It’s a recorder trick (as far as I know)from the David Munrow-Frans Bruggen generation.
Play around with how low you drop your lower jaw as you’re huffing or tonguing or simply sustaining a note. Your mouth (while lips are closed around the mouthpiece) simply forms shapes for different vowels like ‘Ah’ or ‘Or’ (totally cavernous - like you have lots of water in your mouth) or it can range to ‘Eh’ or even ‘Ee’.
It helps when you’re trying to milk particular notes. More noticeable with lower whistles but is applicable to all sizes.
I’m a big Munrow/Bruggen (and don’t forget Petri!)fan, and your tip does seem to make a difference, although I’ll be darned if I know why. The sound comes out of the whistle only after the air has passed out of your mouth and through the windway. It may be totally subjective, but it at least FEELS like there is a difference, and you can use this to tweak difficult notes on a whistle or recorder
Paul, it is audibly different because you can capture it on a recording. I think it’s because even though sound from a whistle begins after the airstream hits the blade, once vibrations are set up, the sound can be shaped as the timbre is dependent on and influenced by the entire air column from the whistle’s bell to your diaphragm, the whistle itself and all attached to it (including your cheeks, nasal passages, skull).
Bob, the difference is easier to hear on alto F and below. Try it on a much lower whistle than the standard high D. Once you get the sound, work your way up the sizes.
Try it on a low D first if you have access to one.
This idea does make sense to me. It could be one of the factors that explain how different players can pick up the same whistle and sound so different. Why does Sean Potts sound so different from Paddy Moloney? Shape of their mouths must be a factor, along with how they direct their breath.
Also, recorder players of the Dutch school often open their mouths to stop a note softly rather than using a glottal stop or stopping with the tongue. Rather goldfish-like behaviour, I always thought.
A while back I was finding a Reyburn low G difficult to play. A friend who has had early-music training had no trouble with it - he puffed up his cheeks a bit like Dizzy Gillespie and told me “You have to make a big round mouth to sound an instrument like that.”
That said, I’d hate to see whistle players adopting (I’ve just realized that adding “dot” to “aping” gives you “adopting”) the mannerisms of baroque musicians. They’ll be bringing tenor recorders to sessions next. ;0
[ This Message was edited by: StevieJ on 2001-11-30 09:53 ]
On 2001-11-30 09:51, StevieJ wrote:
Also, recorder players of the Dutch school often open their mouths to stop a note softly rather than using a glottal stop or stopping with the tongue.
They do that to let the note trail off gently and let the room reverb take over for the rest of the value of the note. Stopping with the tongue can make the sound quite ‘unsmooth’ or staccato. The staccato is used deliberately in places but is not a default.
That said, I’d hate to see whistle players adopting the mannerisms of baroque musicians.
Mannerisms we might do without. Expressive techniques we can always learn and use in appropriate places. I’m sure we can learn from wind players of all cultures. Especially circular breathing on low whistles >
[ This Message was edited by: StevieJ on 2001-11-30 09:53 ]
