low D

Whistle
1

hi
has anyone got any tips for a newbie (2months ) for a low d whistle i have bought a Dixon 2 days ago its a lot harder than playing my std D .trying the pipers grip a bit awkward i keep failing to covers the hole some of the time.

cheers taity :smiley:

2

Dear Newbie,

I have been playing low D whistles for six months. All I can say is that if you keep at it, it will happen for you. Just play scales from top down, making sure you are covering each hole. Try minimal adjustments to the angle or place on your fingers you use to cover each hole.

Put the instrument down, pick it up, several times a day. Inch by inch you will find just the right feel and be able to lift and place each finger.

You can do it.

Don

3

Dear Newbie,

I have been playing low D whistles for six months. All I can say is that if you keep at it, it will happen for you. Just play scales from top down, making sure you are covering each hole. Try minimal adjustments to the angle or place on your fingers you use to cover each hole.

Put the instrument down, pick it up, several times a day. Inch by inch you will find just the right feel and be able to lift and place each finger.

You can do it.

Don

4

how D, taity

yaā€¦practice :smiley:

5

Hello,

Avoid using a death grip. You should not have a sore left thumb. Relax your hands. Practice the notes you can reach and gradually stretch to cover the next lower tone hole.

You might go to YouTube and find low D players and watch their hands. You will get it in a few days. Be patient with yourself.

If I can do it, you can do it. Iā€™ve been at it for a few years; however, I can remember how it was at first. Cheers, Cyril.

6

The most useful piece of advice I got when I started playing the low whistle was to just breathe into it. I had trouble getting a good tone, at first, because I was blowing too hard. The piperā€™s grip will come in time. In the beginning, itā€™s easier to practice on something smaller like a Bb.

7

Practice, Practice, Practice.

The finger stretch was difficult for me too when I got my first low D. After a while though it just felt natural.

After playing my low D for a while, I actually find it hard to play a high D :laughing: Then the holes feel too close together.

8

Practice, practice, practiceā€¦ canā€™t be repeated too muchā€¦

And you can do a search for previous discussions, but the gist of most of them is the same mantraā€¦ ā€œpractice, practice, practiceā€.

It works wonders! :slight_smile: I need to go practice.

9

Canā€™t agree more. It takes a while to work it out. Once you do though, itā€™s worth the effort.

10

many thanks guys for the help :smiley:

11

I got a low D for Christmas, so Iā€™m a beginner with it as well. Iā€™m starting to get a hang of it slowly, but I really struggled the first couple of days. This is newbie advice so take it with a grain of salt :slight_smile:.

This is the trick that helped for me: Put the tips (not the very end but like you would on a high D) of your ring fingers on their holes first. Then rotate your hand until your index finger hits its hole. All through the process, make sure your fingers are straight and relaxed (my thumbs kept tiring out real fast until I got this right). I think I might have a relatively short ring finger, because I actually have to cover the third hole from the bottom with the very base of my right index finger. On the left hand, I ended up using the second joint pads on my middle and index fingers on the two top holes.

Pretty fast you get used to not using the tips of your fingers, but you wonā€™t get anywhere unless your hand is relaxed.