Yes, I just tested this on my MK low D and got the same result. I can take the approach further too. I can get an in tune high A by using the D fingering (all tone holes close), an in tune high B by using the E fingering (XXX XX0) and an in tune high C# by using the F fingering (XXX X00), all with slightly better volume balance, albeit still noticeably louder than the bottom register.
I do think that this approach of utilizing the higher harmonics is the most promising path forwards for low whistles. Just to give you an idea of the potential for this kind of approach (using higher harmonics) and combining it with lower lip window shading to strengthen the bass notes, take a look at (listen too) this video of Winne Clement playing a low A fipple-based kaval. The dynamic range, balance, and expressive power he is able to achieve on such a low “whistle” is quite astonishing. When you play low whistles, one thing that is very noticeable is that the lowest notes get quieter and quieter the lower the key of the whistle. This instrument he is playing is in low A several tones below a low D whistle, yet his high notes are sweet and his low notes powerful!
I wondered if your MK would behave exactly like mine. You often find that with flutes and whistles certain harmonics produce usable notes, but often it is by accident rather than by design.
In the case of a good recorder it is certainly by design, because there is no way that, by chance, you would get a fully chromatic instrument with all the functioning cross fingering without designing it in, albeit with some compromises.
Sometimes flute and whistle makers take the time to tune the higher harmonics. This is especially true of antique flutes that were made to play in the third octave. But often what happens, especially for instruments intended for Irish music in two octaves, is that a maker will tune the first and second octave notes in the first two harmonics only and the rest will be left to chance.
By the way, anyone who has looked into the details of the acoustic theory I tried to summarize earlier will have probably noticed that I got my terminology reversed. Hopefully, it didn’t affect the understandability of what I wrote, because I did define the way I was using my terms. But what I referred to as a pressure node is correctly referred to as a displacement or velocity or flow node. There are two mirror image ways of looking at, or graphing, bore behavior. One is based on pressure and the other is based on air flow/displacement. They have the same shape wave, but are phase shifted relative to each other.
The nodes are the points at which there is no change (graphed line crosses zero). So a pressure node is the point where there is no change in pressure (pressure remains at equilibrium), and a pressure antinode is the point at which there is maximal change in pressure (pressure fluctuates). The pressure antinodes are where you would ideally want to vent, because the vent hole, when open, will keep the pressure at equilibrium.
The pressure nodes are located in the same place as a flow/velocity/displacement antinodes, and the pressure antinodes are located in the same place as a flow/velocity/displacement nodes.
All I can offer up in my defense is that it is easy to get this terminology confused/reversed, especially when trying to compose posts in the middle of the night.
Don’t worry about it - it’s all too easy to make those reversals, but it’s also easy for the reader to read the right meaning into it and in some cases not even notice the error, as here with me. Thanks for providing all that insight - if I’ve read about how venting works before, I didn’t take it in properly, but this time I’ve got it.
There are often schemes to try to turn the Irish whistle into a sort of a poor-man’s Boehm flute or a poor-man’s Recorder.
I, like the vast majority of trad players, are content with an Irish whistle that’s an Irish whistle.
Boehm himself initially fitted an octave key on his flute. The Recorder, the Oboe, and the Clarinet all have them, why not flute?
Boehm says
I find this little key (Schleifklappe) very useful if the player wishes always to be in perfect tune with the following notes (which) have a tendency to get a little flat if played pianissimo, while if you open the octave-key they are not only perfectly correct, but also sound very easily.
However Dayton C Miller says
In the translator’s collection are several Boehm & Mendler flutes having the octave-key…after many trials extending over a period of years the conclusion is that, for several of the notes mentioned, the influence of the key cannot even be detected, while for other notes the effect is so small as to be entirely negligible.
Irish woodwinds lack such keys (or holes) interestingly even the double-reed uilleann pipes. Even though they were originally designed to be a pseudo-folk equivalent of the oboe, having an octave key (or hole) was found unnecessary.
Fair enough, but plenty of trad players would welcome a change like this. I know many trad players who won’t even play whistles in sessions because they volume is so hard to control. I myself have (so far) avoided buying a low whistle precisely because it seems impossible to be heard equally across both octaves when playing with other musicians. So you may be right about the “vast majority,” but you aren’t speaking for everyone.
Some people like improvements to instruments, and they are unconvinced by the “it should stay how it is because that’s how it is” argument. If we took that mentality to the extreme, we’d nix low whistles entirely (since they’re a modern invention) and go back to older-style soprano whistles that lack any of the innovations that people like Overton, Copeland, and Sindt (or even Generation) have made over the last 50-60 years.
Boehm himself initially fitted an octave key on his flute. The Recorder, the Oboe, and the Clarinet all have them, why not flute?
Boehm says
I find this little key (Schleifklappe) very useful if the player wishes always to be in perfect tune with the following notes (which) have a tendency to get a little flat if played pianissimo, while if you open the octave-key they are not only perfectly correct, but also sound very easily.
However Dayton C Miller says
In the translator’s collection are several Boehm & Mendler flutes having the octave-key…after many trials extending over a period of years the conclusion is that, for several of the notes mentioned, the influence of the key cannot even be detected, while for other notes the effect is so small as to be entirely negligible.
Irish woodwinds lack such keys (or holes) interestingly even the double-reed uilleann pipes. Even though they were originally designed to be a pseudo-folk equivalent of the oboe, having an octave key (or hole) was found unnecessary.
But we’re talking about a flute here, not a whistle. Flutes have embouchure holes that allow you to control volume without affecting pitch much. So an octave key would be almost completely unnecessary. Adding one would increase the complexity of the instrument without affecting its functionality much, if at all. Other woodwinds do have octave keys, precisely because the embouchure doesn’t allow you to do this, so octave keys provide a substantial benefit.
And whistles in particular would benefit from venting/octave holes because, unlike most other woodwinds, there’s (almost) no way to affect volume without also affecting pitch. Whistles are even less flexible in this regard than oboes. That’s why the recorder uses a venting/octave hole. Adding one to a whistle would add almost no complexity to the instrument and could be done at a negligible cost, but it would probably allow for significantly more flexibility in playing.
It’s also not too surprising that Uillean pipes lack an octave key. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Uillean pipes can be played with relatively stable volume across both octaves, can’t they?
Yes, I’m also quite sensitive to the issue of increasing the complexity of the instrument, and I like simple system whistles and flutes for the elegance of their simplicity. I think this is one reason why I favor the idea of trying to tune the higher harmonics to make some of the higher/louder notes available lower on the tube, via cross fingerings and higher harmonics. There is only so far you can go with this, but it may well be far enough, for example, if you tune a whistle such that you can get high A and B via right hand fingering.
Existing fingering would still work, of course, and you haven’t actually changed the interface to the instrument at all, just paid close attention to the bore profile and tone hole lattice arrangement.
All that is really happening when you play high B with a xxx xxo fingering one harmonic up is that you are effectively changing the bore aspect ratio, from an effectively very short fat bore with xoo ooo fingering, to a longer, slimmer bore aspect ratio with xxx xxo fingering. This reduces the volume and slightly changes the even higher harmonic components of the note.
Its true that adding one additional thumb hole does not seem like much of a complexity increase, especially not from a manufacturing standpoint, but it does affect ergonomics significantly, and it is definitely the kind of thing that can irritate me when I’m playing an instrument.
I really want to experiment more with flipping the whistle head upside down to give the player the ability to shade the window a bit with their lower lip. Again, I think this would have zero impact on complexity if you chose not to use it, but might help strengthen those lower notes, the same way the kwela players do, but in a much more comfortable way.
