I picked up a Feadóg D while visiting my family in Dublin a weekend or two. I pretended it was for my 2 year old daughter, but have taken it into my study and hidden it!
The reason for the choice whistle is simple, it was the one I had when I was a kid, whether it’s a good bad or indifferent choice, I don’t know
Anyway, I’m trying to force myself to “tut” rather than altering my blowing, but I’m having a lot of difficult at the lower end of the scale, tending to hop up an octave instead.
The trick is to just breath into the whistle…don’t blow (and don’t even try to tongue until you can sound a steady bell note without jumping up an octave). Definitely make sure all the holes are completely covered and then just do a nice, sustained D until you get a feel for how much breath it takes to sound the note. Then do the same thing with E, and so on up the scale.
Oh, I think I’m repeating Redwolf here. If by “tut” you mean that you touch the roof of your mouth with your tongue between each note, that would be called tonguing. Many people advocate different things about tonguing.
The tutorial I used, for example, said to practice without tonguing and then add it in later when you want to emphasize a note. Playing without tonguing (and there are degrees of tonguing as brewerpaul pointed out, “tut” vs. “tuh” or “duh”) is a more legato style. You can also hear how clean your transitions are between notes if you don’t tongue—it can sort of cover up problems that you might have if you wanted to play very legato.
Other tutorials say to use tonguing all the time and whistle players vary a lot in how much tonguing they use.
One tutuorial I have says to tongue when jumping from the lower register to the higher one to help the note “sound sweet”. Tonguing might be why you are hopping up an octave when you don’t want to. It does sort of give off a blast of air, although you can tongue more gently.
I am one who thinks practicing legato and adding tonguing later is a good idea. But other opinions are just as good. I’m not sure what you mean by altering your blowing, but I think that sounds like a better approach—it is necessary to alter one’s blowing especially to get the very low and very high notes, in my experience.
Funny- I find that jumping up the register is in-tune with just a change of air, but some downward leaps need some help to avoid momentary flatness. Tonguing the lower note (lightly and quickly) makes it pop out in tune.
Some people use glottal stops (like coughing) instead of tonguing, but my throat surgeon and I don’t recommend it.
I think the Feadog is an excellent whistle. Tonguing a note can alter the speed of the air. Low notes on the whistle are the most easily affected and need to be tongued more gently. I think you will eventually develop a feel for what you need to do just by working at it.
Thanks for all the responses! Yes, I do mean “tuh” rather than “tut”, tried something closer to “duh” and it works a little better! My basic issue is that the tonguing is moving the air too quickly on lower D, I can control it on E, and easily manage it above that. I guess it might be a whistle thing, I’ll try a couple of others when I get a chance. Basically I’m trying to avoid the whole glottle stop thing
I’ll also look at a bit of “tuning”, though I’m a bit hesitant at that. I feel my basic breathing is OK at the moment, I’m just trying to ingrain which note is which into my head now
As for why it’s hidden, mostly because I want to play it. I’m playing in front of the kids lots though, so when they’re a little older they should be able to play a few tunes (I was taught “Silent Night” around the age of 5). Currently I’m trying to get my 2.5 year old to breath rather than blow into it when she picks it up.
Steve,
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m having the dangdest time trying to figure out what you mean by… As for why it’s hidden, mostly because I want to play it.
Also, why would you try to avoid the glottal stop? I have a theory that most people who avoid tonguing use the glottal stop (spelling?) without realizing it.
If you wanted to play legato, wouldn’t you avoid a glottal stop? I just checked and I don’t use a glottal stop without realizing it. You had me worried there!
Not sure about the Scotts one or what this even is I’m actually doing. I suppose from what you’re saying that it would be just trilling. It’s like rrrruh rolling the r with the tip of the tongue. I asked because I wasn’t sure if it was something usually done, I never heard of it before but I heard a piece of music and it sounded like this is what the guy was doing in one part of it.
Go into a quiet room. Plug your ears. If you have ear muff type silencers, put those on too. Play. Listed to the sounds coming from your throat. If you play 100% legato I’ll bet a dollar to a donut that you’ll hear little clicks from down there. It’s like a “ka kuh” or “Ka kuk”. Damn! Now y’all got me doin’ it.
I tried rolling the r’s once, it sounds so funny to me… it sounds like you’re playing the jazz flute… a little cheezy for my taste. I’m not saying it’s a technique that couldn’t ever be used in whistling but it is certainly nothing I’ve ever heard done before… in a serious manner anyways
