Hello,
I am have been reading the forum for several months now, about as long as I have been trying to learn the whistle. I’ve been having trouble performing a cut on the high D and E notes. The two whistles I use the most are a Feadog nickel plate key of D and a Walton brass, also key of D. When I perform a cut on those two notes, the sound is akin to a goose. Notes higher and lower than that do not have the same problem. I noticed just last night that when I use the vented fingering for the high Dand performed a cut, the sound comes out as it should. That is not an option though for the high E note. I’m wondering if its my whistles or just me…I also have a brass Generation in the key of D (which exhibits some of the quality problems I’ve read about on the forum) which seems to have this type of problem on more notes than high D and E so, I’m guessing its not the two whistles I use. Any suggestions how I might improve? Thanks.
Sounds to me you want to keep working on your cuts to get them really short and crisp. That will eliminate the goose sound and improve the cuts on other notes, too.
But even once you have your cuts super short and crisp, gutting the high d and e with L3 (the third finger from the top) will have a harsher qualtiy. You can cut the d and e with R3 (fifth finger from the top) to improve this.
I’ve got a question about cuts as well, so I’ll add it here.
Does anyone think it’s worth it to re-learn cuts to Grey Larsen’s instruction? In his book, he teaches to do cuts with the finger immediately above the note being cut.
I seem to cut with whichever finger seems appropriate, but generally only make the cuts with my top hand. So for D, E, F#, I cut with T3. For G, I may cut with any of the top fingers. Of course finger choices diminish on A and B . I’m guessing that getting into the habit of only using my top hand for cuts could be a hindrance when I really start trying to learn crans.
One thing I just noticed I do sometimes it cut with the same finger of the note I’m sounding. For example I often cut G with T3. This doesn’t seem so bad until I try to do a roll. Fingering it that way, it seems harder to get a clean roll without it sounding like trill-ish grace notes, since there’s no stationary finger in the middle of the roll.
OK, I’m babbling now. If anyone can make sense of what I just typed and has any comments, please feel free.
Well, that’s the one thing you probably don’t want to do,
except on the B.
I generally hear that the best sound comes from cutting with
the finger above the last covered hole. If you listen really
carefully, there is a different sound for each finger you cut
with. Also, using the same finger to cut different notes (like
using T1 to cut everything) gives a non-uniform cutting
sound. Now, whether this is a bad thing may be a matter of
opinion…
Hi Jason, I had that problem as well as the honking D E cuts.
It seems to be a feature of the cheap cylindrical whistles like Gens and Feadogs etc. The more up-market whistles don’t seem to suffer from this as much.
What I did was to practice the cuts a lot - then practice some more (It’s now part of my warm-up routine and those t3 cuts are beginning to sound crisper on high D, E and also on the high and low Gs.
That’s not to say that the t3 cut must always be the rule - but practicing them on a cheapie forces you to get the cut ultra crisp - it’s like doing wieghts. If you go straight onto an up-market whistle there is less motive. FOr that reason, I keep returning to my Feadog which will not forgive me if I get lazy - then when I grab my nice whistle it sounds much crisper.
I’m getting a bit confused. I’m using the Geraldine Cotter tutorial. Her cuts are notated as grace notes which seems correct to me. For the D, E, F# and G note, the grace note is an A performed by lifting the third finger of the left hand (T3?) for the A and B note, the grace note is the C#, performed by lifting all of the fingers. I don’t have Grey Larsen’s tutorial but it also seems to make sense to cut using the note just above the note being played so…what do most players do? Also, I’m not sure what T3 means. Is that Top hand, third finger? Is there then, using the same logic a B1 thru B3? Or, are the fingers described in terms of what hand they are on, e.g. T3 = L3? Cotter does not seems to address this nomenclature issue. Any comments are greatly appreciated.
Kevin
Yes, T=Top and B=Bottom, and 1, 2, 3 are index, middle, and ring fingers.
Don’t confuse ornamentation with grace notes. When you do a cut, the sound should be a blip with an indistinguishable pitch. It happens so fast that you don’t really hear the note - just a blip.
It sounds like Grey Larsen would have a field day with Ms. Cotter’s tutorial. See if there’s further description in the book. The Bill Ochs book also refers to them as grace notes, but in the context of the book it’s clear that they’re quick blips and not actual notes.
BTW in my post above, I don’t mean to sound like Grey Larsen is the end-all be-all in whistle instruction. I was just commenting about how adamant he is about the whole grace note/ornament issue.
The point though, is that cuts are not grace notes in the normal sense.
Hi,
You’re right, I’ve been listening to performances on YouTube and cuts don’t sound much like grace notes but that’s how Cotter (and others I suspect) notate cuts, for lack of a better way. While I’m a firm believer in using written notation, it is clear that that only gets you part of the way there with ITM. Cotter’s tutorial also includes notation for 100 tunes which is very useful. Every bit helps. Thanks. Kevin
. I’m guessing that getting into the habit of only using my top hand for cuts could be a hindrance when I really start trying to learn crans.
T3 means. Is that Top hand, third finger? Is there then, using the same logic a B1 thru B3? Or, are the fingers described in terms of what hand they are on, e.g. T3 = L3? Cotter does not seems to address this nomenclature issue. Any comments are greatly appreciated.