mute for whistle practice?

Whistle
1

Hey all:

New member here, and hoping for some advice. I live in an apartment and don’t want to irritate the neighbors when practicing. I was using a small piece of tape over the openening beneath the mouthpiece, and this works pretty well, but the moisture quickly cause the tape to fall off. Does anyone else have any suggestions?

I welcome any suggestions!

Thank you!
p

2

P,

Welcome! I’m sure you will receive more details than I can give, but the two that seem to work best are:

  1. Poster putty (sometimes referred to as Blue Tac. Works great - Poster putty can be gotten at any office supply store, Walmart (I think), etc.

  2. A simple paper clip! slide it in the opening at a sllight angle and you’ll be surprised.

The nice thing about the putty is you can just about completely control the decrease in volume. So, watch for more replies, good luck and have fun.

Ron

3

A ball of sticky tack works pretty well. If you interested in another whistle every whistles have a built in mute (I haven’t yet tried one but I hear they are very good) or you could message Tommy on the board and get him to make you a quite D whistle. I just got one yesterday and it is great for practicing in my dorm room. With the small windway it clogs sometimes but I stopped that easy by taking some waxed floss and rubbing it around inside the windway. It uses very little air so it takes a bit of getting used to, but not more than a couple of hours for me and I can go back and forth between it and my normal whistles no problem.

Hope this helps.

4

You beat me to it Ron :slight_smile:

5

Welcome, Miss P! Ditto what Ron said. Both the putty and paper clip are waterproof.

Also, see these threads:

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=56299
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=49897
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=11774
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=51907
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=5494

6

pic from Mr. Gonzato’s site explains it all :slight_smile: but i think it is meant to tune the whistle.

I use this method usually, but I guess this one work pretty well, or better, also

7

and
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=54312
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=30591
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=15946
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=37110

8

9

This may be in one of Guru’s links.
Put your whistle in normal playing position, then place the open end of the mouthpiece ON your lower lip,closing the end of the windway. Now play: it’ll be VERY quiet but definitely audible. I’ve played 10 feet away from my sleeping wife in this way and not awakened her.

10

I used the tape to mute the whistles as well, until I bought an “Everywhistle” from Carey Parks.
Now it’s one of my favourite whistles and I can practice very quietly without disturbing people, even when playing a tune almost completely in the 2nd octave.
I really recommend you to buy one if you can.

Regards,
Martin

11

I got a Generation ‘shush’ from Big whistle. It’s tweaked to be very quiet.

For only 13 pound it’s definitly a great practice whistle and has a VERY clear sound throughout both octaves. It has a piece of metal or something glued in the windway as you can see in the picture.

12

WOW! Thanks guys, what a great selection of information! Very much appreciated, I guess one or two people have come up against this challenge before!

The other thing is, I get really self concious if I think about other people having to listen to my ‘woodshedding’. These suggestions should take care of that!

Thanks so much,

miss p

13

A lot of people, especially beginners, tend to stress up a bit if they know people are listening. I know I do!

14

Wow, this is great. I’ve used just a bit of blue tac over half the whole, this lowers the pitch a bit but doesn’t matter. And when in the right place it produces a really sweet sound too… I’m so glad I read this thread as I can’t practice knowing everyone plus my neighbours can hear me!

15

I have one of these, and it plays very well.

16

Check out the Every whistle at Parks Whistles

17

A lower key might be less annoying to your neighbour sometimes.

I find the putty mute to be the best for my needs and it can mute the whistle down to a whisper if you need it to.

18

Cool, I missed this thread and hadn’t seem the “shush” before.

So how quiet is quiet, relative to the life of an apartment dweller? Is it at a level to practice during the day without driving the neighbors nuts? (this would be somewhat quiet) How about practicing at night, after bedtime? (this would be very quiet)

I figure, if I’m going to be in this apartment for the forseeable future, I might as well start collecting quiet whistles… I’ve got an everywhistle on its way to me as I type.

19

Mute for whistle practice? Well, thank you very much, I’m honored but there are more skilled folks than me to practice with. :laughing:

20

I think it is called Shush because it is so quiet. Big Whistle is the only place I have seen them available.

Wow Squidgirl, one more post, and you will have a hundred. :party: