When Michael McGoldrick plays whistle or flute, I notice that his bottom ring finger goes down between the D and E holes, thus stabilizing the whistle when playing around the C sharp. Now that I own a picky whistle, I can no longer get by with simply placing my lower ring finger over the bottom hole. However, I can’t figure out how the exact mechanics of the McGoldrick Finger Dance work.
When it’s time to cover the bottom hole again (as when going from C to Mid D), his ring finger goes up and then covers it. Easy. But when I try this, the whistle moves too much and I can’t seem to get to the hole fast enough. The most I can manage is to slide down over the hole, which I’m certain is not ideal. Is there a trick to this?
I prefer resting either of my pinkies on the body, alternating occasionally. A friend of mine with small hands rests his pinkies on the whistle and plays using pipers grip on all instruments regardless of key or size. He can play accurately at incredible speeds too.
YMMV obviously but the finger “dance” is just too frustrating for me. I prefer a constant hold.
I’m finding I stabilize C sharp by having one, two or even three of my right hand fingers covering their holes. I find OOOXXX especially useful on the low whistle for transitions involving B & D since B can also be played XOOXXX without problem and in the second octave, having the bottom three fingers down can help to get these high notes. I also came across an ornament (I forget its name) that involves fluttering between C sharp & D using the OOOXXX fingering for Csharp.
Sorry, man. It looks like your right phalangial waneshaft is leaking. You’re gonna need a new one, and that means we’ll have to replace your metacarpal tendon fluid, too. That’ll be $6 for parts and $12000 for labor.
This is just too ripe for a salacious response. Fortunately, we’re not like that. ($12k, huh? )
But, yeah. Low whistles provide some handling challenges. My trick is to put electrical tape on the back of my MK Pro D, (a lovely dark green, it is). That eliminates the slipperiness, and lets me balance it well on my thumbs. This frees my fingers from having to worry much about gripping or supporting from above. Whatever works.
I have another solution and its much easier. I try to use handcream before playing, an idea from Colin Goldie, to make sure that the fingers seal well on large holes. I use Neutrogena, a very thick cream made for Norwegian chapped hands in winter!! It’s great stuff. I rub it in well and wash most of the excess off with soap and warm water. Invariably though, a little gets left behind creating an almost imperceptible “stickiness” that stops my fingers sliding on my low whistle. Not sure this will work with all handcreams but Neutrogena is low in water content.
I’m far from being a low whistle expert, but I think taping your hand to it is not a good idea, or a good way to get past the issue.
This is an area that I do not have any trouble with though. What I have always done naturally without even thinking about it or realising it prior to reading this thread, is- Stabalize the whistle at about the 2 o clock position on it’s body, with the right pinky. If you do this, you can take your left hand completely off the whistle, leave all holes uncovered, and the whistle will be perfectly stable, just from your right thumb and pinky. It doesn’t take much pressure or anything. It can be done quickly, doesn’t require much of a movement. While not playing those notes, the fingers go back to normal position. Maybe being a recorder player prior to whistling got me used to getting my pinky in on the action, though.
I am sure finger lengths and how you grip the low whistle would influence how well this would work. I can imagine it wouldn’t work perhaps as easily as it does for me if my pinky was a tad bit shorter than it is, and I can’t imagine doing it with the left pinky at all. I assume if you are using a pipers grip, and have at least average sized fingers, it should not be a problem. The hand just tilts in by a very miniscule amount as the pinky goes into position, then it can quickly go back to playing the other notes easily and quickly with little effort. It doesn’t require near as much effort as bringing a roll of tape with you everytime you play a tune that has a C or C# on your low whistle, for the rest of your life.
Please do give the right pinky thing a try. For me, it is just a position that the hand goes into during such times without being concious that i’m even doing it, so unless your hands are very different, it should be something very easy to get into the habit of doing.
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