I’ve observed some really great whistle players who, when playing longer tones, will shake extra fingers below the lowest covered hole, to give the tone a vibrato. I’ve tried this, so far never in public, but it always sounds kind of hokey when I play this way. Or maybe it sounds fine, just not to the player herself?
I’m assuming this is a technique developed by pipers, who can control subtleties of the air flow only with their fingers. But is it a preferred whistle technique too, or is my breath-controlled vibrato acceptable? It’s much slower, but sounds more natural to me.
Tell me whether I should be practicing finger-controlled vibrato along with everything else.
Some say finger vibrato is the accepted way as most articulation is done with the fingers. People will probably dissent with this statement as well placed tonguing goes a long way, but I only repeat what I hear.
Finger vibrato was the way on flute, until the Boehm flute came on the scene with keys for all fingers. Finger vibrato is the only (?) (i think) way on the pipes.
On Irish flute, you rarely see any other vibrato, just finger. On whistle it’s supposed to be the same, but i think i can hear “throat” vibrato from many of the top players.
My own humble opinion is that vibrato is to be used as an ornament, not as a constant component of the sound. I prefer finger vibrato, but the other kind is available too, and produces a different kind of sound that sometimes may be useful.
I think in a traditional setting, people mainly play finger vibrato. It would be helpful to learn that first, if you plan on playing in traditional settings.
Classical players all learn diaphram vibrato on wind instruments and can easily transfer that to the whistle. It sounds great (ever hear Joannie Madden do it?) and if you plan on playing non Irish stuff then it would be good to learn.
A well rounded player could do both.
I can do neither, well, and work on mostly finger vibrato when I do it.
And yes, it sounds worse hearing yourself do it than it does to other people. Tape record yourself and see.
But… that means I can only produce vibrato for the notes that have corresponding open holes-- at least a couple of them-- that are free for finger-flapping. Is it kind of like trying to roll the middle octave D, then ? You just roll where you can, and leave out rolls on notes where it doesn’t work. Same with finger vibrato?
Thanks. I’m getting more of a feel for how it fits, anyhow.
Jennie
I had a friend who used to grab the skin near his Adam’s apple and shake it to get a vibrato while singing.
I mostly use diaphragm vibrato on the whistle, but sometimes I shake the whole whistle. I find it difficult to get finger vibrato to fit in seamlessly.
Fortunately, I have no one to play with, so I don’t have to fit in.
I tried finger vibrato recently for the first time, having always used diaphram vibrato before then. I was surprised how easy it is.
Of course, I wondered what happens when all the holes are already covered. So I tried wiggling the pinky of my bottom hand when playing a D, and I found I still got a perfectly respectable vibrato.
Then I experimented some more and found it didn’t matter much what I wiggled. It didn’t seem that the effect was created by the closeness of the wiggling finger to any particular open tonehole, but rather, by the simple effect of wiggling, no matter where the wiggling was. And yes, I did find that you can create a vibrato effect by wiggling your foot.
By revealing the following without filing for the patent, I may be passing up an opportunity to make millions, but I’ll tell you anyway …
I’m designing a vibrato pedal for whistlers. It won’t have to be connected to the whistle in any way, no modifications, no electronics, no batteries, nothing to plug in or hook up. It will be just a pedal that you put your foot on while you’re whistling. Then, whenever you want a vibrato effect, you just work your foot on the pedal at the desired speed, and you’ll get a vibrato effect of that speed. You can do fast vibrato, slow vibrato, whatever you want. No knobs or settings at all. Just your foot and your creative imagination. I’ve begun testing prototypes, and preliminary results are promising.
Yeah, I heard that Michael Flatley developed those fast feet by overusing leg vibrato when he was first learning the flute. Evidently he was using it in reels rather than just in airs.
I have to say both “schools” are useful for different things. I use both a lot. I think that using air to carry long notes in some places during slow aires sounds right where fingering doesn’t at times and then again fingering sounds right where using air vibrato wouldn’t
I think both fit in fine in their respective places once you get used to them, but that’s just me. I just kind of naturally out of no where fell into my own way of playing and it works for me and sounds pretty good and I mix them together often.
If you listen to some of the more well known players, you’ll hear the same thing.
Yes, the vibrato in Irish music is taken from the piping style and we use the fingers to add vibrato. Basically, if you are trying to place vibrato on a b note, you leave off your A finger and add your G finger and fluctuate it up and down… if it was your A, you use the F skipping the G and so on. When it comes to the bottom D, I use my diaphram.
Has anyone tried doing finger vibrato and diaphram vibrato at the same time? Would it be like mixing matter and anti-matter? Would your whistle explode?
I use finger vibtrato, but only as a “grace note” before a lower note–I drop my finger on the hole with a fluttering or trembling action, and that makes a lovely complex sound before the note.
I suppose I do the same in reverse–lift a finger with a fluttering motion, but I don’t combine the actions and play vibrato on an open hole.
Then I experimented some more and found it didn’t matter much what I wiggled. It didn’t seem that the effect was created by the closeness of the wiggling finger to any particular open tonehole, but rather, by the simple effect of wiggling, no matter where the wiggling was. And yes, I did find that you can create a vibrato effect by wiggling your foot.
Maybe its me, but it would seem that when you wiggled something, especially the whole whistle, that you would alter your breath pressure very slightly without meaning to. In that case, wouldn’t you still be doing breath vibrato? Or perhaps it there is something that makes it work?!
At this point, I began laughing so hard that I couldn’t even finish the paragraph. 
