I’m a bit late to this conversation but I purchased a chromatic whistle from Joseph Mourneault about two months ago!! Apparently, Joseph designed the one for Sweetflutes which they sell for a $100 bucks more at Sweetheart in African Blackwood (?) and Joseph had a few of his Rosewood models available. So after some back and forth, I purchased one. I love it!!!
What you are getting here is a completely biased point of view from somebody who is not a full time dedicated ITM player and hasn’t tried every whistle in the world to make informed comparisons. But I play flutes from all around the world, probably have all the different whistles Jerry Freeman tweaks to at least have some idea how different whistles with different diameters play. The problem with taking any advice from me is that I play a lot of notched flutes and rim flutes so a lot of embouchure involved. So when I play whistles, any kind, high or low, I have to back off because I’m used to blowing hard.
That being said, I had been debating whether to get a more expensive baroque recorder than my cheapie Yamaha plastic ones. Despite loving baroque music, I can’t seem to fall in love with the recorder but I want to play chromatic music and play well, in tune. There is a guy on youtube who plays the heck out of the cheapie Yamaha recorder and so I can’t make any excuses about it being a cheapy instrument. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq8EL8rfvyw But recognize he is playing directly into a microphone and he definitely has some reverb going. Because recorders to me always seem so anemic in the low register. (That’s me)
Since I too have a background playing jazz music, and I play different world music and some baroque, I wanted a whistle with chromatic possibilities that I could rip through those type of chromatic phrases and complex chord changes. So again, my vision wasn’t to play reels in different key’s but open up the spectrum of possibilities of different music I could play. If my only goal was to play traditional Irish music in different key’s, I’d just get a set of different key’s. But jazz and classical I need to play chromatically as well as any middle eastern music which ultimately isn’t chromatic but is microtonal so you are back to very minor adjustments with the fingering but it’s easier with the smaller holes.
I have also heard whistles from Azerbaijan that rock with all those middle eastern type scale influences. But I like the sound of the Irish whistle best so I thought if I could find a good chromatic whistle then I could play just about everything. I went in search of Irish chromatic whistles because I just happen to like the sound of the Irish whistle the best. And I found Sweetheart whistles (Joseph Mournealt’s design) and Hans Bracker. I never heard back from Hans but will try again next month because I like the sound of whistles on his page and I like the designs because now that I have a D whistle I need a lower whistle.
So on fingering. All I have to say is that it’s awkward at first (so is anything you haven’t done before) after a couple weeks of practice, you get it. So anybody that has playing simple system diatonic flutes all their life, might have an issue and want to throw it against the wall. But a little practice and it becomes second nature. Obviously, not all keys are as easy. The hardest notes are the F with the bottom thumb off the flute and the C with the top hand off the flute. And maybe the Bb which you use cross fingering. But like any difficulty, you just isolate it until it becomes comfortable.
Now, I am assuming that since Joseph worked or still works at Sweetheart (his bio is on the page) the flute he made plays exactly like the Sweetheart whistle. That’s an assumption since I haven’t played both. The thing I have to content with the most is the loudness in the upper register especially above A. Ya gotta blow to get that note and since I play with microphones, not a pub player, I gotta back off big time to keep everything nice and even and my band mates from killing me from making them deaf. It’s not exactly sweet up in that register but that’s not what I was looking for. I can play jazz, Irish, Bach and more with that whistle. So I am happy!! And I was only willing to fork out that cash for a whistle simply because it was chromatic. For a simple diatonic whistle, I wouldn’t pay that price even for the highly coveted sweethearts but in a market with limited options, I’m willing to pay the asking price. So many good whistles can be had at a lower price point.
So if I can have some luck with Hans Bracker and they play as well as this one, I’ll be in chromatic whistle heaven. Unless I missed somebody else poking holes in whistles like Swiss cheese?
I also didn’t want to get a keyed whistle because if you listen to that recorder player, it’s obvious with practice that a well tuned flute with any combination of cross finger can be accomplished at lightening speed. I’m not against bringing flutes into the modern era, but just didn’t think I need it and I rather just get a piccolo or keyed fife or something like that.
That being said after looking at so many recorders those Mollenhauser recorders with the key’s for improved tuning might convince me that a recorder is the way to go. However, I think they were like 2 Grand and that’s a lot of $ for a flute that you aren’t crazy about.