C-whistle help, please

Whistle
1

hi everyone:-)
Could somebody please tell me the fingering (I mean, the correspondance between holes and notes) of a C wistle? or at least tell me any web place to find it.
Thank you very much
Salva

2

Whistle notation:
left side = mouth end
right side = bottom of the whistle
X = closed hole
O = open hole

C XXXXXX
D XXXXXO
E XXXXOO
F XXXOOO
G XXOOOO
A XOOOOO
B OOOOOO

Resource: http://www.chiffandfipple.com/whistlekeys.html

3

You’ll also want to take a look at:
http://www.stainedglass.org/other_pages/tinwhistle/whistle_main.html

(eventually, anyway; the prior post will give you the C Major Scale. You should pay attention to it for now, and bookmark and/or copy this to refer to later… learn a few tunes in the C Major range until you can play smoothly, then when you start wanting tunes in strange keys, either you’ll end up buying more whistles, or you can refer to these posts… or both :wink:)

(Oh, and don’t be frightened off from a fun, easy instrument just because the below instructions are complex; take it a note at a time. Most of us only use one note that’s outside of the key, which is the flattened-7th, B-flat on a C whistle, C-natural on a D whistle. It’s the easiest out-of-major-key note to produce, and the only one I can do at any speed… the rest of the below is what’s -possible-, eventually, if you care to, not something you need to learn today, tomorrow, or anytime this year…)



The problem with my link is that it’s for a D whistle, so you’ll have to translate…

Your whistle: C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
Whistle Chart: D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C C#

Or if you decide to disdain crossfinger and use half-holing:

X = closed
/ = half-holed (usually the hole is about 2/3rds covered for a ‘half-hole’ in the right pitch, it varies from whistle to whistle and note to note.)
O = open

XXX XXX C
XXX XX/ C#
XXX XXO D
XXX X/O D#
XXX XOO E
XXX /OO not a western note
XXX OOO F
XX/ OOO F#
XXO OOO G
X/O OOO G#
XOO OOO A
/OO OOO A#
OOO OOO B
OXX XXX Octave-C (C2, C+, C’, pick your favorite notation… the higher C.)

By overblowing, you can repeat these fingerings for a second octave, playing D2, E2, etc. Depending on your whistle, you may or may not be able to get a C3 with a vented-fingering (by which, I mean OXX XXX, which is a high C or ultra-high C but not a low C. XXX XXX is a low-C or high-C, depending on how hard you blow.)

Crossfingering is generally considered easier than half-holing, but half-holing is (potentially) more precise and more flexible.

Crossfingering needs to be used with care (and a digital tuner) however…
many people crossfinger the flattened-7th as:

OXX OOO (C natural on a D whistle, B flat/A sharp on a C whistle)
However, on my whistle (Oak) and on many others, this generates a note that’s about a quarter-step flat, which is to say, only half-way flattened. So, we use the fingering:

OXX XOX (the infamous ‘forked fingering’…)

Some people consider this the ‘right’ way to play a flattened 7th, but of course, it’s only ‘right’ if it’s right on your whistle!

Well, good luck!

–Chris