I play third flute and piccolo with a community orchestra. This coming fall we are performing a Beatles Tribute piece that has an extended whistle solo in my part. I want to do this right and not just play it on piccolo. I’ve arranged a lesson with a trad player.
I need whistle advice.
Here are my requirements:
What do you suggest?
Sharon
What’s your budget? Will you be amplified, or do you need the whistle to be relatively loud?
On the cheap side, you could try a Generation C or a Clarke’s Original in C. See which sound you prefer - they are very different.
For a cheap(ish), tuneable whistle that’ll carry, I’d suggest a Susato.
Mind you, they’re not that cheap any more, by the looks of it - nearly £50 in Hobgoblin, in Britain. For that, you can get a Dixon plastic/metal tuneable - you might prefer the tone, but they ain’t as loud. The all-plastic Dixon tuneables are cheaper again.
If those are way too much, I like my Feadog C a lot. Not that loud, but lovely tone.
It will not be amplified.
I don’t think a Clark Original will work because it must be tuneable.
I’m not opposed to spending some money to get the whistle that will do the job.
I don’t want to struggle trying to make something work.
I am aware this is not the usual whistle request.
s
Susato might make the most piercing relatively inexpensive whistle out there. If you got one, you’d need to get one from the Kildare line. They are the ones that are tunable.
Be aware that even a Susato whistle isn’t a very loud instrument, particularly in the first octave.
If it was me, I’d definitely consider this one:
http://www.thewhistleshop.com/catalog/whistles/inexpensive/blackbird/blackbird.htm
It’s got a clear tone that will project well, even though it’s not as edgy as the Susato.
They are tunable by moving the head.
If initial cost is not a major factor I would suggest a Burke, Sindt, WD Sweet, or Freeman Mellowdog. These are quite reliable, tunable whistles with enough chiff to sound like whistles, decent volume, and that also hold their value well. Once you are done with this particular performance, if you don’t want to keep the instrument you will be able to sell it. Please be aware that despite being a simple looking instrument playing the whistle well takes a good investment of practice time. I think you have made a good decision to take personal lessons given the performance deadline. Doesn’t your teacher have an opinion on what would be a good chioce? At minimum they should be able to let you try some of their whistles to get an idea of what is out there.
Not sure whether any single whistle will fill the “aural space” that an orchestra leaves for a soloist though. I think you will find there is a reason that most performers play with amplification.
Best of luck.
*There’s really no such thing as a key of C Mellow Dog. With a D tube, the Mellow Dog is a wide body whistle. With the C tube that comes with a Mellow Dog D/C set, it’s a standard body whistle, identical to a key of C Blackbird.
Most community orchestras seem to lack the ability to play any quieter than mf. If yours is like that, and if you have to play from your seat, the sound will probably be largely swallowed up. If you can go stand in front of the orchestra it could work – kind of depends on the hall.
Here’s one thing to look into. I’m not really recommending it, but it might make sense:
http://carbony.com/Whistles.htm
The reason to consider it is that carbon fibre has a really low thermal expansion factor – it won’t go out of tune with changing temperatures the way any metal whistle will. I’m not really recommending it because I have never played the higher pitched whistles. I do own one of his low whistles and I love it, but low and high are different. If you sent Rob an email, maybe he would send you one with a trial period.
You’re not going to have any difficulty playing whistle. I think one thing many readers might not really get is that you’re not trying to fit into an Irish session – you’re needing to play the part the arranger wrote. The biggest potential difficulty for you might be if the arranger wrote the part out transposed to D.
Which tune is it?
What’s the piece you’re playing? Do you want to be authentic to the sound of an original Beatles recording?
Feadoggie
I agree with H-P, volume will probably be your critical factor. I’d also suggest the Susato C (S bore, tunable Kildare model). It’s loud, relatively inexpensive, excellent ET intonation, low-maintenance ABS plastic. Available directly from Kelischek in North Carolina ($42.90).
If you continue to play whistle for yourself, you can add a standard D tube for half the whistle cost.
Other loud whistles include Goldie, Chieftain, Copeland, Abell. All are considerably more expensive.
A friend of mine recently performed John Corigliano’s “Pied Piper Suite” with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. The piece calls for whistle in several movements. The whistle chosen was a Copeland D, and it worked very well.
Added: Just thinking … Are you sure you need a C whistle? If the part is written for a concert pitch instrument like flute or piccolo, then you may need a D whistle, not C. A C whistle is the equivalent of an orchestral Bb instrument.
ummm… no… A C whistle is the same as an orchestral C instrument. Not sure what you mean by this. If you see a written “C” in the dots, you play with all fingers down. Also, the notes are in the C-major scale (or A minor).
Pat
No, Pat, not in terms of fingering. Transposing instrument. To an orchestral concert pitch flautist, 6 fingers down is D. The equivalent non-transposing whistle is the D whistle (though with a natural D scale, of course). In orchestral instrument pitch nomenclature, a C whistle behaves as a Bb orchestral instrument: xxxxxx = C. Two different naming systems.
But I should elaborate my added comment. There are several possibilities for the orchestral whistle part that will be provided to the OP. More to follow …
Added: > Just thinking … Are you sure you need a C whistle? If the part is written for a concert pitch instrument like flute or piccolo, then you will need a D whistle, not C. A C whistle is the equivalent of an orchestral Bb instrument.
I am sure it is a C whistle. The whistle part is in Bb the piccolo part that doubles it is in C.
S
I think you have made a good decision to take personal lessons given the performance deadline. Doesn’t your teacher have an opinion on what would be a good chioce? At minimum they should be able to let you try some of their whistles to get an idea of what is out there.
That’s the idea for the first lesson.
The tune is Blackbird.
OK, good. If you mean that the whistle part is written as for a Bb instrument … Then yes, a C whistle should do the trick for you, and you can read it right off using standard fingering. 
Then you should use a Freeman Blackbird whistle! 
(It’s a lovely whistle, but probably too quiet for your needs.)
Ok! The most obvious choices would then be a Freeman Blackbird or a Pat O’Dwyer Lon Dubh.
Since the Beatle’s (McCartney’s) version was pretty much solo guitar (I play it in an open G tuning) there is no real precedent for a particular whistle. The reason I had asked is that there is a paucity of whistle in Beatle’s recordings. There is, on the other hand, recorder, piccolo and flute aplenty in their work and since their sessions are so very well documented it is not always difficult to determine what instrument was actually used on a particular recording.
If you are looking for a sweet, delicate, but not quiet sound I would look into a Burke narrow bore. If not, a Copeland would be a strong contender in my opinion. There’s this guy, Sir Jimmy something, that does a lot of orchestral work. He frequently uses an Abell.
It’s a very nice song. I’ve had the opportunity to perform it on MLK’s birthday and on several other occaisions.
Feadoggie
Ok! The most obvious choices would then be a Freeman Blackbird or a Pat O’Dwyer Lon Dubh.
If you are looking for a sweet, delicate, but not quiet sound I would look into a Burke narrow bore. If not, a Copeland would be a strong contender in my opinion. There’s this guy, Sir Jimmy something, that does a lot of orchestral work. He frequently uses an Abell.
The funny thing is I know Chris Abell. It just seems like a lot of money. However a concert flute headjoint is more than double that. The psychology of that really cracks me up.
Sharon
Yeah, we have all probably had a good chuckle over that psychology. But thinking more objectively about it, a “working player” is buying the best tool they can get to work at their trade and know that the maker, their reputation and integrity, will be standing behind them over the long haul. If you know Chris Abell then you know what he does and how well he does it. If the Abell whistle is good enough for Sir James then Abell whistles are probably good enough for most of us. It is a lot of money, especially if whistle is not going to be your primary instrument. But you will need a whistle with a strong voice to play with an orchestra. The whistles I suggested will be heard and will have a tuning and tone that should work well, IMO. The Burke is the most readily available of the three but is certainly not a particularly inexpensive whistle either. MTGuru’s (and Geraint) suggestion of a Susato Kildare standard bore whistle would be a best bet for a modestly priced whistle.
Feadoggie
With all due respect to the Guru moniker, this is simply not true. Whistles are not transposing instruments, otherwise whistle tunes would be written in one key and sound in another; instead, when you play a tune scored in D on a D whistle, it sounds in D. Quite simple.
Fingering analogies have nothing to do with it. For instance, a C recorder’s fingerings are similar to those of a D whistle for about half its notes in the first octave - but the recorder is in C, not D.
Errr…I’ve no idea why anyone would write out a part in Bb for a whistle to play in C. A bad orchestrator I think, but leaving that whole issue aside: You just need a whistle that plays one step higher than the written music. So, a C whistle works out. But, I take some issue with “read it off using standard fingering.” For me, standard fingering is the fingering of the D whistle. If the part were written in D you could play it using my definition of standard fingering with a C whistle (which would drop the piece down one step into C which is apparently the intended key). I don’t see anything standard about reading a Bb part on a C whistle. You’d need to be thinking something like “let’s see, that’s a Bb and it is the lowest note so I need to play the low D fingering” or you would need to have under control the Bb whistle fingerings (knowing that all six down is Bb, one finger up is C etc.. No way that is standard from my perspective. When I had to play a part on A whistle I had to write it out so I could read D fingerings. I can manage C and F re^&rders but I’m not about to learn 8 to 12 sets of fingers for the whistles. I most of us go about it by reading D fingerings on whatever whistle. Now MT is a truly canny person as we all know, but I can’t figure out what he is saying here about standard fingering. I hope he’ll enlighten me.