As a beginner, my fingering of the whistle is slow at the moment, but I’m pleased with my progress so far. Something that doesn’t help at all is the fight I have with my Nickel Feadog trying to maintain a grip on it.
My small problem seems to be that my thumbs slide around the bottom of the whistle. A “fingers off” note for either hand can very easily cause me to lose position. I notice that my wife’s brass Feadog is much more stable for this. It seems that my thumbs have more grip on the brass.
It’s easy to just buy a brass one, but I’ve now got two Feadogs in nickel (one is the “Pro” which seems identical to the ordinary one) and would like to get some use out of them.
I wondered if anyone else has had this problem and had done something to the body to help the grip. Glue on some rubbery patches or such?
Keep playing it as it is. If you stick to it, in fairly short order your fingers will know e x a c t l y how much pressure to apply where for every note you play. Once that happens, you will never have the ‘this whistle is trying to fly away’ feeling again. In fact, you’ll never even have reason to even think about it.
I had the same problem with a Jerry Freeman “Blackbird”. I put painters tape on the back of the whistle. It gave just enouth friction to keep my thumbs from sliding. As my skill level improved I was able to remove the tape and and play without any problem.
Fidget, your hands are too dry. Just breathe warm, moist breath on your fingers a bit before you pick up the whistle. The sort of “huff” you use to fog glasses or glass. Or just lick your thumbs lightly. The extra moisture should give more than enough traction for the nickel tube to stop sliding around. No extra sticky pads or sticky stuff needed.
plunk and simon and southport are also right. Make sure you’re using your bottom pinkie or 3rd finger (B3) to anchor and stabilize the whistle for the left-hand only notes. And hold your whistle at 45-degree angle or more toward the horizontal, so the whistle rests on your thumbs. Holding it too vertically can exacerbate the dreaded “flying whistle” syndrome.
Gorilla Snot - essentially rosin paste - is good stuff. But probably overkill here. And finding a gorilla to volunteer can be difficult and dangerous. Hoopy Mike has the scars to prove it. Just look at his avatar. The experience has left him a pale reflection of his former self.
The Feadóg Pro has a slightly heavier tube than the standard Feadóg. Otherwise, they seem to be identical. Even the heads are interchangeable.
I do hope that I will get to the stage where I will instinctively place my fingers in the right place, but until then it’s so irritating that it spoils my practice.
I recently bought a Walton, this is brass and coated with some form of laquer (quite roughly too). It gives a great grip for my thumbs. So, I painted patches of varnish on my Feadog in strategic positions (in very fetching mahogany shade!!).
So far it has provided a complete cure for my slippery thumbs. Perhaps it will change as it dries and hardens further.
I thought that I might apply some patches of plastic from one of those windscreen stickers, the kind that aren’t glued but have a soft and tacky finish.
My slippery Feadog is slippery no more. Now to get on with the practice..until I can find another excuse for my lack of progress!!!
