My wonderful wife fed my WhOA by buying me a Susato 2 piece Kildare, which I absolutely love. It sounds great except for one thing: I seem to be having trouble getting a cut to sound on the high D. I’m twitching the finger on the 3rd hole just like I should. Instead of a nice high A cut, it just makes a low clunking noise (like the note doing the cutting is coming out an octave too low). I can cut my high E, F# and G with no problem. I also don’t have this issue with my Generation.
Any suggestions? What am I doing wrong? The whistle sounds great and Susatos are good whistles, so I’m assuming it’s me (I’m still a newbie - 6 months or so whistling).
I have a Kildare. My first question is, are you lifting your top finger when you play the high D? Cause you need to. If you’re not, you can’t get a good cut using the third finger on the left hand, which is what I was taught is the correct cutting hole. On the Sausato, not playing D with the top hole open will give a realy squeaky, muddy sounding cut. Also, the Kildare seems especially poor at playing a top-covered high D nicely, unlike some other whistles. It really needs the top hole uncovered.
I think we’re just talking terminology here. The sound is similar to a Cnat (though not exactly on a Kildare) but also makes the cut for a D. At least that’s how I was taught. I suppose there are many correct ways but no “correct” way. I think he should read all of our suggeastions and try them and see what works best for him. But my teacher will slap my fingers with a Sweetone if I don’t do it his way Plus it works for me.
I just tried this way on my Kildare and the high D uncovered is a lot more forgiving in terms of breath pressure plus it sounds more open and in line with the sound of the notes before and after it. And cutting with the L2 finger and all holes covered doesn’t sound good at all on this particular whistle.
I just tried it on my other whistles an it only sounds good on the Oak. I believe you’re a Burke player. I am buying a Burke this summer and will try it there. Interesting thing, the high D.
There are a lot of whistles in which cutting the upper-octave D with L3 leads to a drop in pitch instead of a rise in pitch. If you cut quickly enough, it doesn’t really matter what pitch the blip is. If you really want it to go up in pitch, you may have to cut with R1 or R2.
To cut the high D on a Susato (or other wide-bore whistle, such as Mello D, Dixon, Syn, Serpent, etc…) try this:
Completely or partially cover the first tone hole with the first finger left hand, then cut with the first finger right hand.
I tried that and it worked great. I get a pleasant, high-sounding “blip” instead of an ugly low “clunk”!
I cover all the holes and cut with the second finger of the right hand.
This works for me too. Again, I get a nice, high cut.
As for uncovering the top hole to play the high D, I’ve known for awhile that that is another way to play it, but I never bothered to try it out. Based on your feedback, I gave it a go on my Susato, and couldn’t hear much difference. However, on my Generation, it made a HELL of a noticable difference! That’s the ONLY way to play a high D on the Generation. Wish I had tried it sooner
Thanks to all of you for chiming in with such good suggestions! I got a few more tricks in my bag now!
Can’t give you much help on the original question. I just wish my high D susato didn’t have that plasticy, recorder-like buzz to it. Try as I might, I just can’t make myself like the whistle. Different strokes, I guess.
Can’t give you much help on the original question. I just wish my high D susato didn’t have that plasticy, recorder-like buzz to it. Try as I might, I just can’t make myself like the whistle. Different strokes, I guess.
Ha ha. Different strokes for sure. I can’t make myself like my Clarke Whistle at all, yet I hear people rave about them on this site (I’m not talking about the Clarke Sweettone, I’m talking about the original, breathy, flute-sounding Clarke). Besides my Susato and my seldom-used Clarke, I also have a Generation D which I absolutely love. Picked it up in Ireland. It was my first whistle. I think I was lucky enough to get one of the “good” Generations.
Plus it works for me.