Okay, I read somewhere that you really shouldn’t bite your mouthpice, but this book I got says to hold the mouthpiece with your teeth. That’s biting, right? It says you can not bite it if you want, but acts like you’re a moron if you don’t want your teeth on the whistle. Personally I can’t stand to have it between my teeth. Gives me the heebie-jeebies.
So, does anyone actually play with the mouthpeice in your teeth? How does that work for you? I feel like I don’t have enough air or something.
I’m not planning on changing the way I play, I mean not because this one book tells me to, but I was just curious if anyone does play like that. As for me, I’ll play however I want, dammit. [/i]
Most folks don’t bite.. I used to, and still have some sweettones with my teeth marks in the mouthpiece. I felt like it gave me better stability with the whistle.
I gave it up when I started playing metal whistles, like the copeland.
I think you’re right about not having enough air if you bite.I’m pretty sure I use my lips to narrow the airstream more(and that most people do this,too),and you couldn’t do that if it were so far back as to be between your teeth.Anybody else noticed this?
I used to bite the mouthpiece all the time but gradually learned not to.
The problem I still have with certain shortish mouthpieces (Dixon and Susato) is that I sometimes seem to get my lips pressed between my teeth and the whistle - it’s obviously a stability thing with me and those short beaks… I don’t do it so much when I have a thumb-rest fitted.
I’ve also done that a couple of times with my nickel C Feadog too as it’s relatively heavy and tends to slide a bit. A plastic cable tie pulled tight, snipped off short and filed free of sharp corners makes a passable thumb-rest substitute on the Feadog.
Maybe biters could experiment with thumb-rests, stabilising the whistle with the bell-note hole finger or the pinkie - or a combination.
I play mostly short beaked whistles, so biting really hasn’t been an option for me.
I’ve got a thumbrest for my Susato, but it always seemed to be in the way, so I took it off. Since then, I’ve learned to stabilize the whistle with the pinkie. It was uncomfortable at first, but now it’s become second nature.
Count me as another one who keeps the mouthpiece between my lips. I find that pursing my lips can change the amount of backpressure and gives me more control over the sound. Of cours, I look like I just bit into a lemon.
I do use the ring finger on my bottom hand to balance the whistle. The only whistle I own where I have to use my pinkie is a Susato. The rest don’t have any change in tone if the bottom hole is covered or not when I’m playing a B or C.
Another thought on this is a bagpiper’s solution to biting, I do bite my bagpipe mouth piece, but since I’ve gotten my Copeland Sterling Silver whistles, I haven’t been biting whistles! However, what you can do if your whistle headjoint shape allows is to cut a piece of surgical tubing (available at medical supply stores) and put it on the headjoint, just make sure its nice and tight, this stops scratching and may help to allay any spreading (some people have said this of bagpipe mouthpieces) of your teeth, its also a bit more comfortable than hard plastic to have your teeth against.
My first whistle has teeth marks from the first few days of playing. Just sort of a reflex when the whistle was sliding. Other than that, I have never bitten a whistle.
I hold it between my lips so I can let air out the side of my mouth while playing. I’m still trying to learn to, uhm…blow less. I know many of you talk about a whistle needing a lot of air, but I haven’t found one yet. I’m amazed how far I can get without a breath on a whistle. Perhaps it’s years of every kind of singing imaginable that has brought this about, but who knows. When I really get caught up in a song, I tend to go at it without thinking about controlling the air. I’ve destroyed many a cheepy whistle on those songs because of too much air. So, anyway, for now, I’ve been laying my whistle on the bottom lip and blowing into and around it on most songs.
I do bite (only with the upper teeth) the mouthpiece on a saxophone, but not a whistle. Actually it’s quite easy to stabilise one with fingers / thumb / pinky.
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Other than that, I have never bitten a whistle.