Far be it from me to discourage WhOA in you, but may I make a suggestion?
Suppose you took a couple of lumps of modeling clay or Play-Doh, placed them where your THUMBS reside on the whistle, & then see how things go.
You’d likely need to tape the lumps - no, let’s call them Whistle Appliances for Manipulation (WhAMs) just to make it sound important - to hold them to the whistle.
A side benefit would be that you could shape the WhAMs to fit the curve of your thumbs.
You might also try Susato thumbrests.
Regards,
J. M. Payne
Winter Springs, Florida
Where the only snow we have comes in a cone with your choice of cherry or grape syrup…
On the Cronnolly, a well-tuned C-natural is obtained in the first octave with either:
o x x | o o o
or
o x o | x x x
In the second octave, the standard fingering
o x o | x x x
works quite well.
The whistle I have has two heads. On the original head, which has the greater volume (and is the head you hear in the MP3’s recorded above), you do have to be a strong blower and have good breath control; however, breath requirements are no worse than on the flute. On the modified head he sent me later, where the volume of the tone is somewhat reduced–but still far louder than any Susato–and the quality of the tone is purer, the breath requirements are eased, as is the force with which you must blow, the second head having the greater resistance.
This is a whistle you can lean into and play with real gusto. It’s not for the timid or the soft-blower; however, an old blowhard like myself can really make it sing.
One other thing of note is that utilizing either head, the whistle is well-balanced between octaves, and amazingly for its volume, does not get very shrill on the high register.
As for the workmanship, Michael Cronnolly has a habit of producing instruments with a kind of rough-finished look. I like that, myself, but I know that many do not.
Interesting thought-- once you figured out how thick the lumps needed to be using clay as a test, you could make permanent ones with epoxy putty. You can buy this in hardware stores. It comes in two parts-- cut off equal amounts and knead them together to mix them completely, then mold them as needed. The stuff dries rock hard.
I would like to thank all the Chiffers who took the time to send so much good advice. I’m working on the piper’s grip and other suggestions but I find that keeping my fingers from flying way up is very hard to do. They just naturally want to lift away from the whistle.
Several folks recommended a variety of wide-diameter whistles and I
am following up on them. I’m also going to try the concept of adding
supports under the thumbs to widen the effective grip.
Thanks again to all and the best of holidays to you.
