Hi everyone, hope I’m posting in the right forum. I’m new to forum and to
whistle playing and would like some advice.
I’m a senior citizen and want to play a whistle. I’m thinging about a
Susanto Pentatonic Recorder, sopranino, key of C.
I want to play Native American and folk tunes, would the above be
a good choice for a start?
Of course I’d like a whistle that is as easy to learn as possoble.
Thanks for all the advice and suggestions.
cocoa7
If what you really want is to play recorder (which is not the same as the whistle), you could try the World/Folk Winds Forum here at C&F. This forum is designated for whistles (not that recorders don’t get discussed, but no big deal), so you might get more urgings here to drop the idea of recorder and take up whistle instead. 
But in any case, good luck to you. 
Thanks a bunch. Which do you think will be the easiest to learn, the recorder or a whistle? If a whistle, which key do you suggest>
Whistles are simpler in their fingering than recorders, so in that sense they’re easier. They can be much cheaper, too, and perfectly worthy despite that.
As to key, it depends on if you know you’ll just be playing solo, or, if you’re playing with others, what keys they tend to play in. If you’re playing with your usual run of Irish traditional musicians, for example, a high D whistle would serve you best. For solo playing, I’d say you’d want to actually check different keys out if you can so as to find out which key grabs you best, and check out different brands, too, as they’ll have different qualities. One of my favorite solo whistles is a Susato B (with MTGuru’s famous o-ring tweak).
But, you said that you wanted to play Native American tunes, something I don’t know much about. Although good for many folk tunes, I believe your usual whistle wouldn’t do the job for Native American. There’s a NAF (Native American Flute) forum loosely associated with Chiff & Fipple, and they could steer you right. I don’t have the link to that, so maybe someone else could help out, there.
A recorder, any recorder, is going to be a fully chromatic instrument, meaning you can play all the sharps and flats you need. An Irish whistle, by contrast, will play the notes of only a few scales. But they come in different sizes so with a bunch of them you can play in any key you need. The Native American flute usually plays a pentatonic scale, which is a scale with only 5 notes. The Irish whistle and the recorder can all play a pentatonic scale if you wish.
The sopranino is pretty high pitched. I would think it would be a bit high for Native American music, lacking in that mellow, haunting nature.
There’s no reason not to take up them all, though, except perhaps for the expense. My personal choice would be to start with a penny whistle. It’s easier to play than a recorder and is cheap enough you can get a lot of them.
Aha: here’s the link to the C&F NAF forum:
Hi cocoa7,
Welcome and Merry Christmas! I am no spring chicken either. I did the Nam thing if that gives you a clue.
I have a good friend who is Native American. He likes the flutes found on this site: http://www.highspirits.com/ . He prefers the key of F. Often, we play together, me playing either Irish Whistle (what I call them) or Irish flute.
He’s about to switch to Irish low whistles because he finds the whistle more to his liking.
If you would care to send me a PM (private message) I would be glad to give you some more info. Cheers, Cyril.
And if you get a whistle, start off with one in the key of D.
It’s easy to get hold of music in the keys of D and G, both of which can easily be played on a D whistle. With a C whistle, the options are limited slightly.
Someone recently posted advice on how to convert your pennywhistle into a pentatonic instrument (like a Native American Flute).
The advice was to cover the 6th hole with sticky tape, and half cover the second hole similarly. I’m not sure how accurate this is - I’ve tried it, but I don’t have a pentatonic instrument with which to compare it. It’s probably good enough to give you the idea if you don’t have one.
Thanks to all of you for the advice and help. I guess I need to start with
a whistle in key of D.
You’ve been a lot of help and I really like this forum.
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Whistles are transposing instruments. That means you can play a song written in any other key with the whistle you have as long as you use the correct fingerings.
For example: You have an F whistle (plays the notes F through E) but your music is written in the Key of D. On a D whistle the lowest note, D, is played all fingers down. The lowest note on an F whistle, F, is also played all fingers down.
This means all you have to do is play the F whistle as if it is a D whistle. When you see a D on the paper (the one right above middle C), play all fingers down. The F whistle will play an F. Sooooo cool. Continue on up the scale. This is a great tool if you are playing solo. It opened up a whole new world to me once I figured it out.
As exciting as I found this to be, there are some limitations: Unless others are also transposing to YOUR key, you will not be able to play along with them. Since CD’s are fixed, for the most part (there are digital transposing programs), you will need to have an instrument in the key they are in. This is true if you learn by ear as well, unless you are REALLY good with transposing in your head!
THAT is why you need to know if you will be playing in groups (live or recorded) or solo. Don’t let this overwhelm you. Just something to think about before you make your choice. Even if you do spend considerable time playing in groups, you can still use this when you are going it solo.
Hi cocoa, welcome aboard!
I’d also recommend starting with a D whistle. It’s inexpensive, readily available, reasonably-sized for adult hands, with tons of instructional help and materials available. The basic blowing and fingering techniques can also be applied to the Native American Flute and the recorder.
And as I’ll describe below, a whistle can easily be converted temporarily to a pentatonic instrument if you’d like to try that.
I’m holding a Susato Pentatonic Recorder in my hands now. Mine is the model in the key of F, and the lowest note (bell note) is C. I’ll explain this discrepancy in a moment.
The Susato pentatonic recorders are listed on this page here:
http://www.susato.com/susatorecorders.html
First, it’s not really a recorder, in the sense that most people here would understand. Rather, it’s more like a Susato pennywhistle with several of the holes absent (and the B1 hole enlarged) in order to play a pentatonic scale. Like a whistle, there’s no right hand low pinkie hole, and there’s no left hand thumb hole. It’s really a simple system diatonic instrument, not a Baroque-fingered recorder.
I think the reason for the recorder designation is that the target audience are music educators who might normally start their students on the recorder as a first instrument, but who subscribe to the pedagogical theory that pentatonic instruments are a better choice for preschool beginners. The Susato is a good solution for that application.
Second, the Susato recorder is described as a plagal instrument. This means that the designated “key” of the instrument is the note located in the middle of the scale - what most whistle players would think of as the “G fingering” note. In order to compare the Susato pentatonic recorder to its equivalent whistle, you need to look at the lowest note, given on the Susato web page. In the case of my F instrument, the lowest note is C. And, in fact, the instrument is the exact same size and length as a C whistle.
Similarly, the pentatonic sopranino C that you mentioned has a bottom note of G. Which means that it is identical in size to a high G whistle. And as most people will tell you, these are very tiny. To the point that many adults can barely play them even by scrunching their fingers together. The pitch is also quite high, and can be rather piercing.
So if you do get a Susato pentatonic, I’d recommend nothing smaller than the soprano “G” instrument, with the bottom note D. This is the equivalent of a D whistle, and should be easily playable.
If you do choose a standard D whistle instead, it’s easily converted to pentatonic by covering several of the holes with a small piece of tape. Masking tape works well for experimenting. Simply cut two small tape squares and cover the #1 and #5 holes (i.e. T1 and B2) like this:
[mouthpiece]@oo o@o[end/foot] @ = piece of tape
Voilà, you now have a plagal pentatonic G whistle like the Susato. The G note will probably be a bit flat, especially in the 2nd octave, but you can blow a little harder to push it back into pitch.
For a slightly different pentatonic scale, cover the #1 and #4 holes (T1 and B1) with tape:
[mouthpiece]@oo @oo[end/foot]
This gives you an authentic pentatonic scale starting on the low D note (all fingers down).
As for choosing a D whistle: If you’re interested in NAF, you might like an inexpensive Clarke original, Clarke Sweetone, or Shaw whistle, all of which have a breathy sort of sound.
Hope that helps, and good luck with your musical adventure.