I found myself being deafened by the uppper notes of a particular whisle, so with mighty effort I was able to slide the first 3/4 inch of the mouthpiece into a piece of clear rubber hose. I was then able to play Uilleann style, and keep the thing away from by face. This also afforded me the opportunity to play in the car without fear of being impaled, should I be hit from behind. I know, I know, “get a life!”.
SO you play this whistle “uilleann pipe style”,in the CAR.Is this what is known as ‘Traveller style’??? 
I thought ‘Uillean’ would be with bellows. . .
What does this do to the pitch?
What does this do to the pitch?
It should affect the pitch no more than the size of one’s mouth cavity. The pitch is mainly affected by the position of the sound hole relative to the tone holes and length of the whistle.
Am I right in saying that the problem is loudness (or decibels, volume, amplitude or whatever)at higher pitches rather than the pitch itself?
If so…since the loudness is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source (i.e. twice the distance ~ quarter of the loudness), then moving the fipple away from the ears (by means of a tube or whatever) and playing as normal would reduce the volume.
yours scientifically 
Deb.
By Jove, Deb, I think you’ve got it! I got tired of ringing ears every time I played Tabhar Dom Do Lamh and some others. The change doesn’t effect the tone or anything. Although I have a theory. I now “hear” differently. I hear a tune as if someone else were playing it. I hear tentativeness. I hear unsteadyness in the breath on notes that are held. I pay more attention, I think.
But again, this is the one I take to the car with me. I’m a play-in-the-car-aholic. Can’t help it. But if I do get rammed, this will do less damage.
It’s very strange. Since I started keeping a couple of whistles in the car with me, my driving stress has gone down tremendously. I no longer mind traffic jams or red lights. In fact I find myself hoping the the green light in front of me will change so that I can get a little more playing time.
Just a theory but for what it’s worth…I reckon the unsteadyness of breath effect might be related to the fact that instead of controlling the breath pressure in your mouth and releasing it into the fipple, you are now releasing it into another reservoir (the tube), and trying to control the pressure in that space also - a bit line the bag on a set of highland bagpipes only this time you don’t have the benefit of controlling the pressure using your elbow.
Can’t be easy…but if it saves multiple stitches to the roof of the mouth when you get rear-ended it’s gotta be worth a try.
If you ever get tired of your new approach, may I suggest the next logical step:
- Extend the tube by a couple of meters.
- Make up a widget for the other end.
- Run hose back the spare tyre in the boot
… are you catching my drift here???