New to the pennywhistle here so of course I have questions. How do you get the ##@%^$&&& to work? Seriously this instrument is proving difficult for me to get the hang of. ( of which to get the hang).
Especially breathing-blowing. I get squeaks and squaks. The thing jumps octavies left and right. Sometimes I change fingering but the whistle doesn’t change to the new note.
That is enough for now. I am new to Celtic music and am liking the genre. Just a few pointers to keep me going and to keep peace in the neighborhood when I preacice.
breathe in it, dont blow hard. just breathe, and it should sound nicely. what kind of whistle do you have? and the whistle changes notes from the bottom up. if you lift your top pointer finger, then the only note will be is C#, no matter what other fingers you move. do you have a tutor book?
Sometimes weird squeaks and squalks happen when holes are covered, but not covered quite all the way. It can take a bit practice to consistently get the fingers down so the holes are actually fully covered, and stay fully covered as other fingers go up and down. Air leaks around the fingers can cause some of the weirdest whistle sounds…
Also, it takes a little time to gain control of the air you blow into the whistle. For low notes, the release of air has to be quite gentle, like breathing out gently. And then for very high notes, the stream of air needs to be quite focused and intense… not just blowing harder, but using the shape of your mouth/tongue/throat to kind of compress the air into a little jet. One thing that helped me was shaping my mouth like I was going to whistle (with my mouth, not my pennywhistle) a particularly low or high note – and then blow into the whistle with that mouth shape.
I’m also kind of a newbie (6 months in), and these are the things I wish I’d known at the very beginning.
Thanks squid and collector. I have a Generations C and D. The things that seem to be my problem from viewing your responses are:
Blowing/ breathing. Seems that the blowing of the whistle needs to be VERY gentle.
Also not getting the holes covered properly as squid pointed out.
A disclaimer here: I was under the impression that this instrument is very easy to play. I think this is a little misleading. I do read some music and am intermediate in playing guitar.
How have you started and what was your experience with the whistle “In the beginning”?
I know what you are going through. I went through it when I first started out. And I still have my moments to this day. Everyone was an absolute beginner at one time. Be pateint and don’t let frustration discourage you.
Have you seen Ryan Duns video series at Youtube? Start with his first video, it’s geared to first timers. Just practice and be patient and stay with it and you’ll be fine. Work your way through his course and you’ll be surprised at how much a little diligence can pay off.
Don’t worry. Just get the hang of where each note is for now. Once your muscle memory kicks in, learning songs will be a snap. Playing scales and stuff can be really helpful. And I second the Ryan Duns suggestion. Here’s his first video, in case you hadn’t found it already:
Try this experiment: Hold the whistle in your hands ready to play. Exhale deeply all the way, to completely empty your lungs of air. Now take the smallest, tiniest little breath in, just barely a breath. Put the whistle to your lips, and very gently blow a note. You should be able to get a few seconds of steady sound, without squawks, before you run out of air again.
Remember that feeling of blowing gently. That’s more or less the level of breath pressure you can use for notes in the first octave. The second octave takes more, but not much more.
Of course, this is not the way to play normally! The trick is to develop the breath control and support you need so that even with deep breaths and lungs full of air, you can play gently and steadily. With practice, you can control both the amount of air and the air pressure to produce the best sound.
What part of your fingers are you using to cover the holes? If you’re a guitar player used to using your fingertips, that won’t work well on the whistle (especially with callouses on your fretting hand). Try keeping your fingers fairly straight (not bent in a curve) and relatively stiff. Then use the fleshy pads, not the tips, of your fingers to cover the holes. Or use the flat area between the pad and the tip, or between the pad and your first knuckle. Squash your fingers down onto the holes just gently enough to get a good seal, but not much harder. Feel the sealed holes under your fingers, and remember the feeling.
Everything is relative. It is way easier to learn than the fiddle. Easier than the flute. Easier than the Uilleann pipes. But not easier than not learning it. Perhaps simple would be a better word than easy.
I would surmise that your expectations of your progress rate are somewhat inaccurate. Just because an instrument is labeled easy or simple does not mean you will be proficient at it in a few minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months. As a newb myself at whistle I would suspect that it will take upwards of two years for me to get to a decent playing level. I suspect that there are very few(read: zero) folks who have never played a woodwind type instrument, picked up the whistle, and were immediately good at it. Just doesn’t happen. A flute player maybe, but not a string player. Some things might transfer over well, but strings are a horse of a different color.
Do be patient, though. In a couple of days or weeks, you’ll notice some significant progress. And don’t forget, teachers exist for a reason…
I recall getting one of those Oriental board games as a child - it was like Chinese Checkers, only different. The tag line on the box read “Thirty minutes to learn; a lifetime to master.” It takes a bit longer than thirty minutes to figure out a whistle but the idea is the same.
That said, mastering the whistle is the most fun for the money; maybe the most fun, period. Welcome to C&F.
I remember the first time I played it, it keeped jumping, but after practising for a couple of weeks, it stopped, so just keep it up, its easy once you practise, as are all things , do what everyone suggested adn have fun with it!
I play guitar a little, so playing guitar and penny-whistle can be done.
MT Guru is on the ball, as usual. I like to use the piper’s grip, which means I cover the holes with the second joint of my fingers. When I do it properly, that is. Breathing properly takes a lot of practice.
Yeah, the breathing is hard. Lots of new people like to blow way too hard. You have to blow gently. And if you are a person with big strong lungs like me, you end up with too much air left over! I find the flute much easier to handle breath-wise.
I also think holding the whistle is hard. It feels like you’re going to drop it. So you have to figure out how to hold it but keep your fingers limber and not have a death grip.
What’s easy making the notes. It’s basically the same fingers for both octaves. Once you get a decent sound, tooting out a little tune isn’t so hard. But sounding like some of these great players who play lightning fast and so beautifully you want to cry, well, that’s another story!
I have been playing whistle for about a year and my prior music experience was playing the baritone 25 plus years ago in marching band.
As many have said the number one thing that frustrated me in the beginning (and less now, but not completely mastered) is properly covering the holes. Those squeaks and sqawks can reduce one to tears. Proper hole coverage, when it comes, will boost your self esteem in whistle playing by leaps and bounds.
I also purchased a copy of tutor books that came with CD’s and worked through the lessons and listened a lot.
MTGuru and others will talk about muscle memory.
They are spot on. It comes in time with practice.
The high notes were another source of constant frustration. I know some whistles can hit the third octave better than others, but I found out after a year of practice and believing that my whistle could not, that it was more me than anything. Practice and breath control and lots of failed notes have led me to where I dare to play pieces with those notes in public, mostly successfully.
Another thing early on was downloading some simple tunes that had the fingering “dots” with the notes from Mark Bell’s site “Whistle and Squeak.”
Keep at it and blessings and don’t take it so seriously that you forget to have fun
pastorkeith
There’s surely a link to this on the home page but you may have missed it if you came direct to the forum (a funny thing happened on the way…).
It gives the answers to just about all your questions and lots more besides: http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/
And the “Brother” thing is just a joke, so you needn’t worry about being recruited into some weird sect (apart from the one you’ve just joined, that is…).
Thanks everybody for the advice. I actually went to a metro park today here in Columbus, Ohio and practiced. I have a better idea of what it is going to take now. I wasn’t arrested or mugged. The thing actually , almost, just about and surely made some coherent squeeks. I recognize many similar woes mentioned above.
Nothing to add to the good advice already given, except that I thought the whistle was almost impossible at first. Following the tips you’ve been given, you’ll find, as you apparently have, that the basics start to come. You’ll start to notice what you were doing when something sounded right. And then you can try to duplicate that. One main thing is to make sure you are staying relaxed—always be mindful of that. When you’re learning something new, all your muscles tend to tense up and you can be completely unaware of it. When you get to the point of playing faster—quite aways off, this is way in the future—you’ll need to have relaxed fingers so they can move more quickly. Keep your neck and shoulders relaxed too.
He can probably point you to good teachers or learning groups in
your area… It might help quite a bit just to have someone look at
your fingers and directly assess problems early. And it also helps
sometimes to hear from someone else that you’re doing just fine
(it’s often hard to convince yourself of that).
Another thing- quality control for Generations can be dodgy, and I certainly have picked up Generations on which only sweaking notes could be produced. Like for any instrument, a beginner is well-served by having an experienced player pick an instrument for them. I was teaching whistle at a festival two years ago and a place had a dozen D Generations. One was a superb player with solid tone thoughout the range and perfectly in tune octaves. (I bought that one. ) One was nearly as good, with actually a nicer sound but a tiny hair less responsive, which one I picked out for a newbie. A couple had a horrible breathy wheezy tone, tended to squeek, and had awful octaves. The rest ranged in between the two extremes. So somebody who just bought one at random could have a tough time of learning if they ended up with one of the bad ones.
Or, you could get a Burke, and you know it will be great!
I hadn’t improved that much in three days. I didn’t think it was easier than the guitar. I could play chords on the guitar faster than I could play much of anything on the whistle at all. Just different experiences for different people. Not debating your experience, just telling what mine was.
). Good luck!