I bought a cheap low D on ebay and I’ve been having a couple of problems. The whistle sounds fine for a while, but then I start losing notes on the lower octave. I know that someone had posted here before about losing his entire lower octave, but I’m only losing D and (more rarely) E. This only happens after a few minutes of play, so I thought it was probably just moisture building up; but wouldn’t that affect the entire octave?
It seems more likely that I’m not getting a good seal on the bottom holes, but (as I said before) this doesn’t happen unless I’ve been playing on it for awhile. Maybe I’m just being more careful when I first pick the instrument up?
I find that my breath control starts to slip after a few minutes of playing, especially on a whistle that has higher air volume requiements as the low ones usually do.
Do you keep a “belly” full of air? John Skelton, my most recent instuctor, estimated that he keeps his lungs at least 2/3 full at all times and says he is never embarassed to breathe–it’s not a contest to see who can hold their breath the longest…
Other than that, the lowest and the highest notes are always the hardest to hit.
Put your finger over the window and blow… HARD. (or suck out the moisture, your choice)
That should restore the low E and D. These are typically the weakest notes on any whistle and would be more susceptable to cutting out due to air turbulance from condensation.
Thanks guys. It really looks like a moisture problem, though I appreciate the tips on proper breathing. I’m used to playing the baritone horn, which requires quite more air, but sounds the same whether your keeping air in your lungs or emptying them out.
If you do a search on the forums for Clogging or cloging remedies you will find a variety of simple fixes that could reduce or eliminate the problem. Everything from organic dish soap to fabric softeners.
I found that on some whistles a very tiny droplet of condensation on the blade itself will make certain notes disappear. Try treating the blade as well as the windway with a surfactant like toothpaste, soap or Jet-Dri
Actually, I’m not getting much condensation in the windway at all, but there is very visible amount of moisture on the blade. I’ll put some more soap on it when I get home. Thanks again guys.
Yeah I when I loose notes on my soprano whistles, it’s usually cause of moisture accumulation. I just do what I like to say, suck on my fipple… Misleading? Wrong? Sometimes… But as Scott mentioned, it works. But I remember when I first started playing the whistle, I only had one at the time and it was a Clarke D Original with the cheesy gold diamonds. I used to play that thing until ‘moisture’ was dripping out the lower end of the whistle body, and my wood fipple was soaked. Not much you can do about the soaked wood block, but let it dry. It warped it a little, but no worries. As for the drenched whistle body, I just shaked it voilently… Anyone standing in the path of the business end of that whistle got it… Happy whistling!
