After I thought that low D’s are not for me, in any case within the next 5 years, I really got haunted by the amazing clips of tinwhistler @youtube. If there’s anybody reading this and doesn’t own a low D yet, I give a warning: do not watch this!!
Well, this time I thought I should keep me from foraging and comparing and just save for a MK Kelpie, or at least give it a go as I could order one at Bigwhistle. But now some cruel members posted some news about some nice whistles by makers like Goldfinch or Fidgin Fain. And I fear there are more of such rivals.
So should I ignore them and stick to the MK or what would you do. Anybody here who has pity on me?
Pity? Have you heard the phrase, “Resistance is futile.”? Well, it is. And, “You will be assimilated.”.
They only way to figure out what low D is the one for you is to buy the ones that appeal to you until you realize you are playing one so much that you do not need any other. And that will happen. Try 'em all. Buy 'em all (if you can). stick with the ones that make your musical soul sing. Pass the ones you don’t bond with along to others. They will be assimilated as well.
If you buy your MK direct from Misha he gives you a ‘right of return’. I have an MK and like it a lot - high quality instrument. I have also just ordered a Goldfinch which is coming in about a month. Could let you know the differences then.
Yes, I love my Goldie(s), but like to hear more about the Goldfinch.
A Goldie might be interesting too, especially as it would be only an hour drive for me. But after I read a lot of these surely superior whistles, I’m not sure if they are for me. It is often said that it takes time to get used to them. The MK seem to be more accessible, concerning the price as well.
If you buy your MK direct from Misha he gives you a ‘right of return’. I have an MK and like it a lot - high quality instrument. I have also just ordered a Goldfinch which is coming in about a month. Could let you know the differences then.
A comparison between your MK and the Goldfinch would be interesting, I’m sure not alone for me. Maybe you can write some lines when it has arrived. On the MK homepage they say that the polished one allows a bit more grip than the satin. Do you think it’s worth the investment to go for a polished one?
I’m in love with my Goldfinch whistles…
How is the look? They look a bit ugly on the photo. Sorry, I don’t want to affront the one you’re in love with at the moment
I’m very interested in the Goldfinch, but if you are only an hour’s drive from Colin Goldie, I urge you to phone him up and go!! I’m really envious of that opportunity. I bought my first Goldie Low D, a soft blower, from him when I’d only been playing whistle about a month and never regretted it. It wasn’t so difficult to play either. They may take a little more time to get used to than others but that soft blower was no problem for me and it sounded wonderful.
To me, Goldies and MKs are both superior instruments of equal quality, but they play very differently.
You owe it to yourself to get an MK and a Goldie in your hands (whether bought or borrowed) and spend a large amount of time playing them both.
It will probably become clear which suits you better.
I’m a fan of buying whistles used, because you can try any number of whistles for free. A two-year-old whistle is worth the same as a two-year-and-three-month-old whistle, so you can buy it, play it for a few weeks or months or years, and then sell it for the same you bought it for.
And let’s face it: Low Whistles are extremely inexpensive as top-notch instruments go. I sold one flute and got enough money to go on a Low D Whistle buying spree.
I’ve owned five or six MKs, kept my favourite, and sold the rest. A dozen other makes have come and gone too, either bought and sold, or borrowed.
My keeper MK is very very good. But not perfect! So The Quest goes on… I’m now spending a lot of time playing on a Reyburn Low D that’s just as good as Goldies and MKs but completely different from either in tone and function.
Having my hands on an MK Kelpie now (what a sound and volume!) I still want to try out a Goldie and many many more.
By the way, my MK Kelpie feels fine in my hands, not slippery at all, but now I don’t play for hours on end or with too sweaty hands. (If funding had allowed though, I might have gone for a tunable whistle, Goldie or MK Pro.)
Freckle Girl, if you live so close to Colin Goldie’s place and can actually GO THERE you have the great chance to try out several instruments, experience a wider range of sound and playability, meet the maker himself perhaps. That’s great!
Good luck with your quest, which is also mine, ours
On the MK homepage they say that the polished one allows a bit more grip than the satin. Do you think it’s worth the investment to go for a polished one?
I would guess polished is easier to grip. I wound up with a non polished one. I’ve put quite a lot of electrical tape where the thumbs go so I can hold it better, but it’s still kind of slippery. I love the way it plays but I wish it were just plain steel.
Can I ask you for a moment to think about what kind of music you aspire to play? If it is mainly dance tunes i.e. jigs and reels, then there are many places you can take a breath within the rhythms of the tunes. But if slow airs are what you most like, then consider that places to take a breath may be more sparse and, worse, the pieces may involve challenging long, high notes.
Let me add something in favour of the Goldie. With the Low D, I think I’m right in saying (Brigitte can correct me if I’m wrong) Colin makes five different heads with increasing windway heights going from what he calls soft (a moderate amount of breath needed but less “push”, less pressure of blowing required) to medium (very little breath but a lot of push required . . . from the diaphragm).
When I started on the Low D I chose a soft blower which I believe has similar air requirements to an MK Pro or Kelpie (or so a friend told me who owned both MK and soft Goldie). I was fine with that Low D, a lovely whistle, until I started to play airs and Davy Spillane tunes. Out of curiosity I bought a medium second-hand and didn’t touch the soft blower for six months. Now I wouldn’t go back. The medium makes playing such tunes so much less of a struggle and far more enjoyable. I hardly ever gasp for air; it uses far less than any other Low D I’ve played and I’ve played a fair few. And I know of two professionals, who also used to play the soft blower but now play a medium to lessen air requirements.
Given the choice of heads, virtually every Goldie Low D is slightly different. Sadly, I’ve had to buy mine over the phone with Colin playing a bunch of them to me. You have the chance to visit him and try out a selection. Don’t miss out on that opportunity. And think ahead. What type of whistle music do you most enjoy or would most like to play? If it is slow pieces you need to consider the demands they will put on your lungs. When trying out a whistle, see how long you can hold a second octave B. It may give you an idea of what’s involved.
Let me throw Löfgren in the ring. His low D is the only one i have kept..
Of course a purely subjective opinion but i’d say try a Löfgren or be sorry you didn’t
Oh, and also - don’t paint yourself into a corner by avoiding whistles that takes getting used to, they often prove to be the keepers, vastly superior to the pick-up-and-play ones.
Can I ask you for a moment to think about what kind of music you aspire to play?
This is probably a key question Mikethebook. Still I don’t have an answer to it I must say. I’m just getting into different styles of whistle music. I don’t know where the path leads me to in the future. I would like playing reels and jigs with guitar accompaniment, maybe with a slower tempo than I play these on my high D. Then I love slow airs as well, which I imagine to sound nice on a low whistle. A difficult question, what do you think?
The medium makes playing such tunes so much less of a struggle and far more enjoyable. I hardly ever gasp for air; it uses far less than any other Low D I’ve played and I’ve played a fair few.
Sorry I’m a bit confused. I thought you call a soft blower an instrument with less air requirements and a medium/hard blower one with more air requirements. f.e. a Freeman Blackbird I would call a soft blower. Why is it more comfortable then to play a medium?
I understand that there are a bunch of good arguments to talk to Colin directly. Well, it’s still a fact to me that I could buy 3 or 4 Goldfinch for the price of a Goldie. Don’t misunderstand me - they are surely worth it, there’s no doubt. What I heard of the soundsamples, the high whistles have always been to brillant for my taste. But maybe I should save some money and give them a go. I just thought I could get a long without spending so much. But as some member here said, whistles seem to be a bargain compared to other professional instruments.
You misunderstood what I said. Perhaps I didn’t explain it well. Soft blowers have higher windways (we’re talking here fractions of a millimetre difference sometimes) need more air but are easy to blow and most people seem to start on them. It’s relatively effortless and easy to get notes. In medium or even hard blowers the windway is narrower height-wise so getting air into the whistle is harder, like blowing down a straw, but less air is actually used in driving the whistle. It takes more getting used to but the rewards are great. Colin used to tell me it was a great whistle for lazy players. At first I couldn’t understand this. A medium is harder to blow. But I understand now. Once you adapt to blowing harder - you need to blow from the diaphragm - it is a much easier whistle to play because, whatever you’re playing, you don’t need to take a breath as often. You’re blowing hard but using much less air. I see videos of players playing Low Ds that are very soft blowers and they are constantly having to take a breath especially if they want to go up into the second octave. With a whistle like a medium Goldie it is much less work.
Hope I’ve made things clearer. At the end of the day you have to make your own journey of discovery to see what suits you best. I will say that aluminium whistles probably offer more complexity of tone compared with those that use pvc. And your choice isn’t limited to Goldie or MK. Lofgren are very good whistles, Alba & Chieftain to name just a few. But don’t let anyone put you off Goldfinch. I would like one of their Low Ds for when I’m figuring out a tune at my desk at home and don’t want to have to warm up a Goldie, or for when I’m travelling.
If a used Lofgren ever comes up for sale I will pounce on it for sure! Never seen one.
About “air requirements” there are two different ways a whistle requires air 1) force of air 2) volume of air, or consumption
As for #1 I don’t care about that. All whistles require a negligible force of air to me.
As for #2 that’s critical to me, because it dictates how often you have to take a breath, which limits the phrase-length you can play. I call it efficiency, because you can have two Low D Whistles of about the same volume, say a Burke and an MK, yet you can sustain a note up in the 2nd octave, say High B, two-thirds to three-quarters longer on an MK. As for whistles that suck far more air than others of similar volume one does wonder where it all goes.
I think Mike is talking about “backpressure” or impedence, where more force of air is required but air moves more slowly through the instrument, making it more air-efficient.
Thank you Mike, now I’ve got it. I have a Parks Alto Bb which is wonderfully accessible. But I have to draw breath quite often. From that point of view I can imagine that it’s easier if you maybe have to blow a bit harder but in exchange you can play longer phrases then.
The idea of taking a few into my hands and try them out is a good one of course. The ones I could try are chieftain, Kerry and Dixon. Well, plus Goldie. The MK’s unfortunately not as they are not available around here. I somehow hoped you all might say something like: go for the MK and be happy. But that’s naive I’m afraid.
Where would you classify the MK concerning the efficiency.
I haven’t played an MK myself but my friend who owned one along with a soft blowing Goldie reckoned the two whistles were about equal in terms of air efficiency. Pancelticpiper in his search for an efficient Low D settled on an MK, so they are obviously very good. Similarly, I have to say that the soft blowing Goldie was also very good and efficient compared to most other Low Ds on the market. Nevertheless, when it comes to playing long, high notes in the middle of an air, the medium is a substantial step up. If there is a more efficient Low D on the market then I haven’t come across it. Unless it is Colin’s hard blower which I don’t think he is making anymore.
If you are only an hour from Colin Goldie then I do encourage you to arrange a visit and try a few of his whistles. Then you can get a feeling for them yourself. And Colin is a lovely guy as is his wife Brigitte. I bought my first Goldie Low D when I’d only been playing about a month. And though I’ve tried many other whistles since, I pretty much knew straight away from its feel and tone that I wouldn’t find another make of whistle that would satisfy me more.
BTW If you want to try an MK, you can order one from MK themselves and return it within, I think, 30 days if you don’t like it. Check their web-site.
I should say there is more of a learning curve to playing a medium Goldie. To have strength, breath needs to come from the diaphragm not the throat. But by practicing tunes with high notes in them I gradually found I could get higher and higher with increasing ease until now I can reach third octave G. I never go there in tunes obviously but being able to access the really high notes makes the lower ones steadily easier. And it all comes down to good breathing technique rather than needing lots of breath. Bear in mind too, I’m 60 with lungs that aren’t great!!!
I have two MKs, one in each finish, and they differ in air requirements. One has a good bottom end but difficult to reach top hand notes in the upper octave (I always thought that it had originally been set up for a Highland piper). The other had a less honky bottom end but an easier to reach second octave, it had similar playing characteristics to my Burke and Impempe (in between the two in back pressure and air requirements).
The funny thing, last night at the session I brought the first one in to the session for my friend to use (the first time it had been used in anger since I got the Impempe over a year ago) and on playing it myself it had magically improved and I could reach the high C# with no problem. Playing the Bleazey low D a lot seems to have improved my technique by quite a bit.
