This is a total newbie question, and I have a feeling I know the answer, but I wanted to just get some opinions.
I’ve got a few whistles and as we all know, every whistle sounds unique. One of the qualities of a whistle that is constantly mentioned is its breathiness. It seems that generally when it’s mentioned, it’s mentioned as a negative quality, such as, “Whistle X is too breathy.” So I just wanted to sort of see what other people thought about breathiness in a whistle. Is it something that you want a little of, but not too much? Is it something that you want to try to eliminate altogether? Do you want more of it?
Just a small clarification. Breathiness, or excessive wind noise, is often correlated with a mellow, harmonically “poor” tone. Plus breathiness may only be apparent over a limited playing range.
I used to hate breathiness, now I love it. To me, it makes a whistle more traditional sounding. For that reason, the Clarke originals would be my favorite whistles in the world if they just needed a bit less air. My custom whistles are finely tuned and beautiful, but not breathy.
It’s not a perfect world. [sigh]
Both “breathy” sound and a clear sound have their qualities.
I think most people would agree with that, even though one may prefer one before the other for his/her own playing.
For me, it’s a draw. I like my Blackbirds clear tone, but like the previous poster I have come to really appreciate my Clarke original.
Yeah, that’s about what I figured the responses would be.
My first two whistles were a Clarke Sweetone and a Susato Kildare, both in D. My initial reaction to them was that I much preferred the Susato due to its nice, pure tone. But a couple months later, I’m playing the Sweetone almost exclusively, enjoying its lightly breathy tone.
Now that I’ve bought a few more whistles, I’m kind of wishy washy on the whole subject. For the concert I just played in, I wanted a nice, pure tone. Funny thing is, as I was tinkering today with a couple of the C whistles I bought, I noticed that I actually chose to play the one that was middle-of-the-road breathy. I can’t seem to make up my mind which I prefer. I guess that’s just how it goes.
I don’t think, in general, that breathiness has to be a bad thing, or that all whistles which have some air in the sound are inherently inferior in sound to those that don’t.
I enjoy having a lot of whistles which all produce widely varied sounds from each other.
That said, I do certainly have some whistles where I feel both the sound and the response of the whistle is superior…the gorgeous Overton, the Burkes, the Hoovers, the wonderful O’Briens, to name a few. Some of these have purer sounds, some more complex…all are wonderful.
A Newbie ? Who has already got a few whistles ? Be careful, Protean ! I am like you, a
newbie who has bought eight, nine whistles in the past three months, experimented with different sounds,
different degree of “breathiness”, playability, volume, etc… and finally kept three whistles and gave away the others. I have been blasted by some members of this forum, especially one, who called me fool because in his mind
a beginner should buy his first whistle and then stick on it until he becomes a Maestro…
Any way, talking seriously: I think that “breathy” whistles (Chieftain, Alba Vibe, or Shaw and Clarke high D)
are fascinating, end they are especially good for slow airs (perhaps with the artificial addition of a bit of reverb…)
However, whistles with a clear solid tone (Burke, Howard, and also Susato) have their role, and if they are responsive, I believe they are more complete i.e you can use them for eveything.
A bit of white noise is quite OK. All whistles have it - it is how they work.
Too much of it can be distracting in a whistle - but consider the Kaval or Ney .. very breathy and divine.
One of the best makes of whistle in the world has a lot of white noise - it quickly gets forgotten when the resulting tones soar above it.
Besides - when played in the company of other instruments the breath noise is quickly overpowered. Also consider - fiddles have a scraping noise from the bow, fretted instruments have pick-noise and wound strings shriek as fingers slide over them, boxes and pipes have a bellows noise and key clicks, the mains-hum in a vintage Strat with the Marshal on 11 … and on and on.
It has been said that one percieves things better with a noisy background. People love chaos - it is as fundamental as the air we breathe.
There’s an old sound-producers’ trick when a mix sounds too “thin” and dry - without drowning the mix in reverb, you simply add a sizly high string note way back in the mix (subliminal) - works wonders.
Mitch: Is there any special technique a person can use to make a whistle sound less breathy? I have an Alba D Vibe which is breathy on the lower notes. It does bother me some when I compare it to my soprano whistles. On the other hand, it is an very beautiful whistle with an overall great sound. Do you think that with time I will get to like the breathy quality? Is the breathy quality some kind of tradeoff? I.e. does a breathy quality give it some advantage or quality in other areas such as volume or responsiveness? Thanks.
I do not think that “breathiness” could be linked to volume and responsivness.
The Chieftain V3 is breathy, has volume and it is very responsive, the Burke
Viper has very little breathiness but still it is as responsive and loud as a Chieftain V3.
I’m a newbie too, and like you, I’ve bought a boxful of whistles over the past few months - and the two I keep coming back to are my Clarke Original and my Tony Dixon (heavy brass). I like my Sweetone, too.
I have a Shaw, but I don’t play it much - it’s well made, and when played right, it has a rich, breathy, tone - but I simply cannot feed it enough air to keep it happy. Maybe when I become a better player, I’ll come back to it. Right now, I’m really struggling with my breathing, so the Shaw is out for the time being.
