I’m fascinated how Davy Spillane, among others, can change the tone throughout a long note, particularly on a low whistle. An example is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RxxgQmoJBE at about 50 sec and again at 2:22. Obviously there is vibrato but what else is he doing . . . or is it processing? It’s almost like he’s playing through a wah wah pedal!!!
I wouldn’t be able to tell with that one. He’s clearly varying his breath pressure through the note, but there’s so much electronic processing, I can’t tell where the sound of the whistle ends and the electrics begin.
Possibly he’s changing his breath pressure, and putting lower hand fingers down to keep the note at pitch? For example, for low A, one could start with XXO OOO, and then experiment with different combinations of lower-hand holes covered (XXO XOO, XXO OXO, XXO OOX, XXO XOX, XXO OXX, XXO XXO, maybe even XXO XXX). Each fingering will require a slightly different breath pressure to play low A at the same pitch, and each fingering will give a note with slightly different higher harmonics, and therefore slightly different tone.
I don’t know if that’s what Spillane’s doing or not, though.
Thanks guys. My inexperience clearly showing up here. How do you arrive at him changing the breath pressure? On a free blowing whistle like Davy’s, the pitch would be quick to change and I’m not hearing that. Your ears are obviously better than mine. What are you hearing? Your idea about different fingerings is very interesting - I’ll have to try that - though Davy continues to use finger vibrato throughout the note.
Just tried briefly. That’s amazing. It would take me some practice but moving from XXOXXO through to XXOOOO the tone opens out in a vaguely similar way to what I’m hearing Davy do. The tricky part is keeping a good vibrato going with changing available holes and fingers. I’m still baffled by your perception of changing breath pressure but I find this VERY exciting - the idea of changing fingers during a long note to get the modulated tone.
Well, XXO OOO and XXO XXO, with the same breath pressure, give two slightly different pitches. So, you need to adjust your breath pressure to compensate, if you want both to give the same pitch. The change in breath pressure, along with the change in fingering, should both contribute to modulating the tone of the note.
I’m not sure how Davy’s doing this, or even if this is what he’s doing. He could be doing finger vibrato with B3 while opening/closing B1 and/or B2, or he may in fact be using breath vibrato. Like benhall said, it’s hard to tell from the recording.
I’ll add a couple of things to what has already been suggested. Shame you don’t have a video of the man in the studio as he recorded. That’d likely tell the story.
Breath pressure is certainly at play at those two points in the recording. Especially in the first example, I think I can hear the note start with a narrow embouchure and then hear it open up. This is done on a free blowing whistle by using the lips to pinch off the air a bit. The tone starts out a little bit hissy and then as you open the lips the hiss is overcome by the fuller tone of the note being played. The breath pressure is certainly increasing after that too.
The final timbre change may be from what Stanton describes. But it may also be as simple as working the microphone. Remember that you don’t have to sit stock still while you play. It’s all about expressing emotions. It’s hard to sit still when you are feeling things so strongly. Using the position of the mic, as a vocalist would to emphasize a word or phrase, might be what he is doing - moving into the mic as he strengthens the note. Proximity effect (Google it - the audio one, not the atomic or magnetic effects.) will, on many mics, change the tone of a note by emphasizing the lower content of the note.
Then of course there are all of the studio mechanisms that could be employed to boost the sound of those notes. But I do think it is Davy who is in control there.
The guy has skills.
Feadoggie
The guy definitely has skills. Even so, I can clearly hear something electrical being added at the notes that Mike is on about. What I can’t hear, because the sheer amount of processing makes the thing very muddy to my ear, is exactly what is being added. I’m also pretty sure that, whatever electronic additions there may be, Davy is doing some of it himself. I’ll have another listen, in any case, though this really isn’t my cup of tea …
On second listen, I think Feadoggie’s right about some of what he’s doing. But still, there’s too much electronic mush to tell for sure …
Interesting what you say, Dennis. I’ll certainly check out the Proximity Effect. I think we all agree much of it was under Davy’s control. Even though it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, Davy’s ability to nuance his slow playing is amazing.
This is why I’m so happy to have discovered Chiff & Fipple! 
This thread has just enlightened me to a whole set of playing dynamics I’d never thought of. I’m nowhere near being able to apply any of it…yet. But I’ll have it all in the back of my mind now, and I’ll be listening for it and thinking about it when I’m practicing and listening to other whistlers. And when I am ready…
Thanks!!! 
Cheers
Marc E
Bulgarian ‘kaval’ (wooden flute) players do, as a standard technique, a thing where they play the same note using two different fingerings, the two fingerings giving quite different timbres. In a dance tune they alternate between the two timbres in rhythm, creating a sort of articulation.
This works on my MK Low D whistle in exactly the same way it does on the kaval. The notes I do (there might be more but these are the only ones I play) are:
“A” in the 2nd octave:
xxo ooo
xxx xxx
xxo ooo
“B” in the 2nd octave:
xoo ooo
xxx xxo
xoo ooo
I actually wrote a jig using these alternations in place of rolls in the high part, but you can throw these into any tune if you want.
In the low octave I’ve done a thing where I take the low hand off the whistle and partially cover the window, flattening the pitch a full tone, then at the same time I take a finger off the widow change the fingering to the note below, at full voice. So, I can play G muted > full by first fingering A, then G.
Wow, Richard! Fascinating stuff. Lots to try there. And do you have any personal opinion on what Davy is doing during that long note?
Poohze, I couldn’t have put it better. Amen to that. I realise that when it comes to subtle techniques that are beyond the scope of a whistle tutor, even Grey Larsen’s wonderful tome, that here at C&F we are so blessed to have experienced players (like, for example, Richard) to turn to. Even as I write this, I wonder whether there isn’t potentially a book of advanced techniques lurking in the pages of the forum waiting to be collated.
Or a free PhD topic for any budding musicoligists out there! 
Cheers
Marc E
I happened to know about that kaval technique because I used to play kaval a bit in an “International Folk Dance” band, and I spent many hours listening to master Bulgarian kaval players.
There might be a market for a whistle book of extended techniques. I came across a like book for the Boehm flute years ago called The Other Flute. It included things like a quartertone fingering chart, multiphonics, and a thing standard in Irish music, finger vibrato.
http://www.robertdick.net/products/The_Other_Flute-4-3.html
You probably won’t hear more different timbres out of one flute that you’ll hear here, right from the start, Theodosii Spassov on kaval.
You can hear the following:
:22 He starts by doing something Roland Kirk used to do on the Boehm flute quite a bit, singing into the flute in unison with what you’re fingering. If the singing is right in tune it creates a new timbre, neither voice nor flute, but the two merged.
:38 the normal timbre of the kaval
1:01 buzzing the lips into the kaval like a brass player; you can do this on the Boehm flute but the hole is small and it’s more difficult
1:22 flutter-tonguing. This is easy to do on the whistle or flute
1:31 multiphonics. You can do this easily on flute or low whistle, for starters finger Bottom D and then see how high in the Harmonic Series you can go. You can play bugle tunes and so forth without moving a single finger
2:21 back to the voice/singing into the flute
2:44 this to me sounds like he’s singing in falsetto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEmioXLUhyE
Now for something more traditional, here he is playing what sounds like one of the traditional Bulgarian slow songs, a bavna pesen.
At 1:26 and 3:33 he’s doing that technique I was talking about, playing the same high note but alternating an open and partially closed fingering to change timbres.
At 3:07 he drops down into the gorgeous low range of the kaval, the kaba.
Then at 3:46 he does the brassplayer/trumpet thing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFyIWWkBIr4
About the Davey Spillane thing, I hear what you’re talking about, at 2:23, where the timbre suddenly gets more upper harmonics. I have no idea how to do this on whistle. Starting to sing into the whistle while holding a long note will certainly bring more harmonics in, but I don’t know if that’s what he’s doing there. When I do it there’s a sudden change of timbre when the vocal chords start vibrating… I’ll have to practice it and see if I can do it more subtly.
On flute it’s not difficult, because blowing more across the hole gets fewer upper harmonics, and blowing down into the hole gets more upper harmonics, and you can do that while holding one note (but you have to compensate for the change in pitch, say, with your fingers, to keep the note at the same pitch the whole time).
It’s something that the amazing Bulgarian clarinet player Ivo Papasov does all the time while holding a long note. I played a cut of this for a professional jazz clarinet player and he wasn’t sure how Ivo does it, perhaps by changing the fingering, but perhaps also by altering the embouchure.
Thanks Richard. Fascinating stuff. Let us know if you discover the secret of how Davy does it.
FWIW, alternative fingerings and hole shading for expressive purposes have been standard techniques on recorder (where simply blowing harder or softer has similar limitations) for many decades if not centuries. But I’m not sure they sit so comfortably with ‘trad whistle style’ as we know it…
But I’m not sure they sit so comfortably with ‘trad whistle style’ as we know it…
Ofcourse they do. Standard practice.
OK, since I nearly included the rider ‘at least to the same extent’ before opting for concision over clumsiness, let me rephrase that… while they’re obviously happening to some degree, I’ve yet to see or hear any whistle player doing these things to the extent (or in quite the manner) I’d use them on recorder. And that’s indisputable unless you’re me!
I think I may have the answer . . . in which case Feadoggie is correct about the use of microphone. I found an interview with Davy about his studio and recording setup. He says this:
“Sometimes there’s that flangey thing where I play vibrato and I physically move the instrument across one mic more than another. I’ll use it to shade or pan across. I also go in and out of the mics to give the Uilleann pipes something that they don’t naturally have, which is volume dynamics. They’re pretty much an on or off type of thing-or they can be. But my technique, without actually evoking technically a big flange sound, can give you a bit of help with dynamics to raise the emotional intensity of a note. If I’m holding a note, as I reach the note that’s being held, to push an emotional intensity I tend to maybe head closer to the mic, and I start pushing it.”
Nevertheless, it’s been an interesting thread. And I’ve learned a lot about the potential use of different fingerings and other techniques. There’s a lot to practice in here. Thanks very much, guys.
It’s what the old-time New Orleans jazz clarinet players called “riding the mic”. They were very good at it.
Thing is, when you move closer to the mic yes the timbre changes, but also it gets louder. The secret is probably that he’s using strong compression, which keeps the music in a very narrow volume window, so that changing distance changes timbre more than volume.
In other words it’s not something possible acoustically, and not something possible before modern electronic signal processing. I myself have no interest in electronic music.