Greetings to everyone, since I just joined this board I figured I should present myself.
My name is mor (the first three letters actually) and I’m from Italy. I recently started squeaking with a tin whistle and it really got me.
I once read that a tin whistle is the most popular souvenir gift from Ireland and guess guess, that’s how I got mine.
It is a Walton’s Irish Whistle in the key of D (the one currently miniaturized in my avatar) and my sister must have payed it less than 10 euros, but from what I have read so far, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is bad. It’ll be good for now anyway.
This little whistle sit in a drawer for the last two years or so but as of recently (less than two months) I just felt like starting practicing and I’m just so sorry I didn’t do it before.
I have been collecting info about how to start playing it and eventually I ended here. I noticed a very attractive wit in the way things were presented in the website and even if I only read the sticky posts and announcements in the board so far, I have a hunch I’ll have a good time here.
Bye and see you around (I have quite a few questions!).
I’ve always got a whistle either in my pocket or up my sleeve. I like knowing I have music at all times. I think you’ll enjoy this website too, there’s a lot of very knowledgeable people and quite patient with answering questions. There’s also a lot of people that view each thread as a stand-up act with their name on it. So the wit may wear thin after a couple weeks, but for the most part, it’s an excellent connection to the larger Celtic community.
Welcome Mor.
A better whistle may help that squeak, but practice is the real answer.
Here’s the rub though, a better, more forgiving whistle gets us to practice Mor.
Since your in Italia are you familiar with Guido Gonzato?
I have a whistle made by him that is very nice and I’ve made my own from his DIY instructions. http://www.ggwhistles.com/
Use the waxed-dental-floss or dish soap trick. These things love to clog.
Remove the head by soaking in warm water and use the blu-tack tweak-- makes the second octave easier.
Okay, and a third tip:
Within a couple days the finish will start to peel off. Eventually it will stop when everything around the fingerholes is gone… or you can do as I did and gradually scrape it off the entire whistle with your fingernail (I just did a little bit every time I played and eventually it was all off).
Walton was my first whistle too and I love mine. Just wait until you want a Mellow Dog.
I said “squeaking” because I didn’t want to say I was playing it, it seemed too pretentious to say so at this stage.
I don’t know yet if my whistle is squeaking in a “it is defective” kind of way or if it plays well enough for its value but I’m motivated enough anyway to practice regardless.
I know I’ll need another one pretty soon if not for anything because I’ll wear it out, but still what is important the most for me right know it to learn to move my fingers properly especially when going between distant notes.
I’m not familiar with almost anything, I’m a total (well, almost by now) tin whistle virgin and with playing other instruments as well.
My last foray into playing some instrument dates back to middle school and I never took it seriously back then, so I’m new to pretty much anything.
I’ll take a look at ggwhistles now, thanks.
I don’t think I know this trick and from a quick googling I couldn’t find anything whistle-related either (aside from a reference to the trick in this very forum but no explanation).
As for clogging, I assume you mean moisture, I have to say I don’t think it is a big problem for me yet, most likely because I’m still doing the scales and simple short tunes, but I developed (well, developed is a big word, it’s not like I invented anything) a system with a Chinese chopstick wrapped in a very fluffy and delicate cloth with which I wipe the whistle quite often.
I suppose the soap is just to avoid the tack from sticking too hardly on the mouthpiece right?
Anyway, I have tried a few of these methods but I did it only for the “silencing” purpose and I can’t seem to understand in what way there’s an advantage in playing the second (you mean higher right?) octave.
If anything I found it harder, more blowing for just a airy whisper with a hint of a note beneath it.
So far there’s not sign of peeling around the fingerholes, the only part that seem to be a little worn off is the tip where the mouthpieces goes but other than that it is still quite in shape. I’ll remember your tip for when it’ll does that.
At first, hello Mor and welcome. If I can say welcome, because I’m beginner too .
I didn’t knew it when I bought mine. I abraded (what the hell is on that surface, it sticks my fingers…) and polished my Walton. It looked very nice. For few days.
After that, whistle becomes darker and darker and today (5 months later) it looks like this: Click to larger. Shiny ring near green plastic reminds me how it looked after polishing - it is covered by transparent tape. Tape was try to show position where whistle is tuned. But it shows wrong position .
Hi kmarty, my whistle is not yet like yours, although I think they are exactly the same model and mine will probably be like yours when the mileage is right. Still I think you probably accelerated the oxidation process by scraping off whatever protective film was on it.
Makes a big difference, or at least it did on mine. Second octave doesn’t blow so hard, first octave doesn’t want to cut in so much.
Mine only took a couple days, not even with that much handling. Mine is about a year old but not as dark as kmarty’s… but definitely different wear around the holes/where my thumbs rest on the back than the rest of it. That’s part of the charm. Shows it’s well-loved.
Like this?
It is shame, because it looked so nice (after removing the sticky finish and after polishing, it was much brighter than original - almost like gold), but I reconcile* with it. Appearance does not affect sound.
*) Google translate .
About wearing around holes - I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong, but my first tin whistle (Clarke) looks very similar:
I’ll give these two methods a try. Right now I swab the moisture from the small inside part of the mouthpiece with a silk-like flat ribbon about the size of the opening, while I use the other device for the wide part.
Hopefully I won’t need to use it anymore.
How often am I supposed to repeat the soap-soaking or flossing?
Well I didn’t know about that.
Interesting trick, surely worth trying although I don’t have any idea of how would the whistle fare when it is silenced (I use the tape method) since I prefer to use it muffled most of the times not to disturb the neighbors (especially until I master it! ).
But I will try it, I still have the tack I bought for silencing purposes.
My whistle is definitely older than yours, but I’ve been using it consistently only in the last month or so and probably less than the average whistler beginner would (at least is less that I would have wanted, but time available is what it is).
When I have a moment I’ll post a picture.
I flossed mine once a few months ago and it has not needed it since-- which is pretty good for me. As far as the poster putty in the head-- doesn’t seem to affect muting at all.
This morning I tried the flossing but apart from the fact I’m not sure if my floss is the waxed kind, I found it extremely difficult to do and I had the impression it was not doing anything.
So I decided to try the soap method for now, until I get a waxed floss and try again.
As for the tack in the head for muffling purposes, after a lot of extensive testing, I realized it is just very difficult to place the little ball in the right place, but once you’re able to do it you can obtain a rather satisfying compromise between overall volume and nice sound.
But given it is so difficult I just ended up applying the tack flat like a tape and once placed that way it does just the same as the tape, but without the gluey stickiness once it is removed. The tape is easier to place and not prone to be accidentally altered when handling the whistle but can be sticky once removed, the tack is harder to place and need a little more care in handling but doesn’t stick.
In the end both the tape and the tack give the same results sound-wise, and both have their advantages and disadvantages in getting applied and removed so it is just a matter of what one prefers. I think I’ll just use the tape for now.
Family and friends are not affected that much by my playing, neighbors are to some extent but I as I said I try to play it quietly (tape muffling) and hopefully I won’t have to listen to any (rightful) complaint.
I am a quite person, I listen to music and tv at reasonable (even lower than that) volumes and so I play the whistle. Of course once I’ll start to play it better I’ll un-muffle it and I’ll see how people around me will react.
For now I mostly do scales and a few simple tunes that are on the leaflet that was in the whistle package (like auld lang syne, danny boy, on top of old smokey etc.), I’m concentrating mostly on the finger movements.
So no Italian folk songs for now just the ones I have at hand in the leaflet and a few I’m trying to reconstruct by hear (Ireland’s call and flower of Scotland namely), but I’m far.
I also don’t even know if the “learn by playing tunes” is the right way to do it, or at least if it is right for me. I have little or no musical background and I wouldn’t want to learn the whistle this way, I would like to learn and read the music which will be also useful should I ever want to learn to play another instrument.
I’m currently looking around for lessons and tutorials but from what I could see they are mostly just “learn by playing tunes” which I guess is fine but, I don’t know, I don’t “feel” it is right.
Right now my main concern is just finding more time to devote to the whistle among other activities that take my spare time away.
