I started learning tin whistle this summer, joined a local session group and got a song book. I have been looking through the book and have picked out several tunes I think so potential for me. So far I can do a reasonable job on “The Maid behind the Bar”, “Joe Cooley”, “The Swallowtail” and a few others.
My problem is I can’t get past half speed on them. Since I am playing a low whistle I suppose one option would be to record them and them play them back twice as fast. I want to play at a rate where my fingers can actually hit the notes properly. Am I doomed to playing only airs and laments? How do I turbocharge my fingers?
At the risk of inciting the low-whistlers among us, I’d advise building your chops on a high whistle. They’re a lot easier to manage (physically) and will help you build your technique, which of course can transfer directly to the low whistle. For playing at home, I find C and Bb whistles to be fun, comfortable and easy on the ears.
To work up speed, go slow. Work on getting the rhythm really really really totally solid at slow speeds. Nothing you do to speed up will help before you have the tune solid at slow speeds. Do not compromise or fudge or get impatient. A metronome is good if you’ll use it right.
Going fast will come by itself if you are getting your rhythm solid at slow speeds. Going really fast may be a different story, but I’m not sure I can help you there, as I don’t really like playing really fast.
It’s also more than fast digits, but also breath/diaphragm control, which is obviously harder to control on the low whistle. Practice this on a high D.
If you’re using fingertips instead of piper’s grip on the low whistle, this will likely hamper your ability to play at faster tempos.
For a counterpoint: playing slow is very useful, trying to get things as clean and solid as possible is the goal. But I’ve never gained speed at anything (and I can do some things rather quickly) except by trying to do it faster. It’s easy to get in a trap of trying to play as fast as you can all the time, and you should avoid that, of course. But the best speed-up recipe I’ve found is to slowly build speed until you’re about to crash, then stop or slow down again. Play solid and smooth for a while. Then try speeding up again. You will never magically be able to play fast if you only play slowly. But, your fast playing will always be sloppy unless you spend a good amount of time playing slowly.
Notes and technique first; speed second. Play the tunes until they are in your fingers. If you have to think about the notes, you won’t be fast. Get a metronome. Practice until you can play the tune cleanly a little faster than you expect to play it in sessions. Practice finger and rhythm exercises – scales (major and minor), octave jumps, eighths, sixteenths, triplets, whole notes, … Yes, practice whole notes. They are great for breath control and making your fingers patient.
Get yourself the amazing slow downer software from roni music.
Then slow everything down to a tempo that is comfortable.
Then speed up by 2-3% and play the tune a couple more times
Then speed up by 2-3% and play the tune a couple more times
Then speed up by 2-3% and play the tune a couple more times
until you start to mess up. then throttle back down.
repeat daily until you hit session tempo.
relax. enjoy.
Unless you’re particularly gifted, have hours a day to practice, or are already expert on a similar instrument, it will take you several years to get to session speed. You probably won’t ever be as fast and as good as a professional whistle player. For having played half a year, it sounds like you’re making fine progress. Just keep at it.
Firstly, thanks for all the suggestions. Knowing it may take several years to reach session speed is a relief. It gives me something to aim at.
The slow down software sounds interesting. I have “audacity” and I may be able to do the same thing with it but I will also look at the others.
The reason I picked the low whistle (other than being a glutton for punishment) is I like the sound better. But more importantly, my wife tolerates it a lot more than the high one (especially in the second register). This makes getting time and space to practice a whole lot easier. I can’t really go outside in Saskatchewan to practice at this time of the year…
The only really bad thing I have noticed about the low whistle is it takes WAY more breath so I have been working on techniques for sneaking in breaths.
There are quiet soprano D whistles, I think Mack Hoover makes some,
and any D whistle can be easily muted to the point
where it will be very quiet indeed.
One method is to stand a paper clip up vertically in the
window of the windway. This serves as a baffle to the
breath. If that isn’t quiet enough, add another paper clip.
Also a rolled up bit of paper inserted vertically in the windway,
standing up in it so you can simply pull it out if you wish,
does the same thing. Put it on one side or the other.
I think silly putty can be crafted into a mute.
All of these leave the sound quality more or less
intact, they just reduce volume considerably.
Unless your wife has the ears of a bat, there will be
no problem.
Also a good soprano D whistle is a lovely thing to play.
Fingering a low D whistle is one of the harder things
to do in whistledom. If you wish to increase your speed,
or really get to know whistles and how to play them,
encourage you to play a soprano whistle too.
More seriously, I have a Generation “D” soprano whistle but I find the finger holes a bit too close together for my liking. I also have a Walton’s “C” which I quite like but I have to get used to hearing things a tone lower and playing along to my mp3’s is a problem. I don’t find the piper’s grip on the low “D” to be a problem but I also play cello so I am used to stretching.
I will try the paperclips since a soprano whistle is easier to fit in a backpack and I may be able to fit in some lunchtime sessions that way.
Regarding session speeds, this may be a dumb question but can average people actually jig at those speeds? I have noticed in jigs where people sing along the tempo is slower (eg. Rocky Road to Dublin).
If you’ve a Clark in there somewhere, a simple and very effective trick is to hold it sideways and blow across the sound window as if it were a fife. Just finger the notes like normal and you get ‘whispered’ version of the notes–you can still hear the tune, but no one else more than 8’ away can. You could literally practice at the other end of the same room without too much problem, I imagine.
Don’t know whether that works with any of the other brands…
A metronome is good if you’ll use it right.