new Reyburn Low D review

Whistle
1

I just got a new-model Reyburn on loan from Ronaldo and have spent a week playing it and comparing it to the two Goldie Low D’s I have to hand currently. (Actually two Goldie heads which I switch on one Low D body.)

A Goldie and a Reyburn

The Reyburn has the always-present Reyburn features of perfect tuning and unique complex somewhat “dirty” tone, a beefy fat presence hard to describe. It’s not mere volume- I’ve had a Reyburn which appeared to have less volume when compared to an MK, yet the Reyburn had more presence.

What’s remarkable about this new Reyburn design is that it has the same superb air-efficiency as the narrow-windway Goldie, which is the most air-efficient whistle I’ve had so far.

Making the Reyburn a delight to play, a wonderful tone and perfect tuning and even voicing across the range, efficient, a solid Bottom D, and high notes which aren’t too stiff. It sounds great playing reels and jigs, and the efficiency allows really long notes in airs.

I should say that my two Goldie heads, from what I’m told, represent the extremes Colin offers in terms of windway height: .8mm which he calls the “hard blower” and 1mm which he calls “very soft/very easy blower”. (Those are Colin’s descriptors; they blow the same to me, but have very different playing characteristics.)

The three heads: 1mm Goldie, .8mm Goldie, Reyburn

The Reyburn plays very much like the .8mm Goldie, with the same air-efficiency, and the same breaking-point with the high notes. I should say that neither the Reyburn nor the .8mm windway Goldie blow “hard” to me. But then in 35 years of playing flutes and whistles I’d never heard of “backpressure” or “hard blowing” or “soft blowing” regarding whistles until I joined this site.

One thing, though, is that the finger-holes of both hands are slightly more widely-spaced on the Reyburn than on the Goldie. For some reason my upper hand is very sensitive to the spacing of the holes, so the Goldie is more ergonomic for me than the Reyburn.

I’ve never been a fan of putting metal in my mouth, and I like the Reyburn delrin mouthpiece much better than the alloy Goldie one.

2

They don’t look terribly dissimilar in the photo. I suppose, though, that even 1/8" difference between them could be very noticeable with such a large whistle. (I only play soprano D whistles at this time, and I don’t notice such differences between the two I own.) I also assume you use the piper’s grip on a low D whistle?

This was a good objective review. Thanks for writing it!

3

You’re welcome!

Yes Pipers’ Grip.

Being a piper, I have always naturally used Pipers’ Grip on the lower hand of Low D Whistles. But on the upper hand I’ve always used the grip I use on the pipes, rather than the Low Whistle Pipers’ Grip. :confused:

But when I got into Bass Whistles, especially my Bass A, I had to learn Pipers’ Grip for the upper hand.

I found that Pipers’ Grip made playing Low Ds far more comfortable. Still, for me it only takes the upper-hand holes a tiny bit more splayed-out to make my upper hand start to cramp after a while.

I just measured, and the hole-spread, from hole-centre to hole-centre, on both the upper and lower hands of the Goldie is 72mm.

The Reyburn is 74mm on the upper hand and 75mm on the lower hand. Oddly the lower-hand difference isn’t noticeabe to me, but the upper-hand difference is, when playing.

About Pipers’ Grip, think about it this way: the underside of each finger has three soft fleshy pads, and it’s these which work best for sealing holes, rather than the bony knuckles in between. Let’s call the three pads the inner-joint, middle joint, and end-joint pads.

So on the uilleann pipes the standard grip is

M
M
E

M
M
M
E

while on the Highland pipes it’s either

E
E
E

M
M
M
E

or

M
M
M

M
M
M
E

The Low Whistle Pipers’ Grip isn’t the same as any of these, completely, but rather

M
M
E

M
M
E

About “bitter-cold Michigan” here in California our temperatures have plummeted into the 70s, down from being near 90 last week.

4

Your review almost made me want one of these newer Reyburn low Ds, Richard. I have an old one, with a maple head. It’s very good, but I’d prefer a delrin head. No spare money right now (spent it on making a CD :wink: ), so it will have to wait.

5

I left California to move to Michigan. Though I could never go back, I do miss the warmth. I never thought I’d see the day that I’d rejoice because the temperature was 35 degrees!

Getting back on topic, I understand the piper’s grip a little better now. Were I to get my hands on a low D whistle, I’d most likely try to play it as one does a soprano D first. And uilleann pipes are not something I can see taking up. For one, I’d most likely need to get a left-handed set. And I’ve heard it takes seven years of learning, seven years of practice, and seven years of playing to become proficient on the uilleann pipes. If I picked up a set and started learning today, I’d be 60 by the time I put in those 21 years!

6

I’ve put in my 40 years on the things and I wouldn’t call myself “proficient”. Maybe “decent”?

(Actually its the 40th anniversary of playing the same Quinn chanter. I started the pipes a couple years earlier, on a sh!te chanter.)

7

Ooooh those have a gorgeous tone.

8

It certainly does. It’s gorgeous. :slight_smile:

9

You have spent over 40 years playing the uilleann pipes…I’d say you’re probably better than “decent.” But then again, I have some work to do before I’ll consider myself a musician. We are our own worst critics, so the cliché goes.

I certainly can’t see myself taking up the pipes. If I wore a hat, it would be off to you!

10

Isaac alderson learned the uillean pipes in 5 years. Also flute and whistle in that same time. He became proficient enough to win the Senior All Ireland, on all 3 at the age of 19 after those 5 years :boggle: So it may not take the 21 years but it may take being a bit of a musical freak of nature! :laughing:

11

It certainly could be done, but one’s capacity for learning diminishes with age. I also do not have designs on being a multi-instrumentalist. Whistles, flutes fingered in the same manner as a whistle, and maybe a recorder would be more than enough for me!

12

Its possible one’s capacity for learning might diminish with age but that age is probably much later than we think. Our ability to learn quite often improves with age however with qualities such as focus, maturity, understanding of the music we love and time to practice enhanced. A major reason older people won’t take up new challenges is the fear of failing and looking foolish. They won’t say that however. They will just say they are too old. Children are great learners because they don’t care about those things. I know in Australia mature-age university students have a higher rate of success in their courses than those straight from school.

13

I have no such fear! Only two people, a dog, and three cats can really see how I look, and if I sound horrible, there aren’t many more people around to hear it…unless a whistle’s sound carries over fifty feet or so.

I’d think that is due at least in part to their days of partying and chasing girls being largely behind them…

14

I know it’s offtopic but I taught pipes for years and the difference in “learning curve” between youngsters and middle-aged people is immense.

I’ve heard the same thing all my life from teachers of violin, ballet, bagpipes, 2nd languages… you want to get hold of the learner before puberty if possible, if not, while still in the teens.

My best personal teaching example is that one day it so happened that two of my students, a 10 year old and a 40 year old, were to learn the same ornament the same day (seperate lessons).

I demonstrated it, once, for the 10 year old, and he played it back for me flawlessly, and every subsequent time he played it he did it perfectly. He never had to practice it, then or later.

With the 40 year old I ended up having to slow it down, and break it down into its component steps, and we went through the steps over and over for nearly an hour. This guy was an ardent practicer, and practiced that ornament every day. After a year of practicing it, probably hundreds of hours, he still couldn’t do it consistently. If I asked him to play it five times in a row (I did do) he would do it correctly most of the time, but still do it incorrectly sometimes.

15

I’m close to 40, and the student in the quoted passage could just as easily be me. Learning a skill (be it playing a musical instrument, speaking a foreign language, driving a manual transmission, what-have-you) is certainly easier as a youth! Makes me glad I have a working knowledge of German and learned how to drive a manual almost 25 years ago. As far as the whistle goes, all I have to do is keep plugging away!

16

I know more about Highland pipe pedagogy than I do about that of other instruments, and with Highland pipes there are many teachers who won’t take on adult beginners… they want to focus on youngsters who have the potential to become prize-winning players.

In the years of being in the piping scene I’ve only known two people who took up the pipes as adults and rose to high levels on the competition circuit (Grade One, and Open).

They shared the following attributes:

  1. prior musical experience
  2. inherent ability
  3. top-notch instruction
  4. fanatical dedication
  5. schedules which allowed vast amounts of practice time (two to six hours a day)

For every person like that there are hundreds of adults who dabble with the pipes and never get anywhere, and hundreds more who are dedicated to learning but due to starting later in life and/or lacking one or more of the attributes listed above only rise to the level of basic competence (which is no small thing).

17

I love that you put that last phrase in parenthesis there. Some of us find great joy in slowly becoming able to play modestly at home or with friends in a non-professional capacity. Speaking for myself, it adds much pleasure to my life to play simple tunes that I love… at home, with a friend or two or with my husband, and on several different instruments. I’ll never be a competition level player of any instrument… but that’s totally not why I play music. I play music because it bathes my soul in happiness when I string together some phrases and notes that sound lovely to me.

18

Such an interesting off-topic discussion that I must participate:

I pretty much agree with Chifmunk. For some, I may not be “old” enough per se to express this convincingly, but I suppose in regard of instrument learning I am. I’m closer to 30 than 20 of age myself and I chose to take up the Uilleann pipes no earlier than a little less than a year ago (with a few years’ history with whistles) even though I was very aware that it is a difficult instrument, especially when beginning with very little or with no face-to-face consultation of other pipers available, and with only a handful of other pipers in the whole country I live in for that matter. It was something I had wanted to do for a long time and I felt the need for it. I’m making progress slowly yet surely and I enjoy every minute of it. That being stated, I’m quite confident that I can eventually reach a skill level high enough to play in sessions and maybe small performances, while being absolutely content with the fact that I’ll never be a competitor in the art of pipes, which never was an intention of mine, and so be it. I guess I mean to say that the fact that you’ll never be as good as the best ones should, in my opinion, never be a reason not to do something that you really want to do in your life.

Yes, perhaps it’s true that learning a new instrument is easier as a child, but as an adult you have other perks as a learner, like motivation, discipline, understanding etc. Maybe the reason why it’s often said that it’s best to start at a young age is that you have more time in your life overall to develop your skills to manage to a pro level (earlier) in your life. Be as it may, I for one (and many other who have taken up the instrument at a later age, I believe) would have missed something major, and most likely regretted it at even later an age, had I given up just because “I’m too old to do this”.

19

This is indeed an interesting off-topic discussion. Perhaps it can be made into its own topic elsewhere? But anyway, as regards those those two pipers who started as adults and became top-level, here is how I fit in:

  • Prior musical experience: I don’t think my two months or so of regular practice on the tin whistle counts, so I’m out on this one.
    Inherent ability: whether I have this is uncertain at best.
    Top-notch instruction: I definitely don’t have access to any instructor at this time, let alone a top-notch one.
    Fanatical dedication: I would definitely be able to muster this up.
    A schedule which allows vast amounts of practice time (two to six hours a day): I have this luxury as of this post, but that’s subject to change.

In summary, I can say with certainty that only one of the five qualities necessary for getting even decent on the pipes will be with me in the long term.

Learning the whistle, however, hasn’t been terribly difficult for me. I have picked up tunes in as little as five minutes, but sometimes need a few days. Sometimes I’ll botch a tune I’ve played scores of times. I’m confident that those little goofs will become less frequent, and eventually disappear altogether, with more practice.

Will I ever be a competition-level or professional whistler? Almost certainly not. For now, I can play about a dozen tunes fairly convincingly. If I can play along with other musicians in a more casual setting–when I get to a point that I’ll consider myself a musician–I’ll be pretty happy.

Edit: while eating dinner, it occurred to me that I should have said learning has, in retrospect, not been terribly difficult.

20

I’m interested in the windway dimensions of the new Reyburn. It looks significantly higher and narrower than the others, so it’s intriguing that “it has the same superb air-efficiency” as the Goldie which has a much lower and wider windway. A perhaps superficial logic would suggest that a higher windway might “waste” more air (i.e. less of the air is directly affecting the soundblade).

The curved windway makes a width comparison awkward without some maths, but would you be able to measure the height, or is the height measurement supplied by Reyburn?