Anyone ever seen this "Hawaiian whistle"?

Whistle
1

This instrument has been brought to my attention. It is apparently a hand made hawaiian instrument, though possibly a tourist item.

http://www.rit.edu/~eeg6662/cf/hawaiianwhistle.jpg

The longest tube is about 16 inches. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? I have found one for sale but I don’t know anything about them, and the seller doesn’t know much either.

Thanks for any info.

2

Hey Beth,

Wasn’t there a guy playing one of these at Willie Week one day? A BIG one, like 3 foot long or more. He was down in the Peter Phelan basement. He lasted about three tunes. It sure looks the same.

Jack or Az might remember, they seemed to, like, live there.

3

It looks a lot like a chinese mouth-organ (sorry, don’t know the Chinese name). If so, it’s a mouth-blown free reed, like a harmonica. I have a small one I picked up in Shenzen a few years back - quite playable, and easy to doodle around with, but not really usable for most western music because it’s set up in a pentatonic scale. My in-laws were greatly amused that I tried to play it - apparently, most HK Chinese don’t bother with them - “Cantopop” (Cantonese Pop) is far, far. more popular.

I believe you can get much larger, “professional” models from Lark in the AM (probably other places, but I know I’ve seen them on Lark’s site).

4

This is quite interesting!

Btw, does anyone know of something like a whistle or shawm, i.e. a reed pipe with holes to alter its pitch, but with a free-reed (harmonica or accordion-like) to produce the sound?

5

No, but I’d love to have one. The part of oboe (and to a lesser extent sax and clarinet) I didn’t like was maintaining my lip (and my reeds) - one of the reason’s I’ve been able to resist the evil Call of the Xaphoon so far.

Something along the lines you describe would be a lot of fun to noodle around with (and with a conical bore you could avoid keywork or funky fingerings for the second octave). You’d want it to have replaceable reeds, of course - metal by preference.

6

Howdy,

It’s called a Kaen, and is from South East asian. Relative to the Sheng and the Sho. You can get one (and more info) here:

http://larkinthemorning.com//product.asp?pn=WIN019

Best,

Dave

7

I thought I’d add the official word from the Hawaiian contingent:

This is most definitely not a Hawaiian instrument.

I have been wanting to get my hands on one of the instruments (either a kaen or sheng) for a while, but other instruments have been eating up the instrument budget lately. (I just put my nylon-strung Takamine guitar in the repair shop today – the estimate to get it repaired was $185+. :sniffle: I wish I could blow the repair off, but I need that guitar for gigging so I have no choice.)


So how are the notes set up on these instruments?

Are the bass notes on one side and the treble notes on the other?

Or do the notes of the scale alternate from one side of the instrument to the other?

I’d love to learn more!

Aldon

8

Aldon, try to remind me before the next get-together and I’ll bring mine (a sheng) - not professional quality, but quite playable.

Mine has 6 notes (controlled by the thumbs and first two fingers of each hand, the way I play it). Same notes on inhale and exchale. One octave in a pentatonic scale, looping around high to low (highest and lowest notes are adjacent - three pipes on a side).

All notes are silent unless you cover the hole, so the big professional models can have a lot more pipes (and range), and chords are easy - just cover multiple holes. Sounds like an asian version of a Harmonica, really.

After watching you on Uke and concertina as well as whistle, I have no doubts you’ll be playing it better than I ever manage within a few minutes. Mine’s higher quality than most of the ones I’ve seen in Chinatown shops, but nowhere need the size and quality of the “professional” model Lark is offering for $250.