I’ve been practising on a standard Waltons D whistle. One area I’m not too sure about is how to play cuts in the second octave.
For example in the jig ‘the blackthorn stick’ there are some repeated high Ds in the second part. When I cut them using my G finger it doesn’t sound like a nice clean seperation of notes as I’d get in the lower octave, instead I’m getting squeaks where the cuts should be! I’ve experimented with different speed cuts, but just can’t seem to get a nice sound.
I also tried tonguing the notes instead, but I think for that particular section of the jig tonguing the notes sounds too jumpy.
Should I be trying to get nicer sounding cuts in the upper octave, or will using a different finger (other than G) to cut the high-D make any difference? Or is there another technique I’m missing here?
not an ususual problem.
your instinct to cut rather than tongue is a good one.
try cutting with the g and a finger. on your whistle either may be better than the other.
i started with a sweetone 2 years ago and had the same problem with cuts on the higher d not being clean. it gets better with practice. as you gain more experience, your cuts will be cleaner and sound better.
you are doing all the right things. keep at it.
Hi John, in the upper octave of a Whistle the effect of cross fingering is much stronger hence the use of OXOOOO for C-nat, so when you use a cut several holes away from the melody note they tend to sound muddy and indistinct. Try cutting with the hole above, on high D, F# cuts nicely on my Whistles (not really a cut as the note is C-nat if you use OXXXXX for D).
Thanks piperdoc. I’m sure I’ll have this problem sorted out fairly quickly. It’s not driving me insane just yet, I was mainly curious to find out if I was alone in this…!
I’ve been using XXXXXX for high-D (I just find it easier); and cutting on the G. You mention cutting on the hole above. Does that mean cutting on the E? i.e. XXXXXX → XXXXOX → XXXXXX
My teacher had me play those D’s in Blackthornstick tongued rather than with cuts when I learned it. It sounds fine. I learned it in a set with My Darling Asleep which also has some tongueing throughout and those tunes really go nicely together.
But if you want to do cuts on both D’s, I use the G finger and make them quick. Learning not to squeak takes time. One wouldn’t think so but it’s true.
I’ve been thinking of pairing it up with ‘frost is all over’ that nice jig from Brother Steve’s tutorial pages… I’ll have to lookup ‘My Darling Asleep’
I’ve been following Grey Larsen’s advice to cut with the finger above (so the E finger–R2–for D), and it seems to work better in the second octave for me–fewer squeeks and squawks. It took a little while to get into it, but it seems pretty natural now.
I still cut with the G finger occasionally if I’ve just used it to cut the F#, and it thinks it’s back in charge again.
I received my ‘MadForTrad’ CDROM this evening, so that’s given me a bit more insight into cuts and taps. It looks like a pretty good tutorial. Of course, I had to skip to the end first just to see how advanced it really got…
Clarke Original design is what I play assuming an octave d roll on the beat is needed, here is what I do
:
I sound octave D with all holes covered, (possibly) tounging the first octave D (whch is the longest D, then making the shorter notes of the crann by cutting with A finger (making the shortest note of the 3 Ds), then cutting with G finger to sound the last octave D which should be slightly longer than the middle of the 3 Ds to give the “lift”.
Does that make any sense? I hear Almond Joy ice cream calling me..
No, I play XXXXXX for high-D. I’ll try it the other way to see what happens.
Although today I was practising cutting the XXXXXX high-D with the G finger, and found that if I’m careful with my breath control and how quickly I cut, I can make it fairly clean sounding.
Perhaps you’re thinking of the cut is an actual note, it’s not. You are supposed to hear a bunch of Ds rolling out of the whistle, in time with the tune. You shouldn’t actually hear the actual cut note used at all (unless you have a really sharp ear and “learn” precicely how the D note sounds when cut with a certain finger.
It seemed as if it took forever to get the “turn” sound (where you are supposed to hear all the notes clearly) out of our fluter’s rolls.
You will have to learn your own whistle’s “quirks” or “features”.