Hello,
I’ve been reading through the archives for a few days now as I am just starting to learn how to play. Today I picked up my first flute and a pennywhistle as well. Both are by Erik The Flutemaker. The flute is bamboo and is concert pitched in D and the pennywhistle is also bamboo and concert pitched in b flat. I have been researching this for a month or so now because I wasn’t sure if it was the instrument that I wanted to learn. It seems to be though so I figured I’d give it a try. Now that I’ve bored everyone with the whole story, here’s the actual question. As you block more holes on the flute, should you have to put more effort into the wind going in? It seems like I can make a nice tone up until I get to the third or fourth hole on the pennywhistle and until the second or third hole on the flute, then I start to loose control of it and can’t get the sound to remain steady without having to blow harder but then I get a higher sound from the pennywhistle than I want and no matter what I do with the flute, I can’t seem to get enough air in to cover all 6 of the holes and get a sound. Is this just a wind control issue that I will get better with practice or am I doing something wrong that anyone can help me with? I don’t want to get into any bad habits to start with that I will have to break later so I figured I’d ask now. This may be a silly question but I don’t really have anyone to show me precisely how to do things so I’m sort of flying blind (or is it deaf?) on how it should be sounding.
Thanks
-Jim
Welcome to the forum, and no it isn’t a dumb question.
I would start using your whistle, and than try it with the flute. When you cover more holes you are playing increasingly lower notes. The lower you go the less air you need. So get your whistle and cover all of the holes. Then try and blow as little air as possible. If that isn’t enough to sound the note blow a little harder. Once you succeed in getting the note, practise it until you get a feel for it and than gradually go up the notes. When you blow hard the whistle goes into the second octave. These are the higher notes. I would recommend that you practise the scales first. So start at the bottom and work your way up through the lower octave, and than work your way up through the second octave.
And I would recommend that you get a D whistle fast, because most of the tunes are geared toward this Key. And you won’t get confused switching between the D flute and the Bp whistle.
When you can play the scale on the whistle try it on the flute. But don’t get discouraged because it takes many people about a month to be able to play all of the notes.
But just PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE. It will come with time. Anyways, other people will probably have much better advise than me, but enjoy and watch out for whoa, and fhoa.
Jack Murphy
[ This Message was edited by: MurphyStout on 2002-09-14 22:00 ]
One comment: I have a bamboo flute in G that Basil Arrick gave me, and I believe it was made by Erik.
It plays fairly well, but the tone holes on the thing are HUGE, much larger than the holes on my Seery.
I would imagine if your flute has the large, almost 1/2-inch across tone holes like mine, you may well be having trouble getting your fingers to seal.
The only solution I know is to practice, and make sure you are using the fleshy pad of each finger, and not the actual tip, to seal the hole. You might also try piper’s grip (flat-fingered, using the middle joint on some fingers to seal their holes) as an alternative.
Best wishes, and good luck with your new instruments!
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
Thanks, both of you. I noticed that the effort was very slightly different with each hole that was covered but I couldn’t tell specifically how it was different. I’ve been working with the pennywhistle this morning and that does help a lot. Now I just have to figure out how to keep it from loading up with moisture. It seems that every couple of minutes I have to blow the moisture out. Guess that’s another thing that comes with practice huh?
I’m a pretty big guy (6’4") with reasonably big hands so as far as the size of the holes goes, the pennywhistle fits my hands perfectly as far as the hole spacing and size but the flute hole spacing for the 3rd and 6th hole feels wide but it may just be that I’m not used to it. It’s difficult to cover those two holes right now. I’m hoping with practice I can stretch the muscles in my hands to make it work better. I tried covering the holes using the first joint in my finger and that seems to work a little better but it’s still not comfortable and my hands cramp after a little while of doing it. I don’t think I’m doing bad for a first day though. Practice, Practice, Practice - I know 
Thanks again.
-Jim
[ This Message was edited by: Jim_B1 on 2002-09-15 10:25 ]
On 2002-09-14 21:58, MurphyStout wrote:
Welcome to the forum, and no it isn’t a dumb question.I would start using your whistle, and than try it with the flute. When you cover more holes you are playing increasingly lower notes. The lower you go the less air you need. So get your whistle and cover all of the holes. Then try and blow as little air as possible. If that isn’t enough to sound the note blow a little harder. Once you succeed in getting the note, practise it until you get a feel for it and than gradually go up the notes. When you blow hard the whistle goes into the second octave. These are the higher notes. I would recommend that you practise the scales first. So start at the bottom and work your way up through the lower octave, and than work your way up through the second octave.
And I would recommend that you get a D whistle fast, because most of the tunes are geared toward this Key. And you won’t get confused switching between the D flute and the Bp whistle.
When you can play the scale on the whistle try it on the flute. But don’t get discouraged because it takes many people about a month to be able to play all of the notes.
But just PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE. It will come with time. Anyways, other people will probably have much better advise than me, but enjoy and watch out for whoa, and fhoa.
Jack Murphy
[ This Message was edited by: MurphyStout on 2002-09-14 22:00 ]
When I was starting, I found that it was much easier to start on a higher note(for instance, a B) and work my way down the scale, until I could get a lowest notes. I think this was because the higher notes are easier to get, as they don’t require as much breath control as the low notes do. So, I would recommend doing what Stout recommended, only in reverse. Of course, don’t sart at the very top of the scale, but instead work your way down from an A(two fingers down). I started out by trying to get the low notes, but when I switched to working my way down, instead of up, I progressed faster.
Have fun!
I’m going to start by encouraging you to find a good teacher. Like you, I started on flute and whistle and attempted to teach myself many of the basics before I sought out a teacher. For me, this was a bad decision. By the time I set up lessons, I had already taught myself a number of bad habits that took months to wind back.
As mentioned above, I would start with high notes and work downward to the low D. You shouldn’t have to drastically change how hard you blow as you move down the scale.
What you really need to concentrate on is building up your embouchure and finding the ‘magic spots’ on your flute’s embouchure hole where the desired note really jumps out.
This is a practice thing and I would concentrate on playing a lot of long tones. Getting the note is one thing, you’ll find that holding onto it is a whole other challenge (my neighbors will testify to this fact).
But I still think you should find a good teacher. This helps you get past many of these hurdles faster than acting on your own, and reduces the frustration factore.
Take care,
John Harvey
Jim,
Are you sure you don’t have your flute/whistle keys reversed? I don’t believe Erik sells a B pennywhistle. He only adveritses C and D whistles.
Craig
Nope, it’s etched right on them. The pennywhistle is Bb the flute is D. I noticed that they aren’t on the website either but he does have them available if you call or email him. I just picked up a Feadog D pennywhistle this evening and it definately sounds different than the bamboo Bb whistle. I just signed up for Bill Ochs absolute beginner tin whistle class and needed a D whistle for it. It starts the last week of Sept and is 8 weeks long. He also has a tin whistle day this Sunday at the Irish Arts Center in NYC that I will probably be going to.
Thanks for the help, it’s definately appreciated
-Jim