Hello folks, and now for a good old fashioned whistle related question
Under duress from my worship leader at church, I pulled out my tuner and found, to my surprise, that the tuning could change dramatically depending on how hard I blew (note: Iām not a musicial person, I really was surprised to see that). Now I was using a clarke sweetone, and I was curious if this is: #1: just one of those things Iām going to have to learn to deal with and will disapear as I get a better āfeelā for my instrument #2: Something that will be greatly reduced if I get a āhigher-endā whistle #3: something that will disapear completely with the purchase of a āhigher endā whistle #4: any combanation of the above, or anything else
Please, any explanation would be very helpful, as I get weird looks any time I play cuz Iām out of tune
#1. #2. #3. #4.
ā¦ Nature of the beast. Wind blown instrumentsā¦ especially of the whistle nature, you will be able to get a fluctuation up or down depending on the force youāre using to get the particular note youāre playingā¦ just think about it this wayā¦ you have to blow harder the more holes you have open or as you go up the scale right? Therefore, once you hit a note, play around a bit and youāll notice thereās a bit of āplayā before you will break into the note above or below.
You will see more of this on some, less of it on others, but no matter what, you will always have at least a small amount of what I like to call ācontrolā over any give note.
Donāt worry, you get used to it after a while. Youāll never even notice it after a few years. Just kidding! youāll have it down in no timeā¦ just takes some getting used to like anything else.
Take care,
John
(edited for typographical eech inspediment submission before checking)
Well, this is going to happen, but as you gain more experience you will at least be more consistent in your intonation. When playing alone, it doesnāt make much of a difference, but when playing with others, you have to do your best to listen to them and blow yourself into tune (after tuning up before starting, of course).
In theory, my corpsā fife line is all in tune with each other before we start a gig. In reality, people blow one way when tuning up and another once they get playing. So adjustments have to be made. We have agreed to all focus on listening to the strongest player and trying to play in tune with him/her.
Playing for singers is challenging, as is playing multiple part harmonies in small groups. You could try practicing in front of your tuner, concentrating on playing each note in tune. This will help because as I said at the beginning of this post, you will become consistent with practice. You have a tuner, so you might as well try to be consistently in tune!
A better whistle may make some immediate difference, as there are whistles with less demanding breath control requirements than the Sweetone, but youāll get a handle on the Sweetone soon enough. Besides, itās got a charming sound for worship music, donāt you think?
Sweetones do have a lovely sound for worship music, I get complements everytime I play Iād just rather be focusing on something other then getting the tuning right when I do play (of course, in the words of my worship leader: āit kinda creates a cool chorus effect with the keyboardā not sure if that is a good thing or not) Anyway, I have an Elfsong D/C set on the way, do you think that will be an inprovement or make it more difficult to hit that note (with my luckā¦ :roll: )
I think the Elfsongs are easier all round. I love the way they switch octives with such ease. I was a very good unintentional octave splitter until I got my Elfsong.
When playing with others, intonation is almost as important as hitting the right notes. Fortunately, it becomes automatic after awhile. (It could be worse. Imagine playing fiddle instead of whistle.)
my opinion: sweetones are about as consistent as you can get in an inexpensive whistle, from the standpoint of intonation. donāt be in a hurry to spend more money just in the hope of finding the perfectly tuned whistleāthat probably wonāt work. iāve spent plenty more, but i still like and play my sweetones, and with other instruments. itās possible you got a lemon, although that would contradict most peopleās experience, or that youāre really overblowing to be heard over the other instruments. that might make you sharp some.
until I got my Elfsong.