The parcel from Germany finally arrived and like Mark J I am now the proud owner of an Overton “modal” whistle by Colin Goldie. Sue (Whistlepeg) asked for my impressions of this unusual addition to the whistle family so here goes. These are very much first impressions, based on a couple of hours of experimentation.
The instrument is like a standard Overton high D except it’s a couple of inches longer, with two extra holes - one for the little finger of the bottom hand, which gives you a C natural (below the low D, and also in the next two octaves) and one on the back for the thumb of your bottom hand, which gives you an F natural.
Ignore these two holes and you can play the instrument exactly like an ordinary D whistle. (Some care is required: you have to make sure you keep the thumb hole well sealed - it’s slightly lower than where you would normally rest your thumb – and you have to watch how you use your little finger as a stabilizer, since you can inadvertently stop the C hole by doing so.)
As a D, I like it a lot. It’s quite a powerful whistle, similar in volume to a Water Weasel, but a shade quieter. The tone is more chiffy and pleasing to me than that of the Weasel, so I think it the Overton is going to replace my borrowed WW as the “big gun” I reach for when the pub or session is very noisy. I am also grateful that, unlike the Weasel, it plays a perfectly tuned C-natural using [|oxx-xox] fingering. Unlike the Weasel, though, it’s not tunable. It also needs thorough warming up.
Now I don’t see myself using this whistle to play loads of tunes in C and related keys. If a piper takes out a set of C pipes, I’ll still be reaching for the C whistle.
But what I would like to do is be able to play D-dorian and G-dorian tunes well on the D whistle. After all, if someone launches into “Julia Delaney” in the middle of a set in a session, you don’t see the flute players suddenly fumbling in their bag for a different instrument, but that’s what most whistle players will do!
Anyway I’m having a lot of fun, but I don’t think “Julia Delaney” will be ready for prime time for a little while on this whistle. Trying to incorporate the F-natural fingering (or should that be thumbing), is inducing severe brain confusion. It’s really like playing a completely new instrument.
For example, if you’re going down the scale, to get the F-nat you have to plonk down fingers 5 and 6, but with your opposing thumb completely off the whistle, or at least off its hole. Then, to go from your F-nat to D and back again, you have to use the thumb and 6th finger together, in a kind of pincer motion that is way weird! Trying to play a C-nat/A/F-nat arpeggio sequence in “The Yellow Tinker” blew a cerebral fuse, too.
Another difficulty is remembering to put the thumb back onto its hole when you’ve played an F-nat and start going back up the scale (not to mention remembering to put it back on in its new, lower position).
However, there’s some fun stuff too. It’s easy to get a very satisfying roll on the F natural by cutting in the normal way and tapping with the thumb. Actually I find it easier to slide the thumb across the hole for the tap, which led me to realize I could do a kind of whistler’s version of the “back-D treble” for pipers invented by Paddy Keenan, by sliding the thumb rapidly back and forth over the hole. This works rather well on low and high D, providing an interesting alternative to cranning or tongued trebles!
So there’s a lot of potential with this whistle. But to really make it work is going to require a lot of practice - as I said, it’s almost like being faced with a different instrument. I wonder if I’m up to it…
Steve
BTW there were a couple of other whistles in the parcel from Colin - an A and an F, the latter anodized in a gorgeous shade of purply blue. They are beautifully made instruments, with a huge, rich sound, and a total pleasure to play. Once you start playing them you just don’t want to put them down, for the sheer pleasure of the tone and the response. I’m a complete convert and very happy camper - even if my PWADI</a](http://chiffboard.mati.ca/archive/whistle/23/10227810830499.html">PWADI</a)> has just taken a huge beating!
