrato on the whistle, two with the fingers, two with the airstream:

  1. fully closing and opening a hole somewhere further down the tube (sometimes with auxiliary finger left down)
  2. partially closing (shading) one or more holes somewhere further down the tube
  3. diaphragm vibrato
  4. throat vibrato

I made a little YouTube video to demonstrate them. They’re much easier to play than to describe in words. I hope this helps!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK9RmMnDuPA

7

All,

Thanks for the advice. It’s very helpful.

Best,

Joe