Stine, most people clean the windway of their whistle every so often as needed, using water and/or sticking a piece of a credit card or such into the windway to get at any gunk in there. Unless you’re playing with chunks of food in your mouth, it’s probably not necessary to clean it every time you play, just shake or blow out the condensation. When you clean it just don’t use anything that could scratch the windway, like a twist tie. I like to stick a long, thin, rolled up dry piece of cloth or paper towel through the windway, then I wet it and floss the windway. Most people here have recommended the bit of credit card, though.
Most of my clogging issues have been solved. Warming the whistle before I play helps, Jet Dry has helped me more than soap, but I think the main thing is that I’m not as shy about playing loud as I used to be, and it seems just getting enough volume of air through the whistle by not underblowing is enough to get the condensation cleared out.
Warming the head/keeping it warm is the key. As a long time recorder player just coming to the whistle I have had this problem for years and warming before playing is really the biggest help. When I am playing at church you will almost always see me with a recorder under each arm keeping the heads warm in preparation for the next bit to be played.
I, too, am reluctant to use the soap solution (or the stuff sold by some recorder dealers for this problem called Duponol) on my good rosewood Kung recorders, but I have done it once on each of them.
If the instrument is clogging as you play one thing you can do is suck the clog out at a breath or break in the music (if any!).
The most effective way (and safest for the sound-producting blade in the windway) to clear a clog is to take the head off, cover the open end with your hand and blow in through the window. This is kinda hard to do with a one-piece whistle, unfortunately…
The distance that you stick the whistles beak into your mouth can affect clogging. If you stick the whistle in really deep, it can trigger your salivary glands because an item is in your mouth.
Some people play the whistle just barely against the lips and experience less clogging.
I’ve seen recorder player do this also, and they swear up and down that it works.
The wonderful Dale Wisely had posted something about jetdry. I was having clogging problems on my Chieftain Brass whistles, but I bought some jetdry and applied it with a thin strip of paper and let it dry. It works! I have to recoat from time to time. But jetdry has solved my problem.
I don’t have clogging issues, but that is because I don’t, actually, dance. There is a clogging team from this county. They were clogging out front of Wal-Mart one time, several years ago.
I should try the soap-in-the-windway thing, I suppose. But I find if I prewarm my whistles, and clean the windway out before serious playing, I don’t have too many problems.
