It’s an older model and ever since I’ve had it, the upper F# has been scratchy, and the notes above it where hard to get to, and just not quite ‘right’. I heard that was the case with the older Sweethearts, so I didn’t think I could do anything about it.
But this morning I was playing (that’s the first thing I do when I wake up is grab it and play it for 20 minutes) and the F# problem was just gone. It went into and above the F# fine and it felt like I was playing a different whistle. After I played it I put it down and wiped it out and waited for it to ‘rest’ then I played again to see if it was a one time thing and it’s still like that. The tone color and volume, etc., haven’t changed at all. I haven’t actively tried to play it differently, but I think I might have just started attacking the upper notes differently and not realising it, because whistles don’t just ‘change’ (I think), people’s approaches do. Has it happened to anybody else?
Yes indeed! I think as we practice and improve, we develop subtle little adaptations…a little more breath support there, a tightening or relaxing of the emboucher there…without really thinking about it. I know for myself that it took me a while to get the confidence to play the really high notes boldly (and a lot of playing on whistles with really easy upper octaves), and a couple of my more “challenging” whistles “improved” considerably, even though I hadn’t been playing them for a while.
Most recently I noticed this with my Susato Dublin. Even earlier last year, I could scarcely get a decent sound out of the upper octave, and it would drop out from under me seemingly without warning. A couple of weeks ago, I pulled it out for Morris practice, as we’d been booted from our indoor practice space and the courtyard was so windy, neither my Dixon nor my Elfsong could be heard, especially on the lower notes…I figured at least I could really wail on the Susato and the kids would be able to hear it, even if it did sound like a screeching banshee. Well, low and behold, it didn’t sound anything like…it was loud, yes, but it sounded great, and didn’t drop out from under me once. Amazing just how much that whistle improved!
I think as we practice and improve, we develop subtle little adaptations…a little more breath support there, a tightening or relaxing of the emboucher there…without really thinking about it.
I agree with Redwolf on that. People have commented on breaking in periods for expensive wood whistles that sound better after 6months,etc. I’ve always believed it was the player that improved; the whistle unchanged. They absorb some moisture, but how big a difference is that going to make, and is it always in the right direction if it does?
I did notice a couple of Generations that had sounded pretty raspy for a long time suddenly sound mellower. I always wondered about that. It didn’t seem like I was doing anything different.
Tony
Your right Berry, atleast not suddenly.
In the morning when your fresh is when you most see how much your playing has improved
Whistles do play in but its a slow thing.
Whistles can, and do change, especially wooden ones. I would guess that your technique is mostly responsible for the problem going away, but the whistle may have something to do with it too.
I have to 'fess: a friend of mine plays the recorder, and only.
Worse, he has been for two-score years.
Now he has this old Dutch alto (F), I suspect it’s a genuine Maartin Helder.
It was given to him by his teacher, a baroque buff who only swears by her lemonwood alto. This latter sounds… well… like a recorder? Between this overly pure sound (with a few metallic ringing overtones), its definitely Baroque looks and its yellowish color (day-glo custard?), not the kind of things you’d dare bring to a session. Not the kind which would start me on woodwinds either.
The other one she had custom made but didn’t like in the long run: windy, chiffy… She offered it to Jean-Paul. It’s in some kind of rosewood. Except the thing looks like dull gray, with plenty ol-timer’s wrinkles, inside and out.
It has never been oiled by my friend, not once!
The other day, he starts to play it and the ivory insert in the thumb vent just fell out on the carpet. We fixed it with some rolling paper for a sleeve.
Now true ivory tells you how old it may be, the ban on using it being over-- what?–20 years?
You listen to this never-cared-for recorder, with your eyes closed… and you hear one of the best ITM F whistles you could dream of.
I bought a D Rosewood and a C Rosewood Sweetheart whistle through Lark In The Morning in September, 2002. It has taken me this long to get a good sound on the High D. The C whistle became my favorite until the D got broken in. Now it has the same clearly wooden tone that my C had from the beginning, and it just happened suddenly, as it did with you. I love the match I have with my Casey Burns Boxwood Irish flute. And to me they don’t sound like recorders, they sound like wooden whistles that are tunable and sound just great now. Don
I bought a D Rosewood and a C Rosewood Sweetheart whistle through Lark In The Morning in September, 2002. It has taken me this long to get a good sound on the High D. The C whistle became my favorite until the D got broken in. Now it has the same clearly wooden tone that my C had from the beginning, and it just happened suddenly, as it did with you. I love the match I have with my Casey Burns Boxwood Irish flute. And to me they don’t sound like recorders, they sound like wooden whistles that are tunable and sound just great now. Don