A few questions

Whistle
1

Hey all, I’ve been lurking here for a while. I’ve been playing whistles for a few months and I’m good enough that at least I don’t hurt my own ears anymore when I play (can’t speak for other people in the house). I have a couple of questions for you nice folks and apologize if some of this has been asked before.

  1. Is anyone here from the Florence, Alabama area? People look at me funny when they see such a big guy playing such a little whistle. It’d be nice to have someone else around to get stared at with me. I’m planning on trying to teach my son. But he’s only 4 months old and tends to use a whistle as more of a teething device right now.

  2. I’m thinking about trying to make my own Low whistles from PVC. I have all the tools I should need but I’m not sure about a couple of things.

a. I found a JAVA tool to calculate the hole spacings on flutes at http://www.cwo.com/~ph_kosel/flutomat.html and I’m wondering if this will work on whistles as well. Anyone know what differences there would be? I’m hoping I can just substitute the fipple for the embocure and it come out in tune.

b. Would the roundness of a piece of PVC not cause a lot of wasted air when you blow onto a flat lip? Is there any way to correct this without just using copper pipe (which makes your hands smell :laughing:)

  1. So far I have a Sweetone D, Walton’s little black D, and a Clare D. I like the Walton the best so far with the Sweetone a close second but I wish they had just a little lower volume. Can anyone recommend a whistle that can be blown in both octaves without very much volume increase? The only time I have to practice is when my son is asleep and I need something I can practice with without waking him everytime.

Sorry if some of my terminology is off. So far I’ve mostly succeeded in scaring the neighborhood dogs when I sit out at night and practice.

I played around with whistles a little a few years ago. In between I’ve tried a fife, flute, guitar, dulcimer, fiddle, and I have a practice uillean chanter. After all of that I’ve come to realize that I had the most fun playing whistles. And since I’m never going to be a rock star I may as well play what I like.

thanks

jd

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  1. So far I have a Sweetone D, Walton’s little black D, and a Clare D. I like the Walton the best so far with the Sweetone a close second but I wish they had just a little lower volume. Can anyone recommend a whistle that can be blown in both octaves without very much volume increase? The only time I have to practice is when my son is asleep and I need something I can practice with without waking him everytime.

In my experience, cheap cylindrical whistles have the best volume balance between octaves. But since you have a Clare, try this to make an instant whistle mute: Take a regular paper clip and insert into the window (the opening where the air hits the blade). Slide the paper clip in, tilting it toward the end of the whistle that you blow into. Jam it in gently until it sticks. This will reduce the volume of the whistle considerably, still keep it playable and acceptably in tune through both octaves. As a side effect the sound will be much breathier.

Works with other whistles, too, but I find results best on the Clare.

Happy whisteling.

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Hey Guthrum, do you know a guy named Scooter Muse? He lives in Florence. I think he works at town hall in some capacity or other. Anyway, he’s a guitar player in a Celtic band based somewhere down there. He used to be with the Full Moon Ensemble, based right in Florence, until they split up a few months ago. I think a couple of the other people from FME live in or very near Florence. You should try hooking up with Scooter – he’s a great guy, you could probably have some nice tunes with him, and he could hook you into the music scene down there pretty well. Plus, he’s a big guy too, so you wouldn’t look so out of place as you seem to think you do now playing a little whistle!

Send me an e-mail or a PM if you don’t know Scooter but want his e-mail address. And welcome to the wild, wacky, and wonderful world of whistling!

:slight_smile:
Steven

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Thanks for the responses fellows. Steven, you should have a PM from me.

thanks again

jd