Here’s a goofy question. When playing a C# on the D whistle what is the most advised way of keeping the whistle steady? I don’t think I can get comfortable using my pinkies against the side of the whistle.
[ This Message was edited by: Cody on 2002-01-05 22:50 ]
Not goofy. If you’re not happy using your little finger, you can leave the 3rd finger of your bottom hand covering the bottom hole of the whistle.
In fact, you can leave any or all of the fingers of your bottom hand down without affecting the pitch of the note. Knowing this comes in handy, depending on what note you play before and after the C#.
I have been discovering more and more the wisdom of what Stevie has pointed out here. The question of fingering then becomes what is the right fingering for the song rather than just for the individual notes. There may be a smoother or faster transition from one note to the next by leaving down fingers that are not necessary for the note but don’t effect it either. It 's amazing how many subtleties there can be to playing such a simple instrument!
Best wishes, Tom
Stevie: Are there any other subtle fingerings that are in use that might be useful to those of us less experienced?
Cheers.
Byll
Stevie: Are there any other subtle fingerings that are in use that might be useful to those of us less experienced?
Yes, as Tom points out, it’s amazing how many fingers you can not move sometimes - mainly on the bottom hand. There are a few notes on the subect at Brother](http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/%22%3EBrother) Steve’s pages, under the heading Not lifting a finger. My favourite is the lazy way of tackling Drowsy Maggie.
If I may express a different view–
I like the ring-finger down way
of steadying the whistle, but I
try to avoid ‘lazy’ fingerings otherwise.
First, what doesn’t affect the tone
on one whistle sometimes does on
another. Second, I believe–maybe
mistakenly–that a ‘non-lazy’
technique will make for the
cleanest, simplest, and most
expressive playing in the long
run.
Good food for thought, Jim. But do you know of any whistle on which the tone or any other feature is adversely affected by playing, for example, d-c#-d like this?
[|oxx-xxx]
[|ooo-xxx]
[|oxx-xxx]
I haven’t come across one. This being so, how would you say that lifting 2 or 3 extra fingers would make your playing less [oops: belated edit - I meant to say more] clean, expressive or simple?
I call these fingering shortcuts laziness out of humour. Actually I think they are good technique, and I’m quite sure they make my own playing much cleaner and simpler.
The only experience I’ve had with whistles not responding to fingerings I like to use have concerned three notes:
Why should I accept a whistle that doesn’t play like the ones I’m used to? Would you ask a piano player to do the same? There’d have to be an overwhelming reason, and as far as whistles go, I haven’t seen one yet.
[ This Message was edited by: StevieJ on 2002-01-07 12:19 ]
I agree with SteveJ on this one. I dearly love my Susato “Session Blaster” high D and my one gripe with it is that I cannot leave the sixth finger down on the high D. Anything above the high G takes firm resolve on the Susato anyway, so that my impulse is very strong to brace my self and grip the whistle harder on that second part of the Connaughtman’s Rambles. Frowns have been seen from sensitive fiddle players.
But seriously, I felt that my playing went to a new level when I unlearned the “always lift the first finger on the high D” rule and started leaving fingers down that I was going to put right back down anyway. Learning a new tune means figuring out the best finger shortcuts. And the faster the tune, I feel the greater the relative importance of rhythm over pitch. Figures like c-B-c in a jig (which are basically ornamental anyway), I have been known to finger
|0XX000
|X0X000
|0XX000
Dirty? Yes, but quick and surer than lifting the thrid finger too.
Bloomfield,
Try your C-B-C sequence this way and see what you think. Just another way to get more fingers down, not necessarily any better than what you already have. ( o x x o x x ), ( x o x o x x ), ( o x x o x x )! I find that the 2 lower fingers add stability to my whistle and I usually use ( o x x o x x ) for Cnat, anyway. Even better, since the notes are ornamental they can be played as a Cnat roll: The more usual ( o x x x o x ) could also be used for Cnat.
( o x x o x x ), ( o x x x x x ), ( o x x o x x ), ( x x x o x x ), ( o x x o x x ) quickly snapping the lower and then the upper index fingers on and off the holes. Now the Cnat roll is one sequence that I think has to be played with most of the fingers down.
Jim, old friend, I hope you don’t feel under attack by the “all fingers down” whistle school! I really enjoy these threads that are about whistle playing!
Best wishes to all, Tom
How many fingers of a whistler does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Three. . . No Four. . .I think maybe I read three and a thumb for support. Augghhhh!
Heh, heh. I love style. Stylistic approaches are what bring uniqueness to what could be an absolute black and white world.
I’m totally new to whistling and I love it already! It is fantastic to find that there is more than one way to skin that proverbial cat (No offense meant to cat lovers it’s just a saying).
I have found it amusing though, that on some web pages the authors are into absolutes, and that any deviation from their way indicates a true amateur whistler(See my tagline).
For my own experience I have found with the Walton Guiness D that the tone changes if I leave a finger down on one of the lower three holes while playing higher notes. It seems to flatten the note a little.
Now I’m not a purist that has delusions of warming up Andrea Corr’s whistle before a gig so it’s not a problem for me. I do imagine that someone will point it out to me though at some point if I train my fingers to follow that convention to support the whistle.
To get the best sounding C# on this little whistle it has to be all holes uncovered. I’ve tried sliding my ring finger down below the first hole for support of the whistle, but its messing up my finger placement as I go back down the scale.
Maybe I’ll wrap a wire around it, put the wire through the brim of a baseball cap, adjust the wire for proper positioning, and viola! Hey I think I just invented a new product for an infomercial!
The Whistle Holder. Are you tired of the feeling that your whistle fipple will slip from your lips, and that your well loved Irish tinwhistle will crash to the floor when playing a C#? Then worry no more. We at Interesting Developments Incorporating Old Technology (I.D.I.O.T) have the perfect solution–Our Whistle Holder! Only $19.95 no C.O.D’s. 
Professional artist. Amateur everything else.
[ This Message was edited by: Cody on 2002-01-07 18:39 ]
Bloomfield, you might half-hole the C-B-C (an option that is quick, easy (once
one learns how to do it)
but doesn’t let you ornament).
StevieJ, for me the ‘lazy’ fingering
for C natural on Susato’s, WWs,
and Silkstones is to crossfinger.
Please don’t take offence–‘lazy’ is
your word and I’m keeping it in quotes
to allow that ‘lazy’ fingering
may not be at all lazy.
I have a low whistle
with a sort of flat C# that gets
flatter if I have the bottom three
fingers down. It is a wonderful
whistle overall.
I often play the high D note with all
fingers down, especially at speed.
So I’m ‘guilty,’ too. I honestly
don’t know if avoiding ‘lazy’
fingering helps my playing–
but I’ve found in the past
that I sooner or later have
to unlearn most shortcuts.
So I err on the side of
avoiding them. (I’m trying
to play the whistle almost
as if it is a classical
instrument–plus slurs, ornaments,
and half-holing.) If it
works for you, go for it!
I own that it may well be an
improvement.
Cody, Concerning the difficulty of
coming down the scale with
the right hand ring finger
down–if you practice it will
get easy. But it’s down on
the bottom hole.
So coming down one goes
xoooox xxooox xxxoox xxxxoo xxxxxo xxxxxx
The best comment that I have ever heard about finger “positions” was from Mary Bergin. We were sitting in Hughes’ Pub in Spiddal one night and I asked her “How do you make the C# on your D whistle”. She said that she just takes her finger half way or so off the top hole. I asked why did she not use some sort of “alternate fingering”? Her reply is with me to this day; “There are no frets on a violin”. Bingo.
Bob Pegritz
On 2002-01-08 02:29, Whistleworks wrote:
“There are no frets on a violin”.
This is very Zen, Bob. I think I just achieved satori struggling to see the relevance to whistles.
Maybe you should turn it into a haiku… but don’t you mean C-natural, rather than C#? (Which is another can of worms that we could discuss ad naus.)
but there are frets on a Mandolin, so where does that leave us?
Like StevieJ, I’m confused as to the logic, but it does sound very Zen.
Here’s a stab at her meaning…
I believe she’s referring to playing the whistle as a continously variable instrument vs discrete frequency. (Think Trombone vs. Trumpet).
By playing Cnat oxxooo, you get what the whistle gives you. By half holing, you have total control over what comes out.
jb
Tom: thanks for the suggestion. I often leave the sixth finger down on the c-B-c move, so it will be definitely worth trying and C-natural rolls sound cool, too.
Jim: I do half-hole occasionally, but usually on B-c-B. I find it much much easier to approach the half-holed note from below rather than above. So B 3{=cB=c would be no problem, but f 3(=cB=c would be.
There are some figures where lazy fingerings are absolutely vital, imo. For instance the beginning of John Ryan’s Polka (key of D major): dd B/C/d/B/ | AF … Here is how I finger that:
|xxx xxx
|xxx xxx
|xoo xxx
|ooo xxx
|xxx xxx *
|xoo xxx
|xxo ooo
|xxx xoo
It still trips me up a lot. 
My problems come mostly for the very strong temptation to lift the first finger on the last d in the first measure (where I put the asterisk).
To me this is an example of a phrase that you cannot play up to speed if you religiously lift the first finger on a high d.
If you want to look at the music, it’s here:
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/findtune?P=John+ryan’s&F2=find+(wide)
[ This Message was edited by: bloomfield on 2002-01-08 15:28 ]
[ This Message was edited by: Bloomfield on 2002-01-08 15:30 ]
On 2002-01-08 10:41, brownja wrote:
Here’s a stab at her meaning…
I believe she’s referring to playing the whistle as a continously variable instrument vs discrete frequency. (Think Trombone vs. Trumpet).
By playing Cnat oxxooo, you get what the whistle gives you. By half holing, you have total control over what comes out.
jb
I think you are reading Mary Bergin right. But I don’t want total control, being the beginner that I am, I just want a c-natural every time (or something close enough to pass for a c-natural among friends)
Half holing seems to change
one’s relation to the instrument–
it isn’t just that you have total
control, but that it’s more hands
on–the melody is like dough
which you are kneading with your
hands. The whistle seems to
be alive. On the other hand trying
to get to be able to half hole
competently has driven me
nearly to distraction. There
have been moments where I felt
I was on the mountain top looking
down into the promised land–
though I was drunk at the time.
I do think it’s worth the trouble
as a long term (in my case a very
long term) project.
To StevieJ: Yes, C natural. I was tired. Thanks.
Bob