I’m one of those here who have repeated the common meme that Sindt whistles prefer a half-holed C-nat, and that the cross-fingerings are sharp to the point of being unpleasant. I’ve even called it a design flaw. This was based on my playing borrowed Sindts on occasion, and noticing the problem described.
Now for the past 6 weeks I’ve been living with a shiny new Sindt C and D pair. Lovely whistles, bright and chiffy, modestly loud and well-behaved, much like a refined Gen in sound and feel. I can see why the Irish Comhaltas kids seem to like them.
Naturally, I was prepared to deal with the C-nat issue and adjust my fingerings as needed. So I was quite surprised to find on both whistles that the standard cross-fingered C-nats are, in fact, perfectly OK. Both oxxooo and oxxxox are very usable in context, and well within the range of my expectations for the C-nat intonation of any whistle. I’ve not had to adjust my fingering at all. And other experienced players have tried my whistles, and commented on the good intonation.
When I asked John about this, he said that he has made no recent design changes to his whistles, and the hole layout is as it’s always been. So I’m left to puzzle at the difference between the older Sindts I’ve played and the new ones in hand, until I have a chance to test and compare them side by side. My technique and ear have improved over the years, but I don’t think I was imagining what I heard.
Meanwhile, I’m happy to put a big question mark to the Sindt C-nat meme for now, and report that the problem I expected to find is no problem at all in my new instruments.
I have a pair of d and eflat silver Sindt tubes that I play with an O’Riordan head, and both sharp on c nat. Seems I’ve found that thicker-walled whistles are less likely to have that issue, but that’s only an observation based on what I have here.
Reg
Very odd indeed. Every Sindt high D I’ve played has had the dreaded sharp c-nat, including my own Sindt high D. C-nat on mine using 0XX000 is noticeably sharp and underblowing doesn’t help. Using 0XXX0X is much better, so is my “standard” for this whistle and I’ve learned to feed off this fingering. I’ve heard Feadog tubes work well with the Sindt head and produce an accurate 0XX000 c-nat, but have never tried it.
I’ve had my Sindt for a few years and it’s nice but not my favorite and doesn’t get played much.
I have been saying for years here that the intonation of the C natural is up to the whistler/fluteplayer/piper. I comes with the territory, you suit the pitch as the music requires and it takes more than one standard cnat for all circumstances.
I have never seen the problem with the C nat on the Sindt I have (or the few that passed through my hands on their way down the road) and neither have there any references to it come back to me from the people who borrowed mine for special occasions.
I’ll definitely do an A/B comparison the next time I borrow another Sindt or two to check against mine. I can well imagine that I’ve simply adapted to the personality of the instrument I now own and have spent time with, as opposed to only a few minutes playing borrowed examples in the past.
I should say that I still find it very easy to deliberately blow the C-nat sharp. The oxxooo can be pushed as far as C# with very little effort. But it’s just as easy to pull the note down to pitch, especially oxxxox, by underblowing, and with no real loss of tone or volume.
As a side note: I bought my instruments directly from John Sindt, and he was a gentleman and a real pleasure to deal with.
I was playing Star of Munster on my Sindt
D at session once using the 0xxx0x cross-
fingering. When we were done, a fiddle
player commented that it was odd to use
C “supernatural” for that tune. So, I think
I wasn’t quite hitting it flat enough. The
Sindt was made early this year. I have
since replaced the tube with one from a
Feadog. It’s still a bit sharp, though I can
now underblow enough to get it spot on.
(Apparently, “supernatural” is an actual
term Cape Breton fiddlers use, though I
can’t seem to google it.)
I had a chance to try an older Sindt Bb today (thanks Michael!). And the C-nat intonation was just fine, very much like my D and C. So it seems obvious that the perceived problem in the past was me, not the instrument. And not a problem now.
Taking this down a side road (as usual). Does anyone have a theory on the physics of blowing a note sharp/flat or even in tune? I mean, we all do it (or at least we all try to) but what exactly are we doing to get that note right?
Don’t Cnat on most whistles require some breath control?
It’s just that the sindt requires a little more breath control than the other whistles i have played.
I’ve owned my sindt for about six months now, and i’m very pleased with it.
It’s only with slower tunes that i have to remind myself that i’m playing the sindt with the Cnat and not another whistle.
oxxooo works quite well on my other whistles, and does work on the sindt, but needs very little air.
oxxxox works best on the sindt i have.
