Always at your service, Sir.
Best.
Byll
OK, since I was (I think) an originator of one of the threads in question, I shall offer a dissenting opinion with the opening few posts.
My comments/questions about the pipers grip were not disparaging toward the grip at all, only toward my ability to do it easily and well. There is, of course, a difference.
I certainly agree that the pipers grip is needed for most low whistles, and that it is worth learning. Lots of you could whistle circles around me, and I’ve never been averse to taking good advice. I am, however, a bit put off by someone, no matter how expert, telling me that something is not difficult.
Trust me: It is difficult for some of us. It is not for anyone else to tell me it is not, or that the difference is some sort of musical hypochondria. Please.
I believe Hans has it. The difficulty, I believe, is not psychological but sensory. My fingertips are fairly sensitive, and I am able to feel, without even thinking about it, that my fingers are in the right spots. The second joints of my fingers are much less sensitive, and I am unable to feel the holes at all. Thus with the pipers grip I have to go strictly by sound and muscle memory, a much more tedious and exhausting and much less satisfying process. Add to this that my fingers are already trained by several years of high/medium whistle playing, and I was squawking about as many notes as I was nailing with my right hand.
Difficult? You bet. Impossible? Heck no. Worth it? Of course. In fact, it has forced me to slow down and work on detail work, which is never a bad thing, and even my high whistle playing is better for it.
After a month or so of work pursuing the excellent, productive advice given in a previous thread on the topic, I am finally starting to get the hang of it. 
So, thanks everyone for that!
Just remember that what comes easy and natural for some might not for everyone.
Thanks-- 
TW
No, it just shows that you haven’t been paying attention to my bansi_links topic because in there I clearly spell out (with reference) that
THERE ARE DIFFERENT GRIPS IN CLASSICAL AND FOLK BANSURI TRADITIONS.
For instance the grandmaster of classical bansuri tradition, Pandit Pannalal Ghosh,
the generation of maestros before Hariprasad’s generation, USED FINGER TIPS.
He spread his hands as for a piper’s grip but after that arched his fingers for tip touch.
Everyone from the Ghosh lineage is into finger tip.
(I can’t handle that way even though Pannalal is my favourite bansuri player but then, for me, its more about his music as in thematic development and composition than about a technique.)
So Hans, if you can tip touch your bellnote B bansuri tone holes you may look into the Pannalal lineage for tuition. Lyon Leiffer, a famous American Boehm flautist and also bansuri master is trained in that lineage.
No, I thought it was going to say:
I have never owned a Clarke Tinwhistle.
Someone wrote their phone number on a Clarke info sheet
and gave me their phone number that way.
I was tidying a drawer this morning and found it.
It says,867-5309
Thanks! Pannalal Ghosh’s favourite bansuri had a Bb bell note (Sa==Eb), so he must have had a big span to cover it with the tips.
But we better discuss this further under the bansi links topic.
I’m the opposite: coming from pipes the piper’s grip is what comes naturally.
Beginning pipers do try to use their fingertips IF they have previous background on recorder or clarinet or whatever.
Untutored beginning fluteplayers in Ireland often use the piper’s grip.
Well, see, that’s cheating.
Are the holes on the Irish flute spaced more closely than those of the low whistle, or does the transverse hand placement make a difference? I would think a D flute would require pipers’ grip as well, but it doesn’t. Of course, the C (boehm) flute uses the fingertips, but I have no idea why this is possible. Interesting. I’ll have to get out a ruler and do some measurements when I get to school.
the touches, on the Boehm, are nowhere near the holes that are opened/closed by the touch
The holes are spaced more closely on a D six-hole conical bore flute than on a low D whistle, because of the conical bore. There is no difference to the whistle if the flute has a cylindrical bore, like the whistle has (or most whistles have).
The transverse position makes it easier too to finger a six hole flute.
well, that is cheating too! 
Germans…I’d blame it on Germans
over engineered, innit!
you are cheating again! 
Vorsprung durch Technik!
Efficient and ergonomic design, if you like keys.
Herr Böhm was Bavarian, the country which produced the BMW.
But No Love for Piper’s Grip by him. 
wasn’t much on block mounts either
If that’s directed at me, allow me to respond. If it’s not directed to me, allow me to respond anyway. 
Here’s a little story. I mentioned above using my mom as a guinea pig to test piper’s grip with her small hands. Mom is 83 years old, and has never played a wind instrument. So I handed her my Overton low D and showed her how to place her fingers, with some help from me actually pushing her fingers into place, a little here, a little there. And within 2 minutes she was playing D scales with piper’s grip in the 1st octave. Not perfectly, of course, but well enough to keep practicing if she chose to.
I’m sorry, Tom, if you find it personally difficult, and I appreciate your frustration. As Hans suggested, a few minutes of hands-on instruction, and I could almost guarantee you a “Doh!” moment to make you wonder what all the fuss is about. It’s likely that something about your physical hand position or mental approach is getting in the way.
But to generalize from your personal experience to a blanket “Difficult … you bet!” is not really fair to other beginners, when the whole point of this thread is to lower the barriers. And there’s plenty of evidence here to encourage that. Technique is always as much mental as physical. And for someone to tell you it’s not really difficult is exactly part of what may help you. Sorry if you don’t want to hear that. But it’s intended as practical advice, not a challenge to the psyche. 
On the physical side … Knuckles can get in the way. So you move things around so they’re not in the way. The middle joints are less sensitive than the tips. So you press harder at first to feel the holes, until your muscle memory takes over with a bit of practice. You press down, then look at the hole indentations on your fingers as a visual cue for possible adjustments. Some of the half-hole techniques don’t work with middle joints. So you use the other half-hole techniques that do work.
I also prefer standard grip when possible. I think that’s pretty common. Looking at Brian Finnegan recently, his hands are large enough for standard grip down to his low G whistle. On his low F, which he favors, his fingers start creeping toward piper’s grip. And on the low D, they’re over further still. It’s a continuum, not an either/or proposition. You position your fingers so they fit the whistle.
Pancelt’s comment about the upper hand is interesting. I also use standard grip on the upper hand, even on low D. When I force myself to shift toward piper’s grip, it feels … awkward. And that’s definitely as much psychological as physical. I don’t need it, so my motivation is low. But after a few minutes practice the feeling starts to “lock in”, and it’s easy to imagine using it full time, if I needed or wanted to.
What are those other techniques you use?
How can it be a “continuum”? Either a finger tip pad covers a hole, or a middle phalanx pad covers it. The crease in between is not much use, and if used, tends to leak.
I think what he means is that the slide of a finger is a continuum
like the slide of a fiddle.
Well, you can half-hole B3 (D/Eb) normally with the pad/tip of the finger. And you don’t need to half-hole B1 (F#) anyway. So that leaves only B2 (E/F-nat) to worry about.
Depending on the melody, I: 1) angle the finger ~45 degrees against the edge of the hole, either by levering it up or touching it there; or 2) cover the bottom half of the hole (“southwest” half, really), by sliding the finger toward the bell or coming down onto the half hole. These are things I do with the first joint in standard grip anyway.
Actually, the crease can work pretty well. At least with my hands - and I have very skinny, bony fingers and knuckles.
Try this experiment: Play an F# on your low D, using the end joint/pad of your B1 finger. Then, as you play the note, and exerting some downward finger pressure, slide your finger smoothly forward over the crease until the hole is under the middle joint. On my whistles, I can do this with no break at all in the sound. You can try the same playing E, and sliding both the B1 and B2 fingers together. This illustrates that you do have some flexibility to position your fingers with piper’s grip if needed.
Sure, you probably don’t want the knuckle right over the hole. But a bit of the crease in the hole or on the edge of the hole, toward one side or the other, seems to work OK. And you can curl your fingers slightly around the tube to loosen the skin around the crease for a better seal. And honestly, on a large-holed low whistle, the knuckle may drop right in and form a usable seal.
No doubt. Look me up next time you’re in Wyoming! I’ll provide the steaks, you provide the instruction.
But to generalize from your personal experience to a blanket “Difficult … you bet!” is not really fair to other beginners, when the whole point of this thread is to lower the barriers… But it’s intended as practical advice, not a challenge to the psyche. >
I wasn’t trying to generalize, just saying that even though it’s difficult for me, it’s worth it. And when you have a psyche like mine, it’s easy to be challenged. 
The important thing to me is that I am getting it. But when you’ve struggled with something for over a month and someone comes along and says, “Oh, that isn’t difficult…”
Well, you know how it is.
Actually most of the touches on a Boehm C flute are on the key itself, the finger directly governing the key below it.
Now a Boehm bass flute is a different proposition!
About halfholing, it seems that people who use the “recorder grip” (for lack of a better name) on the Irish whistle do halfholing by changing the placement of their fingertip.
People who use the “piper grip” rotate their finger slightly, creating an opening under the side of the finger closest to the bottom end of the whistle. (Boy it’s easy to demonstrate but hard to put into words.) Or, they uncurl their finger, raising the tip up, creating an opening on the side of the hole towards the end of the finger.
R2 & R3 are on their key
L2, L3 & R1 are on one of their two keys
L1 is offset
as is Thumb, L4 & R4
so we’re both exaggerating
It’s why a “French model” or “open hole” (or more accurately “perforated key”) model is possble- the fingers are directly on top of the keys.
Five of the six fingers used on the Irish whistle are directly upon their keys. The exception is the upper-hand index finger which governs the high, somewhat remote C# hole. The upper-hand thumb and both pinkies/little fingers have their touches quite close to the keys those digits govern. The only truly remote touches are for trill keys, footjoint keys, and the touch for the alternate B flat fingering.