Apologies to CaperMike for stealing his thread title…
I’m a rank beginner (I’ve had two lessons so far), and I’m having a devil of a time covering the holes on my D whistle. My biggest problem comes when I switch from top hand notes to bottom hand, especially the bell note. I almost always create an ungodly screeching no matter how deliberately I practice and am almost at my wit’s end. I don’t have the same problem with my pipe chanter (I’m primarily a GHB player), so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Does anyone have any tips or recommended exercises that I could try?
The first thing I would say is be patient with yourself and relax. It’s still early days. Out of interest what kind of whistle do you have? And I assume you’re talking about a high D whistle.
Second, make sure you are covering the holes with the fingers flat and the first pads well over the hole. Do not press down hard.
Third, I would try the exercise of going from B to A to B, B to G to B etc just to get used to the spacings.
Last, make sure you’re not over blowing any of the notes especially the bell note. That’s why i’m curious to know what whistle you are playing.
Yeah, lessons. I didn’t have enough self discipline to learn it on my own, so I’m getting a bit of tuition.
Mike, I’m primarily using a Freeman Bluebird in D. I have fat fingers and have trouble sealing the holes simultaneously when I come down from an upper hand note.
I do try to use the pads of my fingers much like I do with the pipes, but the holes on the High D are much closer together than I’m used to with my Bflat pipe chanter. They tend to get in the way of each other…
Yes, I imagine a highland piper might be prone to overblow… but in addition to Mike’s good advices, why don’t you just ask your teacher? As you say you’re taking lessons, I guess s/he can assess best what you’re doing wrong.
The Bluebird is a good whistle but as I recall it does require very soft blowing in the lower octave especially of the bell note. Coming from GHB the Freeman Mellow Dog might have been a better choice since it is not so sensitive but undoubtedly it would be easy for you to overblow those bottom notes.
I do not find the Bluebird D to be a soft blowing whistle in the lower octave at all.
Lots of practice gets the holes covered. If anything, the Bluebird D nickel coating may require some getting used to as some people have claimed it is slippery. I do not find the nickel to be slippery.
Also, try some hand lotion to soften up finger pads if you have especially dry, rough hands.
There will come a time when you will want to make an ungodly screeching noise and you won’t be able. Condensation won’t be the big problem it is now too.
A possible solution, if you have large fingers, is to get a low D instead. You will then have more finger space and the fingering will be much closer in style to your GHB fingering style.
When I started, it took me more than a month to be able to close all the holes reliably. Yup, when you miss by the tiniest amount, you get those gawd-awful squeaks.
For me, the bottom hole was the toughest. Not only is was it hard to reach, but the breath needed to was noticably lower than the other notes.
I’ll second the advice given by Mikethebook.
Going a little further, for finding + practicing “closing” a particular hole, I’d suggest the following:
get the hole closed, so there’s no squeaking (much easier when you’re not playing a tune).
then, try little perturbations: up, down, left, right. See how they feel in your fingers. See how they sound.
practice closing + unclosing, very slowly.
Basically, I go through this “training” every time I get a new whistle ! They’re all a little different.
