Time to admit trying to record that last night as a set with The Little Cascade (taking a slow slide up to B then easing into the reel) so you could hear the whistle dance as well as sing, but coming unstuck somewhere late on every time I tried the segue in front of the microphone. So did the reel separately this afternoon… still not quite as tight as I’d like, but it’s a bggr of a tune and feels horribly exposed on solo whistle! Have also done a couple of scales (be warned that these go to third octave B!) to show just how much headroom you’ve got when operating within the ‘normal’ range:
Wow, Peter, that iS a bugger of a tune. Good thing that I prefer to play slow airs. I’m totally not up to playing anything with the complexity and speed of The Little Cascade. Thanks for all three recordings.
First thing I did this morning after I was sufficiently awake was to use the 203 to play Anach Cuan [or whichever of the many spellings you prefer], and the whistle sounded lovely. I think it’s a very expressive whistle; the purity of the sound can be made breathy whenever one wants and the edge is there too if you go for it.
When reading my remarks, please take into account my newness to whistle, and all other instruments, as I only play when I feel like it and I never practice for the sake of practice. So I’m not a seasoned musician, but I’m a bit of an analytical technoid, though not in the class of the makers on this great forum.
That sounds like the most difficult tune I’ve ever heard played on the whistle. You did very well. And the scales.. That’s the first time I’ve heard notes that high. I hope you are wearing ear plugs so that you don’t damage your ears!
The pure tones on this whistle don’t hurt the ears the way my other whistles do, so you could probably spend a bit more time in the high range. Last night I hit the fourth octave D [!] just by increasing breath pressure in stages with all holes closed. Small stages, too. I had never heard that note on a whistle before. Not while it was me playing a whistle, anyway. I’ve not seen a photo of Tony Dixon wearing a wizard’s hat, but I’m beginning to suspect that he’s got a secret advanced physics lab around the factory somewhere. I must admit that my low F may not have benefitted quite as much from the research as the 203 did.
Hmmm, it’s a pipe reel at a tempo where I’ve tried to give it the space I think such tunes require… but not arguing the ‘complexity’ when it only takes a moment’s lapse of concentration to wreck a twisty six-parter with variations!
Maybe, but rest assured I can think of worse! Although it still took me about three weeks to get this one more or less where I wanted it…
But, to give just one example of why I’ve learned just one tune the way I have, my current little pet project has been trying to nail G.S. MacLennan’s mighty six-part pipe reel The Little Cascade (as loved half my lifetime but never properly learned) with some wee tricks I’ve not heard in other whistle renditions (syncopated gracing in the fourth part like the pipes version and no skipped upbeats to catch breath) because IMHO that’s what this particular tune wants and most (if not all) other whistlers seem to be taking easier ways out. So now I’m just about there… not just at my endlessly repetitive practice speeds of the past three weeks but with the kind of bouncing flow that might have come in just a few passes at an easier tune… and it’s my setting, put together by me from scratch (aka sheet music, intuition and experimentation) away from the influence of recordings and I’m excited about it because it seems to be working and giving the tune what I’d hoped to give it.
Fourth octave or fourth D? Sure you don’t mean top of the third octave (which would still be better than I’ve got out of my 203D)?
On most whistles you should get D, then d octave, then a harmonic A and then the third d if you increase the pressure four times with all fingers down. Maybe that’s what happening?
Wow, that was good. I was so impressed that I just ran that through Flutini. Pretty much in tune, except the third A is a little sharp, and the third B little flat. Flutini did not pick up the F# in the third octave. Excellent stuff though. Do you ever get to use these notes for real? I would have thought that they would require too much ‘huff’ to be of use either in dance music or airs, but I am open to surprises.
I had one of these whistles - sold it recently to a lucky board member. It was a bit too loud for me, but I agree with the comments - a very nice whistle.
Ha, thanks, Phill! But I just rattled it off with any old fingerings that ‘worked’…
Pretty much in tune, except the third A is a little sharp, and the third B little flat.
So played the A with XXOXXO (same as the E) and can flatten with XXOXXX. Likewise the B with XOXOXX, which sharpens with XOXOXO… and, yep, I’ve just tested both sharper and flatter alternatives for the rest too!
Do you ever get to use these notes for real?
To be honest, I frequently go to the E (or equivalent on other whistles) and rarely above, but generally regard whistles that can’t produce two octaves clean without trying as compromised!
I had one of these whistles - sold it recently to a lucky board member. It was a bit too loud for me, but I agree with the comments - a very nice whistle.
FWIW, I still don’t regard it as ‘loud’, but now concede that it’s louder than I first thought (not the ‘soft’ I feared)… so a very nice ‘medium’ in my book, a real ‘grower’ and absolutely my ‘go to’ D(s) unless something extraordinary drops into my hands.
About that fourth octave D, it was the fourth D, the one at the top of the third full octave, tonic of the fourth. And this morning I found the D at the top of the fourth octave or base of the fifth octave, depending on how you look at it. Anyway, you can sound 5 D’s in succession. That top one though, whooeee, is it penetrating! That one hurts my ears for sure. Both the fourth and fifth D’s required assistance from the tongue to start them off, but the pressure up to the fourth one is pretty easy to get. Really gotta push a bit for the topmost one. As for really playing tunes for very long and not killing your ears, I’d not go up past the first half of octave three. Not mellow enough for me and that would be going beyond the needs of music, I think. Beyond that, it’s becoming a stunt, in my opinion, of course.
Bogman, there’s four of 'em next door who already sing along with firetruck sirens. They annoy mE. When I’m not laughing.