I’m gradually getting used to playing vibrato on my Goldie Low D but it’s vibrato on the E that really throws me. I’m reminded again by watching the excellent video of Phil Hardy playing May Morning Dew a la Davy Spillane. Touching the side of the D hole produces an effect that’s much too strong but when I try to wave by ring finger over the hole, it’s pulled back by my little finger sticking up in the air making for an uncontrolled effect at best. On the video, Phil seems have them co-ordinated together. Davy, I’ve noticed, actually brings the two fingers together for more control. Any thoughts on how to sort this out? Maybe I should try practicing with an elastic band around the two fingers but I don’t want to do any damage.
You’ve pretty much answered some of the problem yourself - if your little finger is really ‘sticking up in the air’ you’ll be creating tension in the muscles and tendons between the little finger and the ring finger, which will reduce the control you have over the ring finger.
You could try joining the two with an elastic band, but I’d have thought that just keeping the little finger more relaxed would help a lot. If you’ve come to low whistle from Boehm flute I can understand why the habit of keeping the little finger well out of the way of the keywork has developed, but on the low whistle there’s nothing your little finger is going to interfere with so it could sit in the same plane as the other fingers.
And, between you and me, you could also try throwing in some discreet breath vibrato rather than relying on the finger vibrato doing all the work down on the E. I’ll probably get told off for suggesting it, but it’s out there now!
Good luck
To quote Ringo (quoting Buck), “All you gotta do is, act naturally”. Don’t over think or over analyze it. You just gotta do what you can do. Lots of different ways to get the same effect. I would not prescribe any particular technique to this. You know how it is done. Just feel it and let your body take over to express the feeling as naturally as it can. Feel it and do it - doesn’t really matter how. Just “play” - remember it’s called “playing”. Play with it. You will get there!
Yes, the ring and little finger do not act independently in many people’s hands. Doesn’t matter though. Just let the two digits waggle in tandem if they want to. And if the ring finger does move on it’s own, it should be enough to effect the pitch on it’s own. Of course, it works best if you lean back and wave the end of the whistle side to side towards the sky a bit. Just kidding about that last bit. 
Feadoggie
Here’s a video I did a while back demonstrating various approaches to vibrato
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK9RmMnDuPA
For E, it’s a matter of ‘shading’ in other words partially obstructing the hole; technically this is not vibrato but flattement. You can vary the position of the finger on the edge of the hole to get exactly the amount of flattening you want; striking the edge give more consistency that waving the finger about, as you might have found.
On the uilleann pipes two fingers are raised for E, and uilleann pipers are accustomed to moving those two fingers as one; therefore it’s not surprising that pipers tend to do the flattement on E using both fingers (I do that too).
Here’s the very short French Wiki article on flattement; it was standard practice on the Baroque flute and recorder, yet another example of ‘classical’/orchestral/art music performance practices which survive in folk music
Thanks guys! Guess I’ll just keep practicing but I find it hard to relax that little finger.
On my video I do vibrato on E at 1:04.
It’s easy, just tap your finger at the side of the hole.
I keep my finger straight, but adjust my hand position slightly so that the finger is just hitting the edge, as you can see.
It’s possible to do that same technique on all the other notes, but it’s standard only on E.
Thanks Richard. I’ll check that out. I’ve looked at your video many times but it’s been a while.