I’ve been working through Grey Larsen’s Flute and Tin Whistle Guide. One of the things that he advocates to help stabilize the whistle is to anchor the bottom little finger on top of the tube below the bottom hole. I’ve tried, but it really seems to throw off (and inhibit) the other three fingers on that hand.
Does anyone use this anchor point? …or not?
Hi roj—I’ll put some links to some previous discussions about this. It seems that some people use their pinky and some don’t. Some people’s pinkies are too short to use for stabilizing the whistle without sort of contorting the hand a bit. I think Larsen does say that this won’t work for everyone. I believe, just from what I’ve read at this forum, that people who don’t use their pinky usually do use their bottom ring finger to stabilize the whistle when no other fingers are being used on the bottom holes. Anyway, I hope these links will help a bit. If it doesn’t feel natural to have your pinky in that spot, I think it might be better to use your ring finger when you need to. Just my untutored opinion.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=46153&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=pinkie&start=0
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=42760&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=pinkie&start=0
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=41130
Thanks, Cynth. I didn’t think to search for “pinkie”. It has been discussed a bit, hasn’t it?
As far as I can tell, about the time I stopped feeling like I was likely to drop the whistle every time I played a c#, B4 would swoop in and help hold the whistle in place at the crucial moment without me ever having to think about it.
I use B4 intuitively. Which pretty much means I have it down all the time, except when I play a roll on E.
It has and that’s because it is a subject that is always of interest to people----especially those who weren’t here during the last discussion. A new discussion always brings up some new opinions or ways to do something. And who would think to look for “pinkie” or “pinky” (Important Alternate Spelling) unless they had already read those discussions 
? Not me!
little pinkie always leave you finger free-my 2cents 
I think I have always used mine that way.
Heck, Nimrod here (that’s me) uses the “Neuman” grip which presses both pinkies against the whistle in a death grip . . .
I use the pinkie below the bottom note to stabalize.
I read a year or two ago about leaving more fingers down on Brother](http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/notlifting.html%22%3EBrother) Steve’s site and tried utilizing the method more. It made some tunes that I used to have trouble with (like Farewell to Ireland) a lot easier. Since then, I’m finding that even on tunes that I haven’t specifically practiced for, I’m leaving more bottom holes covered.
I don’t anchor the chico, but I do leave as many holes covered as possible. You just have to for certain tunes to get them up to speed. And once you discover what it lets you do, you are grateful for the option.
The breakthrough piece for me using that technique was the Dionne Reel. In order to get it up to the speed that its played, you need that technique.
Only way to keep up with those fiddlers.
Do you do this for airs as well? Does it sacrifice tone at all for you?
I’m curious where you anchor in that tune? I just ran through it and didn’t notice spots where I do it…
I’m at work so I can’t pull out the whistle but will try it and report later. I just remember that on alternating high notes with pedals, I could leave down a lot of fingers, including the opening figure. It took some practice, leaving them down, but man, it speeds you up.. I remember reaching a point of thinking of the G as the one place where you have to lift lower fingers, sort of like playing by subtraction rather than addition with G as the absolute exception.. There are some other tunes, who I can’t remember right now, dangit.
I think it’s always fun to watch other good whistlers, or close up vids, and focus on the bottom pinky as it dances around like a jumping jack. And it usually does dance around – Which means that most whistlers don’t anchor it permanently as Grey Larsen suggests, but rather let it float up and down with the fingerings.
I’m trying to analyze my own unconscious pinky behavior, but it’s a surprisingly hard thing to do. The MTGuru Uncertainty Principle states that: observing your own fingering changes your fingering. But if I come up with something I’ll post it here.
I don’t play Dionne Reel, but looking at the setting on thesession.org I see some places where lazy fingering is called for:
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1364
A-part Bar 2&6 |Adfd ed (3Bcd| - All bottom fingers down on |d (3Bcd|
A-part Bar 4&8 |efec d2| - B1 and B2 down on |ec d2|
B-part Bars 1-2 |afbf afde|fded Bcde| - F# (B1 finger) down, and all bottom fingers down on |d Bcd|.
D-part Bar 1&5 |F2Ad fdAF| - F# (B1) down.
D-part Bar 3&7 |ABce gece| - B1 and B2 down on |ece|.
E-part Bar 4&5 |gece| - B1 and B2 down on |ece|.
These fingerings don’t really sacrifice tone or pitch on my whistles, at least not at speed.
I tend to put the right pinkie down and anchor on G and above. I don’t plan it - it just happens.
Mark