I’ve noticed that quite a few people say that they cross-finger C natural like so:
0xx0000
My Oak came with a fingering chart that placed a C natural like this:
0xxx0x
I have an Oak and a Walton’s D, and both sound sharp when I don’t finger it the way the chart says. I was wondering: Is this a common thing? Are different whistles often different enough that you have to cross-finger things differently? What in the world is goind on? 
Only my Susatos are perfectly happy with oxx ooo. All the others (cheapies as well as high-ends) prefer oxx xox, although oxx xoo often works just as well. Of course, on a fast tune, it may not matter if the C nat is a bit off.
Of course, on a fast tune, it may not matter if the C nat is a bit off.
I agree. 
It seems to me that people tend to grumble when the pitch is a bit sharp while they won’t grumble when the pitch is a bit flat than their standard. I have this impression esp. in Irish music scene.
My Rose is fine with oxxooo, as are the Water Weasels and Burkes I’ve had. I don’t remember ever testing my Copeland or Abell (don’t have either anymore) but I don’t remember them sounding off with oxxooo fingering for C-nat.
Most of the cheap whistles I’ve owned needed you to blow softer than usual to bring oxxooo into tune, but they’re not off enough to matter too much in a fast tune.
-Brett
Half-hole, me hearties!
I never even looked at the chart that came with my Oak. I’ve always thought OXXOOO was a tad off but OXXXOO wasn’t any better. When the family isn’t asleep I’ll try it.
My whistles vary in what works best. OXX XOX is the first fingering I ever learned for C nat., and it works very well for my Generations, my Feadog and my Hoover. My Elfsong, my Susato and my Dixon all STRONGLY prefer
OXX OOO…anything else js just plain flat (though OXX XOO works well enough on all three that I can get by with it if I need to for some passages). My Busman only accepts
OXX OOO or half-holing.
Redwolf
And this is one thing that makes whistle playing challenging. If you get used to one cross fingering then you try to play a whistle that needs another, it takes some amount of time and effort to change.
I started playing C# totally uncovered, and now I want to put the last finger down for stability. It’s a lot harder to change than it seems it should be. And then, if I’m playing B and I want to cut with the C#, do I need to have my finger down? So now I have to try to remember THAT too. It’s like learning it all over again.
Oy. I should have started with the teacher from the beginning.
To further confuse the issue, I’ve got a few Generations that respond better to ( o x x | o o o ) than to ( o x x | x o x ).
On my Oak, there isn’t a real pitch difference between the two, but there is a difference in timbre.
On my Waltons, the ( o x x | x o x ) is definitely better.
–James
I ran a poll on this over on GC
The general consensus of opinion was:
There was no consensus 
Interesting, Redwolf…
My Busman is dead on tune with OXXXOX. Such are the oddities of whistledom…
Best,
Byll
That may have something to do with the fact that you left off oxxxox as an option…
I think oxxxox is the most common, and most widely used fingering that works for practically all cheapos: Gens, Feadogs, Oaks, Waltons etc. The Clarks are a bit different because they are conical and seem to prefer oxxooo.
Apart from the Clarks, I think it was only the arrival of high-enders like the Overton, that introduced the oxxooo fingering (which is where I think Susato got it). I think oxxooo work better than oxxxox on Overtons, Silkstones, Burkes, Copelands, Weasels & Abels (haven’t played Roses or O’Riordans; well I’ve played Tyggy’s Rose but don’t remember the c-nat).
There are few whistles that prefer oxxxxo for c-nat, the Weltmeister, old Sweethearts, perhaps others.
I am not desperate or spiritually advanced enough to half-hole the c-nat, but I am pretty much equally comfortable with oxxooo and oxxxox. If you start working on it, you’d be surprised how many passages are more easily done with the classic oxxxox c-nat.
my busman’s a oxx ooo at the moment but it’s not played in yet.
Richard
you just cana please all them cross fingerers all of the time can you
Have any of you run across a whistle that doesn’t seem to cross-finger the Cnat at all? I have a Harper high-D that is a bit sharp with OXXOOO, going to OXXXOX doesn’t seem to flatten it at all, and OXXXXO is definitely flat. The Harper G and A are both spot on with OXXXXO.
Not really a problem, I have plenty of whistles with which to play in G, I’m just curious about this one.
You might mention the Sindt D, which many say is sharp no matter what crossfingering you use.
I agree with the Bloom, (as per usual) when he mentions the ease of the classic OXXXOX C fingering. For me it has a lot to do with the ease of shifting to the vented D fingering. Moving only one finger beats the heck out of moving three…
Cheers.
Byll
I only half-hole on A minor tunes and slow tunes unless its works for a specific phrase, like going directly down to Bnat (e.g.beginning of Bank Of Ireland).. I generally use different cross Cnat fingerings depending on the speed and context of tune.
In D Mixolydian tunes like the Old Bush and Banish Misfortune (a hybrid mode, with C nats and Csharps) a sharper C nat sounds good anyway.
Often I just use use OXOOOO, especially on super fast settings.
Old Bush is special. I use fingering above in A section, then use for B section 1/2OOXXO where the phrase comes to rest on the C nat. Why the two XX? For grip and balance!
Remember that Irish music does not demand equal temperment and only has become more so since people added guitars and fixed reeds and chose to use more harmony. It is one of the delights of this music that equal temperament is an option, not a requirement. Let your ears evolve backwards in time before Bach when you play it! A good listening session of uilleann pipes will make my point!
In Brendan Breathnach’s “Music and Dances of Ireland” he defines C natural as “halfway between B natural and D natural.” Think about that for a minute and the sharp sounding cross fingerings become a bit more okay.
Must be hard if you have perfect pitch and expect equal temperament tho’.
Playing in tune doesn’t just happen on the pennywhistle. There are corrections in pitch that must take place through the range of the instrument if you want to be in tune. With some instruments these adjustments are small and almost imperceptible; with others, they’re huge.
A couple of ways to make these adjustments are through wind pressure (blow harder or softer), and through mouth shape (using a larger cavity in the mouth to help lower the pitch; narrower, to raise).
C natural is not a part of the D diatonic scale, so out of necessity it must be ‘tweeked’. Although most fingerings will get you in the general vicinity of a C natural, the final ‘in or out of tuneness’ depends on how you, the player, tweek it.
That’s my 2 tenths of a dollar’s worth…
Crossfingering. Hmmm… sounds kinda kinky.
I am glad of this issue coming up and up again.
Although this gives me a headache too when I don’t want to ‘think’.
Hundreds of years ago,people in those days also felt C natural and C# problematic like us. Interestingly, it seems that some of us are supposed to clone the story.
Really intimate instruments,the tinwhistles.