Hello. I am having a lot of trouble with finger placement - I can’t seem to cover the holes properly. I’ve been YouTubing and see people playing the whistle and their fingers seem like they are flat on the whistle, but I don’t seem to cover the holes well without having a death grip on the thing!
Any tips would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Terri
Hi Terri, and welcome!
Yes, keep your fingers fairly flat, pointing across the whistle. Use the fleshy pads near your fingertips, not the tips themselves. The pads are kind of squishy and will sink into the holes a bit.
Try this. Without blowing, finger a D on your whistle, with all fingers down. Press hard for a couple of seconds, then remove your fingers and look at them. You should see little indentations from the holes, and the indentations should be centered on the pads. If not, reposition your fingers and try again. Feel the holes under your fingers. When you can do this consistently, relax your finger pressure (no death grip!), then play an ascending D scale and check that each note sounds cleanly. Voilà! With your fingers positioned correctly, you don’t need to press hard at all to cover the holes. Good position is more important than pressure.
Hope that helps …
Hear Hear! Words to live by.
a word u will see pop up here most times is practice and its true. i thought i would never get a tune from the whistle how wrong am i
keep at it it pays off 
Have a look through these old threads which should have some helpful stuff in, though much of their contact is aimed at helping a child, so you may need to browse them selectively, but I think you’ll find doing so worthwhile. There are doubtless more out there if you use the forum’s search facility… - keywords like “hold” and “grip” etc. should bring some useful stuff up.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=54504
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=53475
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=54440
and this one, whilst the thread was on a different topic, my last post may be helpful…http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?p=711009&highlight=#711009.
That’s really good advice Mtguru, I have the same problem mostly with one hole. I think mostly with the E and before heading to work I tried your advice and it worked nicely.
being a piano player I know practice practice practice will pay off as well. Just yesterday my husband commented “that sounds really nice” when just last week, he thanked me when I stopped playing.
I use a little bit of Palmer’s Cocoa Butter hand cream on my fingers to soften and make the pads of my fingers more sensitive.
When you relax enough to feel the holes, that’s the right force for your fingers.
When you get to the note G, remember to put a finger down on the bottom hand to keep it balanced so you don’t drop it. Some people use the ring finger, some people prefer the pinkie.
Thanks you guys! Actually my 11yo daughter and I are learning together, so the threads geared toward kids will help too!
Oh if only my middle finger were the same length as the other two . . . that is my biggest problem, I;ve noticed.
Still practicing! 
I would hope this is most people’s problem! What can happen is, the middle finger gets arched a little more than the index and ring fingers, which is perfectly fine so long as you’re not using the tips, but the pads as mentioned before.
The death grip can make practicing unpleasurable, (as well as lead to bad technique) but just try remembering to relax, go slower if you need to, you should be able to just brush your fingers off the tone holes, not have to pry them off with a crowbar.
Cheers,
My middle finger pad hits the hole just next to the crease for the second joint. When you relax, you can feel the hole easily.
I call this my suprano whistle grip.
On my bagpipes (and whistles low F and below), I have to use the second pads of my first and second fingers of the top hand, my third finger covers the hole with the first pad.
The bottom hand, the top 3 fingers all cover the holes with the second pad while my pinkie covers the ghost D hole.
This is my “piper’s grip”.
It is all a matter of relaxing your wrist and fingers and let your fingers stay comfortably flat. You need more strength in the lifting muscles than the hole closing muscles.
Close your eyes and relax…
I think that’s a common problem when you first start playing. Your grip will start to relax and in just a short time you won’t even think about it. Good luck and welcome to the Wonderful World of Whistling.
When I went home for lunch today, I relaxed my grip and found that doing scales on a regular basis is going to help me hit the holes accurately as time goes by.
By relaxing as you guys suggested I had a better feel for the holes and doing scales just gives me a better feel for it as opposed to just learning pieces.
Especially on the middle finger, it’s perfectly OK to use the area between the pad and the first joint to cover the hole. That compensates for the length and helps to keep the finger straighter.
I’ve been surfing YouTube today, watching different people playing whistle. I did notice Joanie Madden using the second pad on her bottom hand, middle finger a few times.
Relaxing is the hardest part for me - when I do scales only a few times, the thumb on my right hand is just killing me. Obviously still death-gripping. So that has been my main thing since joining this group - not even playing but just feeling comfortable holding the whistle and checking my finger positioning using MTguru’s tips.
Thanks to all of you! I really do want to do this, so I will keep practising!
The death grip is a problem for me too when playing fast. It seems the faster I play the tighter I hold the whistle and my thumb starts to hurt after a few minutes of playing like this. You’re not alone in your struggle with death grip
As far as the finger positions go I can use the first pad of all my fingers just fine, I’ve never really had a problem with holding the whistle, I find it to be pretty ‘natural’ to hold. But then again I come from playing ocarina, where you have to use the top/1st pad of your fingers to cover the holes.