The guy who taught me was a great player but tended not to use open high Ds except when doing crans on them or when it was held, giving a better tone. Now I have got my first expensive whistle, an Abell D, I have found certain sequences sound purer and have less crossing noises if I play an open D and E. I have spent the last two weeks training myself to do them when it sounds better but it is hard work as I never really did it when I was learning. Has anyone else had this experience and is the change of technique worth it?
I’ve been putting it in for fast passages too, hence the hard work. I’ve also been putting in an open E (oXXXXo) for some passages, ie in custy’s (Am) the following phrase:
I actually find on many whistles that the closed D (xxx xxx) is more in tune, but the open D (oxx xxx) has a more projecting tone. The open D is great for ornamenting the note (cuts or crans) since it actually drops the tone down instead of raising it as usual…comes out very crisp and poppy on most whistles too.
I always play second octave D with the first finger up (o x x | x x x) on all my flutes and whistles, unless I’m going for a “hard D” on flute, which calls for all fingers to be down irregardless of which octave.
By the way, just about every whistle I’ve ever tried will give a good clean third octave D with (o x x | o o o) although sometimes it will sound less shrill to overblow the 2nd octave D (o x x | x x x).
Whistle make makes a big difference. I do it on the high D, but not E, except in one complicated tune (a fun Dave Brubeck jazz one!) in which I play the high E open, too. For me, it works well on my Dixon Bb… making it some other note I guess, not high E, but fingered OXXXXO.
On my Abell if you play an open E - oxxxxo after an open D it stays stable, in tune and gives the same difference as the open D does compared to the closed. You can only really do it from the D but it sounds really nice. I have been throwing it in in jigs and occasionally reels. I just wanted to know if anyone else has the same experience.
I don’t do it on my other D whistle (an old tweaked feadog with a tweaked generation brass body) as it sounds as good open or closed.
Vented 2nd octave “E” is a touch flat on my Dixons (D and Bb), Walton’s C, and Sweetone D (all the whistles I have with me at the moment).
I play either vented or unvented “D” depending on the tune - for most fast tunes I leave the top hole closed, but if the “D” will be sustained I open the vent. Really varies by tune, though. In “The Ballydesmond Polka #2” from my Walton’s 101, the opening sequence is:
C# d C# B C# B
I go from cross-fingered C# to vented D and back, then do the next 3 as B, half-holed C#, B - then for the rest of the A part of the tune I stick with unvented D. Just seems to play better that way.
I do think that the vented D sounds better on all my whistles, but the difference is fairly small with most of them.
I have one whistle that is in tune with that. I have to use that plus:
Clarke orig design D black: OXX OXX
Clarke orig design D unpainted: OXX OXO
Burke brass pro D: OXX OOX
depending upon what whistle I am playing.
I can’t remember offhand what my low whistles take, but the above 3 fingerings, I have to remember to get in tune. Fortunately, I only have about 3 tunes that use it.
When I first visited Yvon Le Coant, he took a nickel-silver American whistle of mine, played it a bit and commented:
“Great sound! Who does these? Just one thing, now: pity the unvented D has a different pitch than the vented one. It’s not right!”
And he apparently takes great care so both ways to play D’ sound at an identical pitch on his whistles. Most all my other makers’ whistles play vented/unvented D different enough, so you can use it for an interesting tremolo by quickly flipping the index…
This said, I usually play the D vented, often as a safeguard for those whistles (Abell, and esp. Rose) which climb so easily in second octave, that they can also end up in A (third register) instead of second D if unvented.
