What a kick! I am in general no fan of the mass marketed whistle, though I play my Gen in my car and had a few Soodlums and Clarks and Waltons scattered hither and yon. Last week Rikibeth showed me her new acquisition, a Mark I Feadog, and I was immediately taken with it.
To my surprise, there is a music store only a few blocks from my home that had a handful of Feadogs in the basement. Her husband agreed to pick me up one, aw geez, for $5, make it two and I’ll give one to Tyghre, then Bloomfield got into the action, so make it three. . .
What a sweet little whistle! I haven’t tried it against a tuner, but to my ear it is in good self-tune, so easy to hit the top register without rousing the household noise experts (the parrots), and pleasant sound. The only drawbacks I see are that it won’t give me practice on leaning into high notes the way I must on the Burke and Thin Weasel, and it would get utterly drown at session. Not that losing my playing is any great loss to the session, but I really DO need to at least hear myself.
Anyway, last I heard, Bloo put in his order for the rest of this store’s stock of old Feadogs. . .I figure he’s starting a marching band on a budget.
So, the question of the day is: does practicing on one whistle, for you, apply to all your other whistles? Or do you really need to work with the one that you’re going to be using?
Yes, it is fun just to pick up a lower or
different-sounding whistle and play the songs you need to practice on it…BUT,
I think that about 3 days before every
performance in front of people, you had better go thru the whole set list with the whistles you will use. All the little
differences will show up when you are in
front of people, and you wouldn’t want to embarrass yourself with a nice loud
squeek or something equally as dreadful!!!
ha ha, Lolly
Well, I find I can pretty much keep in practice just using one, but it usually takes me about 5-10 min. to get well adjusted to a different one.
But I agree. You should practice you’re sets with the instruments you’re going to use about 3-4 days before the performance. At least. I usually practice with them for a week before I perform.
I can learn fingerings and muscle memory on any of my whistles. But the breath control varies a LOT between models. And for some reason, although I love how the Feadog Mark 1 sounds (and I can hear myself just fine at session with it, unless I get timid and try to play quietly…), the flat profile of the mouthpiece just feels weird in my mouth after the more rounded versions on my Sweetone and the distinctly-inferior Feadog Mark 2, which was still better than the Generation I started with…
But Charlotte’s claimed the Sweetone, and the third register is easier on the Mark 1 than the Sweetone, so I’m just going to get used to it.
I told you guys how good those old Feadogs are! But since the Burke came, I don;t know, it’s a whole new ball game.
Stay tuned as I am going to reduce inventory as I ordered three more Burkes yesterday (don’t tell significant other). I have 3 Mark 1 (or earlier) Cs and about 4 Ds, all pretty old (will post pix when I sell). Also Sweet Maple and Chieftains non-tunable low A. I have two Susato little Es two that I won;t need when I get Burke. But that could be months or only days. I can’t tell. I can’t sell tweaked Generations cause well, they’re tweaked.Some cracked and some got raspy after the hot water. But dang it, they’re tuneable!Feadogs survived tweaking but got a bit weaker, for want of better word. Also, a Shaw E that has to be squeezed together to work.
Is there mass whistle dumping taking place or am I imagining it?
“There’s more to life than whistling, but not much more.”
[ This Message was edited by: The Weekenders on 2002-05-04 03:24 ]