The instrument arrived yesterday while I was at work. I found out while chatting with Renee (oh, she is my wife). She said it sounded very nice.
I WAS DEVESTATED! I mean, SHE got to play it before I did. Now what is up with THAT. It is OK, really. Therapy will help.
What we noticed vs the little Clarke orig. D we borrowed and have been playing with:
The finger holes are a bit easier to locate. Renee found the small, thin holes on the Clarke difficult to locate and cover.
The spread is at about my limit for finger tip playing. Pipers grip is easier, but will take some getting used to. One thing that I found myself naturally doing was using my pinkie for the bottom hole. Any thoughts on the advantages or disadvantages of that scheme? I will most likely be sticking with the low whistles with Renee on the soprano range.
The lower octive was VERY easy to play and get a good sound from. After some of what I heard from other Low D players I was quite surprised about this. I expected a HUGE learning curve based on the feedback. After a short while I was able to get decent sound from most of the upper octive. This morning I am able to play from low D up to the third D with some effort. The higher up the register I went the more difficult and more airy the sound became.
It does not POP between the octive. When trying to change with pressure alone there is a squawky hesitation. When using the tounge to change it is much cleaner.
I do not know what any of the cross fingerings are but I found that any note played other than the “normal” fingering sounded more airy or chiffy (if I can use that!).
Overall we are quite pleased. By the time we had played it for about a half hour each we were able to play a couple of songs by site reading some musid we have, in the key of G no less.
Please offer suggestion on how to overcome some of the issues mentioned above. I’ll post more as I learn more about this whistle.
Thanks to all those who read my message. I wish someone would have had the information I needed to address some of the playability issues I am having. I guess I will try to contact Goldie for some input.
I don’t have the time to give detailed instructions to help you since I have a time limit on the public PC’s I am currently using, but if you search through my previous posts you will find several posts with specific instructions that will help you. Try searching for Overton related posts by me.
I’m a MAJOR newbie as you can hear in my first Clips and Snips piece (For refence as to just HOW much improvement I need..), so I would NEVER offer more than basic, rudimentary comments which you have already surpassed.
With that being said,
CONGRATUALTIONS ON THE ARRIVAL OF YOUR NEW “BABY”!!!
It sounds like you have many years of delight and wonderment in learning it’s eccentricities ahead of you. Enjoy every moment! And as for the wife playing first, I’m jealous that you’ve found a great woman to share your passion for tinnies with! I’m still trying to find one who won’t run for the hills when I pick mine up. (Maybe all going back to that improvement in playing?)
It may seems easier to play the lower octave than you expected, but make sure that you are supporting your breath and playing with enough pressure/breath column.
A good way to learn the breathing is to not tongue (at all). To make octave breaks smoother (low to high) try tapping/striking the note in the high octave.
