Tried several methods but it didn’t really work.
whistletutor.com------lessons --vibrado http://whistletutor.com/requests.htm
Yes, the whistletutor video is good.
The concept is simple. Play a note. Then pick an open tone hole (or holes) and bounce a finger or fingers on or near the hole(s) to produce a rhythmical slight flattening and release of the pitch.
In some cases, completely closing the hole(s) will produce the desired effect. In other cases, feathering the finger(s) to half-hole the open hole(s) is more effective. Each whistle responds differently, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Different combinations can produce a deep vibrato (big pitch change) or shallow vibrato (small pitch change).
The key points are:
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Try to match the speed of the vibrato to the speed and feel of the tune. An overly fast vibrato sounds bad. On a long note, sometimes an accelerating vibrato (start slowly, then gradually faster) works well.
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The flattened pitch should never be a distinct note, but a gentle flattening. A maximum depth of one quarter tone (50 cents) is probably the limit for a deep vibrato.
Listen to whistle and flute recordings of slow airs, waltzes, etc. for good examples.
In classical parlance, the technique is called by the French term flattement (flattening). If you have access to an advanced recorder book, or one of the classic treatises on baroque flute and recorder technique (Hotteterre, Quantz, etc.), you can find some ideas there.
Buona fortuna!
I play mostly Generations, then Feadogs, and a couple Burkes from time to time, and I’ve seen players use the feathering vibrato, (where you flutter the finger (s) just above the hole, while actually not touching it) yet for some reason I can’t seem to get the same results with my whistles. What’s the science to this method of vibrato? Is it the whistle? I have however, no problems achieving the other various affects of finger vibrato that MTGuru mentioned.
Yes, +1 on this.
Well, I’d guess it only looks like they’re not touching. Without a tactile point of reference, consistently hitting the right distance to hover over a hole with a finger flapping in mid-air seems very difficult. To feather, I gently contact the side or bottom edge of the hole. And for better control, it can help to use the knuckle or flat middle joint of the finger, which are less fleshy than the finger pad and less likely to sink into the hole as you bounce against it. Maybe that’s cheating, but it seems to work OK for me.
I’ve never seen a trad player do vibrato by this “feathering”. What they (and I) do use can be boiled down to two seperate approaches:
- fully covering and uncovering one or more holes, obviously beginning with the hole at least one hole down from the one the note is issuing from, and
- striking the edge of one or more holes.
An example of the first is to play F# and rapidly cover and uncover the lowest hole with the bottom-hand ring finger. Many notes can be done this way- G by using the bottom-hand middle finger, A by using the bottom-hand middle or index finger, etc.
An example of the second is to play A and strike the sides of the holes with the bottom-hand index and middle fingers (moving as a unit). This often works on B as well.
You have to do a lot of experimenting, as what works best changes from whistle to whistle and is different in the different octaves.
Yes, that’s what I meant by feathering, not the hovering thing. I suppose there’s no standard terminology.
I guess also I wasn’t very clear about this striking of the sides of the holes. I do it with the fingers still straight but held at an angle. You can vary the angle to vary the strength of the vibrato. I can use the same two fingers, the lower-hand index and middle fingers moved as a unit, for G, A, B, and C natural, varying the angle as necessary.
Very good examples here
I usually use breath vibrato. Is that wierd? (I’m pretty isolated from other tinwhistle players, so it might very well be the case.)
I don’t think breath vibrato is “weird”, I use both techinques (finger or breath that is) depending on the sound I’m after.
I usually only use “breath” vibrato on notes I can’t do finger vibrato on. Coming from uilleann pipes, I just think that the finger vibrato somehow sounds more Irish, or at least more non-classical.
I do two types of “breath” vibrato, a rapid throat vibrato on middle D and sometimes on high G, A, or B if I want to really have the notes sing out, and a slower diaphragm vibrato I only use on bottom D and E on low whistles. Don’t know why.