Isn’t it great when people know you play the whistle? The point of this post being that I have been bought a whistle from St. Petersburg, Russia. It is about 6 inches (15cms if you are not imperial) long with 5 finger holes. There is a blade carved into the whistle but no fipple as such and the blade is on the opposite side of the whistle barrel to the finger holes.
Now, my main question is, I can get notes out of it but they aren’t very loud and often disappear altogether. Is this an end blown whistle, in which case how do I blow it, or is it purely for decoration?
If I can get my hands on a digital camera I will try and post a picture.
Any thoughts, hints, tips, empathetic comments, or money would be greatly appreciated.
I have a whistle that sounds really similar to what you describe. I got mine in Russia, and I think they’re just supposed to be decorative – on mine I can get about one really good note and two or three faint notes. I think maybe it’s supposed to be held with the finger holes up, so the sound hole is underneath where it won’t show.
I’ve also got another of the same type (decorated, sound hole on the back) that consists of two barrels stuck together. The problem is that with both barrels sounding, there are more finger-holes than I have fingers. Maybe it’s a Martian whistle?
Is it really heavily painted? It may just be one of the Russian tourist souvenir “flutes”. They sell them on eBay. I’ve never bought one, but a friend who did say it’s decorative but not playable - for exactly the same reason you mention.
Oh well, the thought was nice and the gift welcome.
Suppose I’ll just have to add to my playable collection out of my own pocket, unless any of you multi-millionaire whistlers have a nice Low D that you are throwing out in the trash?
A
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[ This Message was edited by: adrianh on 2001-08-22 02:30 ]
