Hello everyone. As I’ve been working on getting comfortable in holding the whistle and making sure everything stays relaxed, I’ve noticed that the most natural posistion has me holding the whistle about 25 degress to the right of straight ahead. My arms, wrists, and fingers are the most relaxed that way. Anyone else do this? I haven’t had a chance yet to see very many other whistlers play yet.
Thanks,
Bob
(Davy Spillane & Donal Lunny)
(Isa—cute and Canadian)
(anonymous busker)
(Glen Eilers. That’s an Overton hi D or C, btw)
(Willie Clancy)
Thanks Bloomfield! I guess there’s a lot of us who are a little off-center! 
Bob
How strange!!! But I guess Whistles feel different in everyone’s
mouths. I didn’t think there were that many THIS far off tho!
Whatever works, I guess.
Lolly
??? You’r suppose to put the whistle to your MOUTH???
Uh…I gotta go practice…
Well, I’m not so far off center as most of these, just a bit to the right. The mouthpiece is still in the middle of my lips, it’s just that my head and arms are turned a bit to the right.
The only reason I even mentioned this is that Grey Larsen says in the “Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tim Whistle” that it’s important for the whistle to be on the center line of the body when holding the whistle. It doesn’t seem that critical to me as long as I don’t go too far off.
Bob
Well, Bob, now you know what happens when people get technical (Larsen pushing a standard way of holding it)…
This is a cry from the lonely (and or loony) corner, but whistling will be forever changed when classical-type standards become predominant.
Larsen ran that risk by promoting a “right” way to do it.
Not trying to be controversial or provocative, but having come from the classical music side over to this style, there are some obvious things going on. I overheard someone in a music store recently, playing whistles, and I could tell he had followed much of the advice here on the site, was playing certain very carefully learned tunes from a well-known book/cd tutor. It sounded contrived and unspontaneous. But obviously, the person was well-meaning.
If everybody goes out and gets the Larsen book, works through all the “exercises” and scales and such, there will be a uniform result. The geezers will sound all the more legendary because I WOULD GUESS many of them attained their ability is a much less systemized way.
Brave new world.
Hear, hear. I agree completely.
I know a guy who holds the whistle fairly straight but plays it out of the corner of his mouth. He also uses it to call his buffalo home so maybe it’s easier to drop it and run from that position…
The most important thing is, that you can play and the sound is great! 
when you hold your whistle about 25 degrees to the right,
you best turn the tuning slide and turn the holes to the right aswell.
that way you can keep your head straight
Or I could go on one of the extreme makover shows and get a “whistle mouth” added to my right cheek and be able to play the whistle like a small flute. 
Bob
I got the new Grey Larsen book recently and was surprised to read
him recommend the lower hand pinky should be resting on the whistle barrel.
I’m not used to playing with other people so I don’t get the chance to
glance over and check out their technique so this was new to me.
I recollect he listed many great players who play this way but I reckon it
would take me a looong time to get used to this. It felt very strange when
I tried it so I’m not going to bother changing at this late stage (this old
dog bites if you try and teach him new tricks).
I understand the logic behind the idea but it cramped the movement in
my neighbouring fingers, anyhow, the photo I have of Mary Bergin with
her lower hand pinky nowhere near the barrel is good enough for me!
As a matter of interest, how many others play with the lower pinky down?
Cheers,
Colin
I’m so glad you said that. I have the book, and have noodled my way through it. I consider it a very useful reference for times when you just can’t figure out how to do something and need it broken down. But I found myself chaffing a bit at his strict methodology (one of the reason nursing, among other career considerations, wasn’t going to work out for me.)
I feel a little support for being a maverick here.
I always play with my pinky down unless I’m playing a roll on E.
However, I don’t think it really matters as long as you feel you’ve got a stable grip on the whistle and you’re not tensing your other playing fingers trying to hold the whistle.
-Brett
Many uilleann pipers also play with their right hand pinky finger on the whistle as when you play pipes, that finger is covering the Eb hole anyway and it seems to feel more natural to us I suppose. I’m certain that there are plenty of other famous players apart from Mary Bergin who also do this…
I definately agree. My approach with other instruments like banjo, fiddle, guitar, r*******, is to find out the general priciples from several instructional sources, and then to use them to help find what works best for me. Grey has much more detail on this than most other books and does a good job of explaining his reasons. Everyone is different, and I feel that as long as I’m following general priciples, I’m fine. There’s no reason that anyone else’s implementation of the principles will be just like mine.
Bob
I generally do hold my whisslte a little to the right, which may explain my always being a little left of center?? (funny that I changed my ‘location’ recently… hmmmm… off to ponder balance and definition… hmmmm)
I can’t hold the whistle sideways. It reminds me too much of that awful Kenny G guy..
My little finger is too, well, little to park it on the end of a whistle when my other fingers are in the right position. I use my right ring finger to stabilize the tube, that is when it’s not needed elsewhere.
Mike