Do you use vibrato? When you do, do you change the way you’re passing air through the fipple, or do you use your fingers?
What exactly do you use it FOR? And, is it just me, or is vibrato actually easier on higher pitched notes that lower ones?
Mostly on slow airs and some hornpipes.
I usually use my fingers to ‘flap’ a couple of holes down from the note I’m playing, but in places where that isn’t practical I think I vary the air with a kind of throat/tongue thingy which I could neither describe nor demonstrate clearly…
I don’t actually use much vibrato.
I use breath vibrato on my Low D because it’s easy to do with large instruments. On all others, I actually execute vibrato by wiggling the whistle with my right thumb.
If you want to be technical about it, both methods actually produce tremolo (a fluctuation in sound pressure) rather than vibrato (a fluctuation in pitch). Tapping a hole with the finger would be the only way to get true vibrato, but most listeners don’t know the difference anyway. I can’t tell the difference myself if it’s well-done.
I do vibrato by vibrating my lips around the fipple…is that completely wrong? I’ve never heard of anyone else doing it that way… 
I do vibrato by changing the air that I blow through with either my diaphram or mouth…I’m not sure how to explain it..I have also tried by uncovering a hole rapidly but I dont like that way as much, and I mostly use it on slow airs
I’m trying to picture it. All I can imagine is someone chewing gum while playing the whistle. Which could be another way of producing the same effect, if one chews fast enough. 
I’ve seen a lot of performers who use the finger-tap method. Haven’t seen your method. As long as it’s not visually too distracting, though, why not?
Jennie
Interesting. For saxophone, I do vibrato by moving by bottom jaw (or at least I should, I tend to use my throat by accident), but I couldn’t figure out how to get that to work on a whistle.
For whistle, I can sometimes get it with my troat, but I have no idea how. I’ve been trying to learn the finger method, but I can’t get it smooth enough.
Isn’t that how it’s done on a didgeridoo? 
Vibrato (the way classical wind-instrument players do it) is from the diaphragm. It’s a highly controlled fluxuation of air speed that translates to a change in volume. This is very possible on the whistle, but not considered strictly “traditional.”
The more common form of vibrato on whistle is finger vibrato, where one rapidly taps a hole a bit down the whistle from the note. This mostly results in a timbre change, but can also change the pitch to a degree.
Another method of finger vibrato is to partially tap the topmost open hole for a given note, thus producing a wavering pitch, much like the vibrato a violin player would use.
And, on the slightly tangential topic of vibrato on saxophone: I was taught at first to use my embouchure to change the pitch for vibrato, but several highly respected teachers of saxophone have since told me that one should use vibrato from the diaphragm in the same way flute and brass players do, as it makes for better blending or some such notion. Same idea as not using any vibrato when you’re doubling a clarinet or french horn, I suppose. Incidentally, I mostly use the diaphragm stuff for classical music and the embouchure type for jazz.
You must be popular around town.
I think it depends on the tune. On a slow air, for example, finger vibrato can be too harsh or too fast in which case I use the diaphragm to lean in and out of the notes… not always the case though, sometimes finger vibrato does work well. On pretty much every other kind of tune, be it jigs, reels, hornpipes, waltzes, etc. I use finger vibrato (usually by tapping two holes down from the current note). Obviously this would need to be slightly adapted depending on the note you’re playing. For instance, you couldn’t do that on an E note so instead try tapping the D hole, covering it only partially. Another thing to consider, especially in the upper register, is that some taps might be a little too harsh. For example, playing a G note in the upper register: normally I would tap the E hole but since that hole is larger in diameter than the others, it changes the pitch a bit too much so I either cover only half of it or use the D hole. I hope this made sense!
Here’s a good one: When playing middle D or upper E, I’ve found that fingering the A hole seems to work well 
Congratulations wrote:
Vibrato (the way classical wind-instrument players do it) is from the diaphragm. It’s a highly controlled fluxuation of air speed that translates to a change in volume. This is very possible on the whistle, but not considered strictly “traditional.”
Can someone provide any guidance/instruction as to how I can learn this technique? I am not a singer, but have spoken to both singers and whistlers, and get the same response: that this technique somewhat evolved, and as to how to begin to teach it, they are at a loss. Is this something that will slowly develop or manifest itself as I continue whistling?
Thanks.
I’m gonna bring up Arnold Jacobs again, so if you’re not into dead one-lunged tuba virtuosos and wind intrument pedagogues, skip this post.
Arnie was confused by players who said they used diaphram, throat, tongue, or embouchure vibrato, but ended up playing nearly the same. He trotted players into the health-sciences building of the university, and started testing. What he found was odd: regardless of what the players said, most were using a combination of diaphram, throat, tongue, and embouchure. They used the entire air column to produce changes in pitch and intensity, in varying quantities.
BTW, varying the airstream on whistle will vary both the intensity (tremelo) and pitch (vibrato). Vibrato on fiddle also includes some tremelo, due to the different damping of different parts of the finger as it rolls.
I’m a air-stream vibrato addict - I understand that finger vibrato (flattement?) is more traditional and has a different sound, so I’m working on it. I’m also working on removing vibrato; just like tonguing, slides, and G rolls, one can overdo a good thing.
Oh God… 
Right. So. After reading all your comments, I decided to study myself in the mirror while I did my type of vibrato and I just realized, JUST realized that I hadn’t been using my lips, although it REALLY felt as though I did. So I decided to do my weird vibratoing more, and I soon found out that I had been moving my TONGUE backwards and forwards without touching any parts of my mouth…um, is that even more wrong??
Hmm, what I find funny is that I’ve managed to create my own type of vibrato without even realizing it…unless some people do that as well,
I do vibrato by changing the air pressure with my diaphram, (and a little with my throat). I tried using the finger tapping method, and to me it sounded to extreme. My daughter, who plays the flute, said the same (she came into my ROOM just to say it)!
At first breath vibrato sounded pretty bad, but with practice it’s good now. I use it mainly on slow airs and praise music. Now that I can do it, slower songs would sound strange if I didn’t do it.
My fngers have enough to do–I like breath vibrato.
I use both diaphragm and finger vibrato. They don’t sound the same so I use whichever one suits the tune best.
I’m not experienced enough to have proper control of the diaphragm type vibrato (working on it). In the mean time, I’m enchanted by the way different whistles behave using the Finger-tap method. Some give a soft “pop” while others do a pitch change, still others break into a wild upper-harmonic that’s realy exciting - I like whistles that do a combination of pop and harmonic - it adds such character.