Exotic whistle surgery!

Whistle
1

So, I sometimes like to experiment a bit on the whistle, and play something that sounds, definitely not Irish, but more … “exotic” or “Arabian”, if you know what I mean. Good fun, but it does require quite a bit of half holing. Nothing wrong with that, but one day the lazy side of me began thinking “what if the whistle was tuned to these notes I play, so I wouldn’t have to half-hole?”

This lead me to take saw, file and tape to a perfectly innocent Generation. What I wanted to achieve was to retune it to the following scale (with 6, 5, 4, … 0 holes covered):

D# - E - F - G# - A - B - C

rather than the usual

D - E - F# - G - A - B - C#

So here’s my simple X-step program for making a “Middle Eastern / Arabian” whistle: :slight_smile:

  1. Saw off the end of the whistle, raising the bell note from D to D#.
  2. If necessary, partly cover the 6th hole with tape to bring the "xxxxxo" E note back into tune.
  3. Take the file to the bottom of the 5th hole, and subsequently partly cover the top part of the hole with tape (ie. "move" the 5th hole downwards), to make the "xxxxoo" fingering play an F.
  4. Take the file to the top of the 4th hole, and subsequently partly cover the bottom part of the hole with tape (ie. "move" the 4th hole upwards), to make the "xxxooo" fingering play a G#. The hole will have to be moved quite a bit to achieve this.
  5. If the "xxoooo" A and/or the "xooooo" B notes are out of tune by now, tape up the 2nd are 3rd holes until the notes are back in tune.
  6. Partly cover the top part of the 1st hole with tape, to make the "oooooo" fingering play a C natural.

Voila! The result is butt ugly, is difficult to play (big distance between holes 4 and 5), and will probably only play properly in the first octave, but it is great fun to play. And the rest of your family might last several minutes before they ask you to put a stop to the “snake charmer sounds”! :slight_smile:

To get a lower, more mellow sound, I actually performed my surgery on a Generation Bb, rather than a D. The steps are of course the same, but the scale you’re aiming for is now B - C - Db - E - F - G - Ab. I’d love to tweak a low D, but I fear the finger reach between holes 4 and 5 will be too long to be playable. Still, one never knows without trying. :slight_smile:

Let me add that I know absolutely nothing about Arabian music in general, or whether my “snake charmer” scale has any official place in the musical tradition of that region. Any resident experts on Arabian music care to illuminate me?

Cheers,
Jens

2

Jens,
this is a pretty bizare tweak but hey,why not,its only a gen after all…but why not destroy a C gen instead?Sawing off the barrel on the edge of the D or 6th hole would give you your D#,opening the 3rd hole toward the fipple your G# and drilling a hole above the first hole you have your C.As C gens are crappy anyway,nothing is lost and taping unnecessary.:slight_smile: Peace, Mike


[ This Message was edited by: mike.r on 2002-04-23 10:44 ]

3

Good suggestions, Mike. I could have used a C whistle I suppose, but the Bb wasn’t very good to begin with anyway. :slight_smile:

Actually I have been thinking about another, simpler surgery giving the same scale. In my “snake charmer” scale, the E actually feels like the base note (ie. the natural ending point) of a somewhat “minorish” scale, rather than the D#. So how about making the E the lowest note in the scale, ie.

E - F - G# - A - B - C - D#

Transposing down one whole note (to get a better fit on a D whistle), we get

D - D# - F# - G - A - A# - C#

which is not too dissimilar to a regular D major scale. And it can be implemented simply by taking tape to the 6th and 2nd holes - and perhaps a bit of filing to retain the tuning. However, whether moving that C# up one octave somehow “ruins” the scale I can’t say (yet!)

:slight_smile:
Jens

4

Well I am certainly no expert but there is a good website that has Arab music basics. What my ear hears as the cliché “Arab” scale we hear in movies and on TV seems to be the mode (maqamat) called “Maqam Hijaz”. The intervals for that scale would be:
½ 1½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1

So a D scale would go:
D Eb F# G A Bb C D.

In E it would be:
E F G# A B C D E.

You will find that Arab music does not always neatly fit western music scales and modes. Have fun! :slight_smile:

  • David

[ This Message was edited by: Feadan on 2002-04-23 11:29 ]

5

Thanks for the link, David! Yes, the scale I’d come up with is almost the Maqam Hijaz, my E scale having a D# rather than a D. And you’re right; it is pretty cliche’ed in the western world, but that cliche sound was exactly was I was aiming for in the first place. :slight_smile:

And those quarter note scales look scary!

Cheers,
Jens

6

On 2002-04-23 09:10, Jens_Hoppe wrote:
…but that cliche sound was exactly was I was aiming for in the first place. > :slight_smile:

I used the word “cliché” but not to imply it was a bad thing. I think it’s a pretty cool scale! :slight_smile:

And those quarter note scales look scary!

Agreed. I wouldn’t want to try and pull one off. But I do enjoy the sound coming from ethnic instruments in the hands of experienced players.

  • David

[ This Message was edited by: Feadan on 2002-04-23 09:40 ]

7

There’s like 12 or so Arabic Scales and there are also a number of Jewish Klezmer scales. Some of them are one in the same, except that each culture has a different name for it.