Is it bad to get my whistle wet? Example: to rinse water through it to clean it out. My sister, Cees, told me that she heard that it was okay…but she has been afraid to try it for fear of ruining the whistle with liquids against the metals.
Are there any other cleaning techniques that would be good for the whistle? Or tips on how to keep my whistle in the best possible condition after I play it? Any certain techniques that you fine people would know?
I also have a problem with the upper register squeaking when I play. I don’t know the reason. I know that it isn’t because of my breathing. Is it possible it is because of spit inside the whistle? Any good ways to avoid that from happening? Better tonguing techniques,etc? Thanks. ~Mimi
rinsing out the whistle won’t hurt if you dry it afterwards too. I’ve heard of rust problems on some Sweetones and Clarkes (I think it was Peter Laban who mentioned this) after long storage, but if you play daily I can’t see this as a problem.
Upper register sqeaks should reduce with improvement in breath control. You’re probably putting too much air into the whistle if you’re used to a clarinet.
Practise by starting with a low note, then breathe harder until the octave jumps. You should only be breathing this hard & not much harder for the top register.
Then start high and reduce the breath flow until the note drops. This should help you gauge how much breath it takes, and you will get used to your whistle’s individual needs.
Try to find some tunes that require those octacve jumps or drops to make practise more fun.
Before long, the breath control will become second nature & you can concentrate on other issues.
I rinse out my Sweetone each time after I play it, and then shake the water out,(as if I were shaking down the mercury in a thermometer).
I store the whistle standing upright in a jar (you can use a vase, beer stein, etc.) so that air can circulate around it and dry out any left over moisture. My whistle is more than 18 months old and is not rusted inside.
I don’t think you’d want to do this with a wooden whistle, however.
Another possible cause of squeaking is moisture droplets accumulating in the windway or at the exit from the windway, or an accumulation of crud in the windway. Work a bit of paper towel or a strip of synthetic gun-cleaning patch through the windway ( best to push it through while everything is still dry ) to clean out gunk that tends to accumulate there. It doesn’t take much crud to affect the playing; I usually can’t see it when I know the whistle definitely needs cleaning.
I use Jet-Dry Sparkle ( anti-spotting agent sold for use in dishwashers ) on the windway exit ramp to inhibit droplet formation. Put a little on with a swab and let it dry before playing.
I have also noticed that if I’m not covering the holes with my fingers as I should be that the whistle will sometimes squeak.
I KNOW embrashure(spelling?) affects the tone of certain notes on several of my whistles on High A and above. If I don’t change my mouth these notes are out of tune.
I think build-up of crud in the windway might cause the whistle to sound muted instead of squeaking.
This is from my own experience, but I found that crud in the windway made the “sweet spot” in breath pressure ever smaller, and eventually the whistle started squeaking. I at first couldn’t figure out what the problem was, because it had never happened before. When I cleaned the windway, the problem disappeared.
Perhaps your earlier comment regarding too-high breath pressure applies here. If there is crud in the windway and the whistle is therefore not sounding properly, one tends to blow harder to compensate. Eventually conditions deteriorate to the point where the whistle squeaks.
For what it’s worth, I looked the windway over with a magnifying glass before I cleaned it, and couldn’t see anything.
This opens up another potential thread…Does embouchure affect the whistle tone? I somehow think it does. Any ideas out there?
Yes, I think it does. Sometimes when I play, the whistle just doesn’t sound right. When I change the position of my lips on the mouthpiece, or the shape of my mouth, I recover the sound I want.
I just recently washed my generation with dr bronners peppermint soap, and it seems to have affected it. I just put one large drop in the head along with water and then rinsed it out. But it seems to be a bit more breatthy and have more chiff on the attack(watever that means) also it jumps between octaves much more easily(which is a bad thing). I cant imagine why. Any1 ever try this b4??