I’m learning to play by ear and have been using audio only sources for learning… If I’m using a video where I can watch someone’s fingers, isn’t that technically cheating? That is, wouldn’t I do better in the long run playing strictly by ear and not using any visual cues at all?
I’ve actually been using non-whistle recordings for learning tunes for a similar reason. It lets me learn the tune when I hear it on different instruments, rather than simply learning something idiomatically whistle. I want to learn whistle idioms, of course… but I want them layered onto the tune, not be an integral part that I can’t pull out.
Kinda’ over-thinking this, don’t you think? 
When I lived in Ireland, I purposefully closed my eyes at sessions so that I wouldn’t be confused by any flautal prestidigitation whilst soaking up the deedly…
Not. Watch the fingers.
Rob
I’d skip it
if they’re playin’ banjo
In my modest opinion it is impossible to learn the proper finger technique that means to play the instrument properly without taking tuition or at least taking another kind of guidance like for example the e-teach course given by Blayne Chastain on the web http://www.whistleanddrum.com/online-irish-flute-tin-whistle-lessons I think you shoul1d find a teacher or taking lessons on the internet because the main problem consist on fixing the bad habits your fingers are going to take that are going very difficult to correct in the future.
I don’t agree. There are a huge number of different ways people in trad hold and play their instruments. Just watch and play. You’ll find the way that suits you best. I’m not doing down the potential benefits of a good teacher. I just don’t think it’s absolutely essential. (Apart from anything else, friends and other players - including here - will give you good tips along the way.)
I think you misunderstood electricmime’s question.
He’s not asking about acquiring proper finger technique. For all we know, he’s a technical genius. 
The question is whether learning tunes and technique “by ear” can involve the eye as well. And my opinion is: absolutely, why not. I do think that developing stand-alone “aural intelligence” is an important skill. But learning from audio recordings is, after all, artificial. Humans are very visual, and watching finger movements (and other movements) gives us a strong cue that feeds right into our proprioceptive sense (so-called muscle sense or memory).
Watch any savvy musician in the presence of another master musician performing. If his/her eyes as well as ears aren’t glued to the performer, there’s something wrong. 
In my own experience, when picking up a tune from another musician, it absolutely helps to watch the fingers!
Also, if they are playing flute, you are in luck. Several notes on the flute have their own distinctive sound, and some note combinations also do. After you’ve played wooden flutes for a while, you get to where you know a second octave e when you hear it, ditto for g. D’s stick out. Some rocking pedal combinations have such a unique sound on flute that when you hear them you know exactly what notes you just heard, such as the G2 DGEG D combination in either octave.
Use your eyes, use your ears, use your memory–when learning a tune, use everything you can! Over time, I’ve found that picking up a tune entirely from someone else’s playing is one of the great joys of this music. Like any other musical ability, it’s difficult at first, and it takes practice, but it is worth it and then some.
–James
Watching the fingers helps me so much. If I don’t want to blow out the wrong note and throw the players off, I just watch the fingers and catch on way faster. It is like, “ahhh, that is how it is done.”
Especially on the starting notes and long notes I watch the fingers. The fast ones you can listen for later… A lot of times the fast parts go by so blazin’ fast there is some wiggle room on the actual notes.
L
Yes and no on the “wiggle room.”
If you don’t actually know the notes of the setting of the tune that’s being played, and just play “anything,” it may sometimes work if you stay on chord tones, but it will stand out. It is noticeable.
I think it’s better to learn the notes of the tune, even the fast ones. If you can read sheet music, try to find a notated setting close to what your session plays, and use it to clean up your own version of the tune. Or find someone in your session to sit down with you and slow the tune down so that you can get the missing notes right. Or record your session, and use a slow-down program like Audacity later to find the correct notes.
Just my $.02.
–James
no. use any and all means necessary.
Imho, if you can play exxactly as Mr Molloy (or Mr.XXX) you are a good flute player.
choose to play some variation instead of any others, or chose to use some tecniques or to use some
fingering’s magics… it is up to you.
be able to do all what can be done on a flute is a must for a talent flute player
while do it, is just an extra option.
(I can use my Tounging on the flute\whistle, but I don’t use it anyway)
No,it isn’t “cheating” in my opinion. As it turns out we all learn in different ways, for example, some of us are auditory learners others are visual learners and some are kinesthetic (tactile) learners. There are other learning styles or types that exhist; however, I’m not including those in my discussion as the three above are the the main styles. Bottom line, I would suggest it only makes good sense to utilize those “helps” that enhance your ability to learn and develop your interest/talent. I do think that listening to, over and over again (auditory), trad music is essential if you desire to develop that style, and I make the assumption that you do. I also think that a good teacher is a great assisst as well as using notation to assist (visual and auditory). I realize that some would suggest that a person should not use a score to learn a piece, I very much disagree. In fact I think that being able to read music well and have a good grounding in music theory is also a great help. I think you should use what ever helps you achieve your dream. 
Cheating implies a game and rules.
There’s no game here and the only rules are those we impose on ourselves.
Unless you are watching videos of a player who’s technique is potentially dangerous in terms of RSI or other joint/tendon issues if emulated, I don’t see any problem from learning from a video.
Well maybe no game and rules per se. But certainly a tradition and expectations, and ways of doing things that are encouraged (if not enforced, imposed, etc.) by the tradition. I just worry that saying “no external rules” tends to be misinterpreted by the “anything goes” crowd as justification for going about things a wrong way. And I know that’s not what you mean.
Clearly, the most natural way of learning is directly in the presence of another musician - whether a teacher or fellow player. Videos are a media substitute, and any ethnomusicologist will acknowledge that media have been part of the larger folk process for a long time. In any case, the notion that you should close your eyes in those situations in order to preserve the purity of learning by ear is just kinda silly when you think about it … not that anyone seems to be voting for that here!
Actually, I was curious if anyone thought that watching the fingering would hinder my ability to learn tunes by ear… that I was cheating myself by taking a short cut that would ultimately be counter productive to my goal of learning by ear.
still a no…
here’s another “no.”