In reading a tin whistle tutorial, I’m getting the impression that I should cover the 6th hole as a balance finger whenever I’m playing an A, B or C on a high D tin whistle. Ar first it seemed unusual but it seems that it isn’t that difficult a habit to adopt. It’s supposed to balance the whistle and keep the fingers closer to the holes. I’d like to know if this is a good habit to get into. To complicate matters I would like to take up the flute once I get better at the whistle, so I don’t know if using that balance finger system will be beneficial or detrimental to the flute later. Thanks.
it matters just as much as whistle
some players do & some don’t
James Galway does do it, Matt Molloy doesn’t (he does keep the pinky down)
I like the bottom hand ring finger for my balance finger.
Some others will use the pinkie, but I find that I can hit bottom D best using my ring finger for the balance finger. The spacing between the holes is easier to manage as well, I believe, with this finger.
Which one?
I’m getting the impression that I should cover the 6th hole
Does it say that, or is it something you infer from fingering diagrams, etc.?
Just curious.
MTGuru, the book is “The Clarke Tin Whistle,” by Bill Ochs. He explains different balance methods, and says to use the balance finger on A, B, C# and C and it was unclear whether this changes between balance finger methods. I’ve played for a while by ear and have decided to learn by music and learn proper fingering and methods. I’m probably over-worrying about the details. Thanks again.
I think that´s unnecessary really. I think if you don´t smash the whistle by your fingers, only place where you need to balance the whistle is C# (And often not even that).
And you can always play with your pinky on the whistle, which balances it all right.
Personally, I’m a pinkie fan, for no particular reason. With the pinkie down, I never have to worry about it affecting the intonation of the note I’m playing. With the ring finger, it’s just one more finger to have to move out of the way for fast fingering. Try fingering rapidly between A and E, for example. On some whistles, xxx oox can affect the intonation or timbre of the G.
I do keep the B3 (ring) finger down for lazy fingering when it makes sense. For example, |:DGB dBG:|. And I like it down for A and B rolls, for more stability.
While I can play with the pinkie permanently planted (except for E rolls), in practice my anchor pinkie flies up and down with a life of its own and a logic that the world’s top scientists are unable to explain. It’s actually kind of fun to watch it dance. If there are no other fingers down, I usually anchor: 1) A, B and cnat, but not always; 2) Sometimes G; 3) Almost always c#, unless I want a whistle through the foot.
Sounds like you’re on the right track. Experiment with both ways, and stick with one for a while. Have fun, and a belated welcome to the board from a former Long Islander (Huntington)!
On further reflection, my balance finger will switch between bottom ring to bottom middle, depending on which mode the tune is in. My Clarke original design is rather forgiving of my “lazy fingerings” for the passing notes.
Whoops! I think “proper” fingerings is “whatever works” for the whistle that you are playing at the time, and the methods are both best learned by ear.
After all, we hear music with the ears, not the eyes…
I find that the pinkie finger is a lazy finger in that many people rarely use it for anything. Years ago when I took up flamenco guitar, I found I needed to use it. A struggle ensured between my brain and the pinkie; the brain finally won.
Having won over the pinkie on guitar; next was the whistle and then the keyless Irish flute. Why go to the trouble; you may ask. First, because the intonation of the instruments I play is affected if I do not. Second, I don’t want to think about fingering while I play; I prefer to think about the music.
Give your pinkie a job and keep it off the street. Cheers, Cyril.
If you are going on to flute, especially if you are thinking of a keyed flute, get into the little finger (R4) habit asap. I do sometimes leave R3 on, but like MTGuru, only in certain note sequences/fingerchange patterns where it offers economy/accuracy without noticeable detriment to sound. Even if you stick to just whistle, I’d still say that R4 as a balancer is a better practice than R3.
I play without balancing even on C#. It works fine while the whistle is a high one. When I take low D, it falls out of my hands.
That should be true but often it is not. Years ago, I went with a fellow fiddler to see the Boys of the Lough. She didn’t think much of Aly Bain’s fiddling just because he tended to keep a high elbow. DOH!
This opens up a big can of worms, that of all the so-called “false fingerings” used on whistle, flute, and pipes.
When I learned flute & whistle back in the 70’s the guy I learned from, and the older players I observed, all used a variety of “false fingerings”. These, when analysed, had the purpose of making passages easier to play by requiring fewer fingers to be moved. A way to think of them is like chord shapes on the guitar.
So, there’s a “G shape” on the whistle/flute which looks like:
xoo oox
Using this, by moving the pair of raised lower-hand fingers as one unit and the pair of raised upper-hand fingers as another, you can very rapidly and cleanly play G arpeggios:
bottom D- low G- low B- middle D- high G- high B would be fingered:
xxx xxx
xxx oox
xoo oox
xxx xxx
xxx oox
xoo oox and back down.
Then there’s a “D shape” which is
xxo xoo
Using this, moving the raised pair of lower-hand fingers as one unit and the single raised upper-hand finger as another, you can rapidly and cleanly play D arpeggios:
bottom D- F#- A- middle D -high F# - high A- and back down:
xxx xxx
xxx xoo
xxo xoo
xxx xxx
xxx xoo
xxo xoo and back down.
I know this will be received by some as bordering on heresy, but it’s how all the older players I observed played.
An example would be the Mountain Road, where, using the D shape, begins:
xxx xoo
xxo xoo
xxx xoo
xoo xoo
xxx xoo
xxo xoo
xxx xoo
You’re just moving one or two digits.
I’m not advocating this as any sort of ideal or model, it’s just something to be aware of, as you’ll see many traditional players doing this.
Now there’s one player I know who doesn’t do anything like this. He instead keeps his pinkie down all the time for every note including E. To me, rolling E with his one-finger-up method is clumsy, but he’s a great player.
A problem with leaving down your lower-hand ring finger for A and B is that on some whistles, particularly big-bore low whistles (Susato big-bore G, Burke viper low D for examples) is that high A and B in particular can sound harsh, or be difficult to sound at all. For some reason big-bore whistles don’t tolerate false fingerings in the upper register.
For a beginner, perhaps it would be best to use the pinkie for the notes G, A, B, and C/C#.
I use the ring finger covering the bottom hole, but there are times that I find I have to ‘work’ at learning fingering changes and if I had learned the pinky I wouldn’t have to.
I realized that I use the pinky finger to balance, mainly in those ‘fast’ tunes. Nobody taught me this, it’s just ‘instinctive’ =/
Just watched the Joanie Madden video and noticed that she often uses the pinkie for balance. Otherwise, her pinkie seems to “follow” her ring finger.
I use the pinky to balance. I take it off for E rolls but other than that it’s comfortably planted on the end of the whistle.