Hi! I got my new today! It’s perfectly in tune and everything, but there is one thing that bothers me.
You see, when I lift the 2nd octave Bb for an A, and when I close A to make the 2nd octave Bb, the holes emitt a blowing sound. Is it supposed to do that? Or is it the infamous Generation syndrome (read: manufacturing misses)? Are you experiencing this with your Generation Bb:s?
I’m not sure exactly what you mean by a blowing sound or what fingering you mean is it:
OXXX XXX to XXX XXO or XXO OOO to XOO OOO, either way I had my Bb with me whilst reading this and cannot replicate any sort of unusual blowing sound whilst changing notes, my Bb does have the poster putty tweak whether this makes a differance to what you are describing I don’t know.
I would say my Bb is my favourite whistle, and the only one I play regularly being mainly a flute player, and from reading the boards seems to have a reputation as being the most reliable and consistent of the generations.
Paul
It’s when I change between these two:
I have a feeling I might know what you are talking about but trying to describe what is a blowing sound or relaxing sounds, etc. is going to be a pain here…
Using that fingering, if one keeps a constant pressure, there will be a tendancy on some whistles to produce a sort of ‘flip’ back and forth between the notes.
Out of curiosity - what happens when you use the following fingering:
OOOOOO / XXXXXX+
Does this ‘blowing sound’ increase or decrease? (Not asking you to change the way you play… just trying to figure out something here)
Sorry not thinking straight, as an excuse i’ve just had 2 teeth extracted.
I’ve tried this with no problem, again I wonder if the poster putty tweak would help.
Paul
I’ve tried the poster putty tweak on my Gen Bb, which helps a bit, but generally I’m rather mystified whenever people post that the Gen Bb is their favourite whistle. Mine sounds and feels rather lightweight which doesn’t give me enough confidence to play it outside of the confines of my own home, certainly noit in the upper register. Maybe it’s just me; I don’t buy the good Gen / bad Gen manufacturing variability theory.
But then it’s the same with my Dixon in C. The D is great. Really great, but the C feels like someone has taken a D mouthpiece and done a clumsy bit of plumbing to fit it onto a spare piece of thicker pipe. I’ve yet to find a cheap whistle in the key of not D that I trust enough to play much in public, which is a shame. I can play the Dixon polymer low D though…
Any thoughts, comments, abuse?
It makes the same “blowing sound”.
It seems, however, that this sound lessens (and sometimes even dissapears) when I adjust my fingers a bit. It’s my first Bb whistle, so the fact that I’m new to the fingering could be an explaination to the problem 
It’ s your fingering. You got five fingers moving all at once; they’re not gonna go in sync until you’ve practiced. I still have that problem.
Here’s a hint- OOOXXX, OOOOXX, and OOOOOX with also make a good A. Less fingers 
Put the head for 30 secs into just not boiling water. The head can be pulled off. Then look inside the head if there’s redundant plastic. If so, cut it out, smoothen the inside. This helps. But be aware of the fact that there’s always a bit of wind underneath the sound in the second ocatave. My Gen Bb sounds beautiful, but has it as well.
CelticMusicLover: I think the answers are a bit all over the place here, because it’s not really clear what you’re describing.
To me, it sounds like a combination of SpoonMan’s answer (finger sync), and a question of finger speed.
If you play the d fingering xxxxxx or oxxxxx, then lift your fingers very slowly (i.e., too slowly) for the c# fingering, you’re going to hear a bunch of transients (non-harmonic “garbage” tones) as the whistle breaks across the registers. This is probably what you’re hearing and it’s perfectly normal. In fact, it’s desirable.
When your fingers move quickly and in sync, this transient sound becomes a short “blip” or “chirp”. This is exactly what most whistlers mean by the term “chiff”, and consider it a positive thing.
So my guess is that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the whistle. It’s your fingering speed. And the problem may be more obvious on the Bb because the longer stretch makes it harder for you to coordinate your fingers. Keep working to produce a nice crisp chirp.
SpoonMan’s other suggestion is also good. This is what’s known as “lazy fingering”. Leave the bottom fingers down when you lift the left hand. A very common technique.
BTW … Most whistlers refer to notes by their D whistle fingerings, regardless of which size whistle you’re playing. So the fingering you describe on the Bb whistle would still be referred to as C# oooooo and D oxxxxx - even though the concert (piano) pitches are A and Bb. In other words, you treat the Bb whistle as a transposing instrument.
Hope that helps …
I pulled out a Gen Bb that I’ve never been all that fond of and found that many of my issues with it were due to my uneven fingering. It’s just different enough from the D’s to require a bit of extra care plus it seems to be less forgiving than the others. But I actually stated to get the hang of it after a while. Thanks for the tips.
Charlie