Hey everyone,
I’m a newbie to the tin whistle – I just bought my first one (Walton’s Mellow D). I’m teaching myself to play using L.E. McCullough’s book. So far I’m really enthusiastic and hoping to play a full tune by the end of the month, but I’m having a tough time switching between octaves and my C natural really sounds bad. I think I might be blowing too hard – any ideas?
Thanks! 
Hehe, lucky, you have a book, I’ve had to teach myself using fingering charts and sheet music. I’ve seen three fingerings for c natural. One is oxxooo, another is the first hole half covered, and the last is oxxxox. The last seems to sound best on my Walton’s Little Black D while in the first octave. I haven’t had problems switching octaves, I am not sure what would cuase this. I’m sure the other whistlers here will know as I have only been playing since around Christmas.
Hello, and welcome!
Are you half-holing or cross-fingering for the Cnat? If you’re cross-fingering (e.g., OXXOOO, etc.), it may be that the Walton’s Mellow D requires a different cross-fingering pattern than the one you’re using. I don’t have a Mellow D; perhaps someone else who has one will chime in with which pattern works for them.
Cheers,
John
Edited to say: ifire beat me to it. Doh!
Hey thanks for the tips.
The Xs are the holes covered or uncovered?
I’m not all that comfortable half-holing yet.
The fingering that McCullough gives for C nat in his book doesn’t look like it requires cross fingering, but whatever I’ve been playing makes a squeaky sound.
Covered.
Thanks.
I think I’ve been playing C natural as OXXXOX
Greetings and welcome! I’m rather new here myself, and just started messing around with the whistle back in July. My first was a Mellow D also. I would suggest you try another brand. I playing in the second octave properly is nearly impossible on mine, but I don’t have any trouble with any of my other whistles. I’ve heard other people here express similar difficulties. I would recommend Clarke’s Sweet Tone. It’s not my favorite sounding whistle, but it’s easy to play and very inexpensive.
Good Luck.
I second that. I started out with a Waldons little black whistle, and the getting notes out of it was jsut a hassle. If you have just a little more money, i recommend going with a Jerry tweaked whistles. I personally like the sweatone or the generation, and for the price, I think its hard to get a better whistle.
Steve-o
Try the different fingerings for your C nat. The one I most often use is
oxxoox.
As an exercise, try jumping octaves: low D, high D (all you have to do is lift your top finger and the whistle should jump the octave for this note), low E, high E, low F high F…and so on. You’ll learn to feel the difference in pressure necessary to make the jump.
Run the scale all the way up…nice and slow…then back down. Make sure each note sounds decent before moving onto the next.
A lot of it is just practice. After a while of playing you’ll get so comfortable with it that you won’t even remember how you ever had problems with them.
One thing I DON’T recommend is blaming the whistle. That way lies WhOA. Proof positive is handing the whistle to an experienced player and having them show you that all the notes play perfectly fine.
Good luck! have fun!
Another suggestion would be to buy an inexpensive “thick wall” whistle. In other words, not a thin metal tube. C nat generally isn’t that great on a tube. oxxxox is usually the best sounding c nat, but hard to play on fast stuff. I usually use oxxxox or oxxoxx unless the note is really exposed and needs to sound as good as it can (which is usally still a little weak). On fast stuff I (and a good number of others) just use oxxooo and hope it doesn’t stick out.
On to the thick wall whistle. Being you are a beginner, I’ll stick to the ones that don’t cost you an arm and a leg. I’m talking a Dixon or Susato. oxxooo generally sounds half way decent on them. Seems like I remember a Serpent Sweet Polly played pretty decently on the easy fingering too, as did a Syn. I think you can get a non tunable Dixon for about nineteen bucks, and the non tunable susato for a bit less.
It’s the physics of whistles. You’ll also hear about the physics of conical bore vs straight tubes too, if you care to indulge in the technical aspects.
You might be right about blowing too hard. I’ve found many high Ds need a gentle blow to sound good and not squawk. It’s called breath control, and comes with some practice. And as others have said, it could be the whistle. Have fun!
Hey guys,
Thanks for the tips.
I think most of it will be practice for me because I’m new to wind instruments and breath control (I’m not a singer either). The first day I got the whistle, I ran up and down the whistle and the notes sounded fine. I’m reluctant to purchase a new whistle just yet. I’m patient enough to stick to practicing with this one.