I play with my right hand closest to my mouth. It’s just the natural way I hold a whistle. And it really feels akward the other way around. So far I haven’t had any problems, but I’m a beginner, and don’t want it to hender my progress in the future. What are everyones thoughts on this?
Thanks,
Bala
There have been great whistle-players who play “right over left”. One thing might want to think about is that if you ever want to play flute you are going to be pointing the flute to the left, rather than to the right, in order to finger it like your whistle.
If you are still a beginner now, the effort to change won’t be that great. Give it a try for a week (and not just five minutes) to see if it really feels more natural one way or the other.
Hi Brigitte here. If you are considering to go at a later stage on pipes or flutes then it might be an idea to change hands otherwise you may have to go for left hand instruments and they might be more expensive than right hand instruments.
On 2002-03-13 09:42, Bala wrote:
I play with my right hand closest to my mouth. It’s just the natural way I hold a whistle. And it really feels akward the other way around. So far I haven’t had any problems, but I’m a beginner, and don’t want it to hender my progress in the future. What are everyones thoughts on this?
I guess for a standard 6 hole whistle, this would work. If all you ever want to do is play a standard 6 hole whistle, then I suppose there’s not a real problem.
Where it won’t work is:
o Whistles with offset holes, or extra holes (like a low C hole on a Silkstone).
o Any other wind instrument you may decide you want to play later (like a Flute with keywork). In fact, if you learn with your hands reversed, it’s going to be very very hard to unlearn that if you decided to play something else at a later time.
o If you take lessons, it could easily confuse the living daylights out of your teacher.
o If you watch other people play, you will have to get accustomed to transposing their fingers 
That said, for just a regular whistle, with all the caveats laid out above, it’s probably okay.
Richard
PS: I’d still recommend you try and switch before it’s a habit which is impossible to break.
Hi,
The way you are holding the whistle would be considered to be natural for someone who is left handed. However quite a few right handed people also play ‘right hand on top’.
There are many great whistle players who hold the whistle this way - Mary Bergin and Michael McGoldrick to name just two - so you are in good company.
A few whistles have holes that are offset from the centre of the whistle to make them more comfortable to play (mainly low whistles and some of the ‘modal’ whistles with extra holes). If you don’t have one of these then it doesn’t matter one jot how you hold your whistle.
–
Keith
I do this when I have to remember what it feels like to be a beginner, so when I play with Tyghre, a beginning beginner, I swap hands to force myself to slow down and think about every movement the way he has to.
Well, since I don’t plan on ever playing anything else and this is the way that feels best, I think I will just let it be. I might try the “normal” positioning for a week like Bloomfield suggested though, I’m sure that wont hurt anything (except my neighbors ears).
Are there any other right on top players on the board?
p.s. I’m not even left handed. Sometimes I think I’m dyslexic though, maybe that’s it.
…Sag niemals nie (never say never)… I never planned or wanted to play any proper melody instrument (as I considered myself not as a melody player more as a bodhraniste etc… Ja Ja!.. I know all these hurting jokes ;-D … puah… ) and now I find myself trying on whistle as it actually helps me immensively to get an idea about the notes and scales in General which I need for learning the hurdy-gurdy. You may come along a wonderful flute or someone gives you one for present as it happened to so many of “only whistlers” in the past… you’ll never know and as you say you are usually right handed you may find it easier long term with ornamentations etc…
if you are going to switch switch now or it will be wicked hard to switch in the future. i think giving it a try for a week is a good idea. if it dosn’t work out after that it dosn’t matter as long as you are just playing the whistle.
Yeah, I guess I gotta give it a try. I tell myself that I only want to play the whistle and wont play anything else. But knowing myself, pretty well I might add, that could change in an instant. But on the other hand Jimmy Hendrix played the guitar upside down and backwards, and I must say he did pretty well for himself, music wise at least.
Hi Bala,
I played right hand on top for a whole year before I realized I was doing it wrong. I guess I wasn’t paying close attention to that illustration on the front page of the tutorial LOL.
When I decided to try the correct possition it felt like I was starting all over again. I just stuck with it and in a couple of weeks it felt totally natural. That was about 3 years ago. It was worth a couple of weeks of frustration.
Bala:
I also play right-over-left…when i got my first my whistle, there wasn’t any information on how to hold it, so I just held it the way that felt most “natural”.
A lot of the ‘negatives’ that have been told are pretty accurate: the biggest is you’ll have to play a left-handed flute, if you go that route (luckily, all of the flutes i’ve ever gotten played just fine both ways). The others (getting confused looking at other whistlers and stuff) never seemed to be much if an issue with me, as I always thought in terms of “holes covered” and not “fingers lifted”.
However, there’s a BONUS that these guys might not know about. Since your “good hand” is on top, all of those wicked-hard tunes with lotsa rolls and cuts in the top 3 holes will be much easier for you to learn than it will be for them. We had a thread for a while about the Legacy Jig and how hard it was for folks to learn (lotta cuts on G B and high B, right back to back), and I felt too chastined to pipe up with how easy it was for me to pick that particular passage up.
I’d say that there’s nothing really wrong with playing the way you play…it hasn’t hurt me any
Greg
On 2002-03-13 11:23, Bala wrote:
Are there any other right on top players on the board?
p.s. I’m not even left handed. Sometimes I think I’m dyslexic though, maybe that’s it.
Brigitte, your learning the Hurdy-Gurdy?!! Thats such a great instrument. Do you have any cool links to check out? Is it hard to play?
Down the road I’d like to pick up a Harmonium
I could be wrong but I think Hendrix restrung his strats upside down. He still had the low string closest to the thumb on his right hand. Could be wrong though, there is someone who does play it all “backwards” but I can’t remember who just now.
Just to add, I’m right handed and when I first picked up the guitar I thought it felt better to hold it lefty ways (right hand on fretboard) I don’t know why, it was just instinct. I quickly changed though. I’m glad I did.
With the whistle, it was natural to play left on top because I also play clarinet. I don’t like to upset anyones style but sence you asked I think you might be better off in the long run to switch now, just for the reason of playing other wind instruments down the road.
Good luck either way, and have fun no matter what.
I also play with my right hand on top. Hasn’t held me back any yet. I am learning the flute but as it is keyless I just play it on the left hand side. I could see though how it would be difficult to play a keyed flute.
Isn’t it Seamus Egan that plays the whistle this way and the flute withe the left hand on top? BTW Paddy Moloney also plays this way.
sorry for getting off-topic here now but I wanted to answer jack’s question…
yes, I am trying to learn it, unfortunately it is one of these instruments which is not forgiving anything so most of the time I still sound like my cat screaming as if I stand permanently on his tale (poor him and poor neighbours 
)
Here are some links for you I thought might help you with the harmonicas and about the hurdy-gurdy as well… The last is from Folkworld and is extensively with all kind of stuff
Have fun
Brigitte
http://www.angelfire.com/music/HarpOn/
When going into this website go into the links in the left side frames, plenty of information.. oh about chromatic harmonicas
http://www.angelfire.com/tx/myquill/
This is like the above but about diatonic harmonicas
http://members.tripod.com/Bruno_1_8_6/harpteach.htm
Harmonica exchange website
http://www.hurdygurdy.com/hg/list.html
Here is plenty on information about them
And a very big link page anyway with all kind of information is http://folkworld.de/frog/misc.htm#ins
P.S. one last for being on-topic… for Bala. If you decide not change your hands to the other way round there is always - as I said in my earlier post - the possibility to get a “left-hand”-instrument also on keyed flutes or pipes, guitars etc. just might be a little bit more expensive…
.
Hello,
I am a lefty, but I do play with my left hand on top. What I don’t understand is how one hand could feel more natural than the other, whether on the top or bottom, when you use both hands, anyway. Maybe it’s the way the arms feel, more so than the way the hands feel.
This is interesting. If you want to explore your brain, hold your whistle with the hands opposite of how you would normally play. Now play your favorite song all the way through. - JP
John I just tried it on my Overton big hole tenor D. No thanks!!
As far as the which hand and what does it matter issue, I think Wanderingwhistler makes a very good point. The more difficult transitions happen in the top hand, plus it’s the hand that usualy supports and holds the whistle most often. Myself I do tend to hold my ring finger (Bell tone) down most of the time anyways. But I can see how the stronger hand would want to play the dominate roll.
Well, I’m trying the switch. It does feel really akward, plus I kinda like being a little different. Oh well, I’ll post my progress for anyone who is interested.
Bala
Bala,
As said before, a lot of the top Irish musicians play whistle with their right hand on top including Mary Bergin, Paddy Maloney, Seamus Egan and Larry Nugent. As a teacher, I encourage students to use their left hand on top, but for those who are already used to right on top and don’t feel comfortable changing, I don’t push them to change. Unless you are planning on playing a modern wind instrument like silver flute, clarinet, sax etc. all folk instruments can be made to accomodate right hand on top. Simple Irish flutes (keyless) are like whistles and can be played either way as the finger holes are all in a straight line. Chances are that if you ever decide to play Irish flute, you will start with a keyless one. Then when you want one with keys, you can find or order one to accomodate you (Most Irish flute makers are happy to put keys wherever you want them - as most hand made flutes are custom made for the player). So, don’t worry so much about it and just enjoy playing.
Happy whistling.