Hi ya’ll. New to the forum. Not new to whistles, as I played a Generation D in the 80s before my life took a different turn (family and running my own business.) Now I’m back working up my chops. I can say that re-learning is easier than learning, but it will be a while before I build up my repertoire and speed.
Anyway, I stopped playing in the early 90s when I got frustrated with my out of tune whistle. You know those looks the other musicians give you when you can’t push it into proper intonation? And then you get nervous and try to play softer which only makes things worse! I almost ended up buying a Sweetheart as that was the new thing back then, but it was by-gosh-$80 or something, and that seemed like a lot for a whistle… hah!
One thing would probably have kept me in, namely if I had discovered that first album by Mary Bergin. Her whistle playing is truly inspirational.
I did pick up a Freeman-tweaked Generation while I study and shop for a higher-end one. First I tried putting my old Generation repeatedly in boiling water, and managed to barely improve it. The Freeman-tweaked is really quite nice. In particular the bell note resonates well. The A-notes in each register are a little flat; the C & C# are slightly off, but acceptable.
The Freeman-tweaked is really quite nice. In particular the bell note resonates well. The A-notes in each register are a little flat; the C & C# are slightly off, but acceptable.
Depends how you play your C, but the OXXOOO C is sharp on Generations and some other makes to help keep the C# up. But you don’t have to play your Cs with that fingering, and many players are happy to take half-holing and/or one of the ‘longer’ forked fingerings for C to get a less flat C#.
So don’t necessarily expect a ‘higher-end’ whistle to be better tuned than a good cheap one, because the tuning’s all about physics, unavoidable design choices/compromises, listening and learning to auto-adjust as you play. On any whistle, low- or high-end alike! While there are still good reasons why you might or might not prefer another whistle, unattainably ‘perfect’ tuning’s just so unlikely to be one of them.
Yeah, Cnat is slightly flat and the C# slightly sharp, although the cross-fingering improves the Cnat a bit. At tempo, the 0xx000 is acceptable enough on my Freeman Tweaked Generation. I’m willing to play either, but not both as my fingers start getting confused.
I’m having an interesting journey improving my skill with Cnat. I’m doing lots of repetitions of Banish Misfortune as it repeatedly crosses back and forth across that bridge.
Harvest Home is good for practicing my A-rolls.
Rights of Man for triplets on scales.
Are there other tunes that are good for working on a particular technical point?
As to Mary Bergin. She can certainly pull a sweet tone out of her whistles. I notice she is seldom using the D whistle, if that makes a difference (I don’t know). Also, the recording process seems to strengthen the first harmonic and mellow out whistle overtones.
