Today I received my Elfsong Whistle and it’s beautiful and plays well and easily. I’ll do a full review later on, but wanted to mention that dealing with Sandy Jasper has been a pleasure. Efficient and a lot of care into the making; everything exactly as stated. Regards, Philo
How does it compare to your other whistles?
Funny you should ask..I spent the first part of today trying to ascertain exactly that by matching it up against seven other soprano Ds - Dixon (brass slide), Seery, Burke Al-pro, Silkstone Alloy, Abell (delrin), Copeland, and Sindt. This took me to several observations and realizations.
First, the Elfsong is uniquely beautiful and worth it as a collectable whistle (mine has a blue darkening to black with silver sparkles tubing with a copper mouthpiece with my initials; really nice and substantial and different)alone. It is well worth its price, exhibits fine workmanship and plays very well, falling somewhere in the middle of the pack of this group of all fine whistles. I like it better than the Dixon or Seery, but not as much as the Copeland, Burke, or Abell.
After honing my chops playing about twenty of my favorite tunes on several whistles, though, I realized that they all sounded pretty much the same, that is the way I in particular can make them sound. So, I kept out the Copeland, got out my Cathal McConnell tune book with accompanying cassettes and started learning some new tunes and practicing some phrasing and rolls.
I’d heartily recommend Cathal’s presentation - a nice sampling of tunes done in his own wonderful way (with guitar accompaniment), first slower then up to speed, and a lot of teaching both direct and indirect of various scales, ornamentation (rolls in interesting combinations, sliding notes, etc.), and the different pacing and phrasing of jigs, reels, etc. There’s playing of tunes, demonstrations of technique and Cathal talking you through at enough points to be extra helpful.
Therefore, I’ve decided to say farewell to collecting, reviewing and comparing whistles and concentrate on listening and playing and maybe eventually even writing.
But before, I go, a list of my favorites in each key>: (Can’t help it; I love lists of all-time favorites - movies, baseball teams, etc.)
sop D - Copeland; Grinter (lancewood); Burke (al-pro)
C - Sindt; Silkstone (both PVC and alloy)
Bflat - Abell; Grinter (lancewood); Overton
Low A - Schultz WaterWeasel
Low G - O’Riordan (aluminum)
Low F - Grinter (lancewood)
Low D - O’Riordan (aluminum), Copeland
And that’s final!
Best wishes to all on this wonderful Board!
Philo
I also received my whistle from Sandy. Again, a pleasure to deal with. I’ll do more of a review later on but first playing was good. I love the mouthpiece. Wood fipple but lacquered or glazed over and it seems to make it almost mould to your lips. I have both the G and F to review. My G is black with gold bits. Beautiful to look at. I have quite small fingers so think playing it will be ok. More later.
selkie