I’ve never developed one fixed way of playing C#. I’ve noticed recently that I’m getting more and more into the habit of keeping the pinkie of my right hand down just below D. Somebody recently remarked on this forum that this is a bad habit. Is this a well documented no-no or a legimate and harmless practice? Any opinions out there?
Geez, you and I appear to be on the same wavelength sometimes!
I was doing Gander in the Pratie Hole, and thinking about it because I was losing the whistle on the C#. My biggest current fingering problem is Ec#a as I can’t leave the bottom hole closed the way I want. So I’m slapping down that pinkie for this one note.
I wonder if a thumbrest would help?
I was the one who didn’t want to start doing that (not necessarily that I thought it was a bad habit, just something I didn’t happen to like). Comments by Mark and Loren changed my mnd, though, so I’ve now started trying to play with the pinkie down.
I did recall last night that at the first & only short whistle workshop I took, the teacher said it was not good technique to play with the pinkie down. She said other things that turned out to be not right-on, too, but that’s okay. She got me playing the whistle.
Tery
It seems like to me that John~N played with his pinky down when I saw his band. But I can’t be sure.
And the guy on the Kerry whistle site (Mike McGoldrick)seems to put his up and down as needed…but he goes so fast it’s hard to see for sure!
http://www.kerrywhistles.com/songbird.mov
These are the only two whistle players I have had the chance to really observe.
Kim
Yeah, that whole thing about rabbits & tennis she told you was a complete myth too.
I use my pinky when I need to and I encourage my students to. Flute players are taught to play quite a few of their high notes by resting their pinky down on the C key (which is the same place)
For me the most important thing is that you play your whistle the most comfortable way you can so that you can get past notes and get to music. I for one would rather put my pinky down than drop the whistle at a gig or grind my teeth into the mouthpiece!
My thoughts? Pinky on and be proud it’s not a middle finger issue!!
Sandy
Call me crazy, but can’t you also play that note by having ALL fingers down but just overblowing?
On 2002-08-27 13:50, Kar wrote:
Call me crazy, but can’t you also play that note by having ALL fingers down but just overblowing?
Not on a D whistle. All down and overblowing gives 2nd octave D.
To address the original question: I drop my pinkie as needed. As near as I can recall, every pro whistler I’ve seen in person does too. It quickly becomes something you never even think about.
You’re right. That’s what I was thinking. Hmm…still not awake this morning.
For that C, I always just put my ring finger down on the bottom hole…it sounds basically the same as all holes open.
What you can do, and what I do a lot, is play c# oooxxx, sound identically the same as oooooo, and sometimes much easier.
cheers
Erik
Huh. I would have save that I held the pinkie down for C# – heck, I thought I held it down most of the time. But I just trying actually playing the whistle to see what I did, and I don’t seem to use the pinkie much, if ever, anymore.
In practice, it seemed that most of the time I played C# in tunes, I left all three right-hand holes covered.
Aha! Got it. (Tried Dr. O’Neill’s.) If I’m going down to C#, I leave the standard right hand fingers down. If I’m going up, I use the pinkie. If I do a lot of both in close succession, I leave the pinkie down all the time and sometimes the rest of the right hand fingers as well.
Guess it really is done without thinking!
I’ve read various things about leaving different fingers down to play C or C#, for balance or ease of play. With my particular group of whistles, that seems to require remembering which whistle I’m playing. Some whistles don’t seem to care much about extra fingers being down, but on others I can hear enough difference to bother me. It seems easier to play the C# with no holes covered, which seems to work fine on all of my whistles, and to deal with the balance issue some other way.
Tery
I leave all holes open for C#, and have never been in danger of dropping my whistle. But I don’t drink, either, which probably has something to do with it. 
At how steep of an angle do you guys usually hold your whistle?
I have used the pinkie for support for years…Never thought it was a problem. I cannot remember the whistle tutor that I used in the beginning, but the idea came from that book…If you truly wish to cheat, try this fingering for C#: OOOXXX. IMHO, it has an added benefit of making things more stable, especially when sliding around the upper 3 or 4 notes in the whistle’s normal 2 octave range… Although I do not use this fingering all the time, it works on all the whistles in various keys that I own. The slight timbre shift caused by the fingering is negligible, and in some cases preferable to OOOOOO on my instruments…
Cheers and the best…
Byll
I have found only in the last few days – since acquiring my low D Dixon, that taking all my fingers off for C# causes the whistle to slip a bit and I don’t feel I have control. I am working on the pinky thing. I am also considering a thumbrest but only after I have determine whether the pinky think works for me.
I like the idea, and use the 1,2 or 3 finger down technique as often as I can, but there are times when you simply can’t. Take that progression of E…C# below it…A
XXX XXO gotta have that one open, not an option for the E…to whatever you choose… to XXO OOO.
XXX XXO
OOO OOOx or OOO OOX or OOO XXX
XXO OOO
The first seems to be easiest for me, but still something that takes serious practice. The angle doesn’t matter when I play. I just don’t have the stability to do the three notes quickly, and on the third note hit the holes exactly if I don’t have a finger down somewhere.
On 2002-08-27 15:50, tyghress wrote:
I like the idea, and use the 1,2 or 3 finger down technique as often as I can, but there are times when you simply can’t. Take that progression of E…C# below it…A
XXX XXO gotta have that one open, not an option for the E…to whatever you choose… to XXO OOO.XXX XXO
OOO OOOx or OOO OOX or OOO XXX
XXO OOOThe first seems to be easiest for me, but still something that takes serious practice. The angle doesn’t matter when I play. I just don’t have the stability to do the three notes quickly, and on the third note hit the holes exactly if I don’t have a finger down somewhere.
Yo there, my favorite whistling feline.
Have you tried this?
xxx xxo
ooo oxo
xxo oxo or xxo ooo
I second what Bloomfield said. In tunes in E-whatever-mode-comes-from-D-whistle, I’m always leaving the right-middle finger down instead for A/B/C# … it works.
Of course, I also tend to use my pinkies to stabalize the whistle pretty much whenever I want, though I try not to leave them locked down, or rather, I don’t try to keep them locked down and they move a bit from time to time (I think maybe locking them down restrains the ring finger a little, or maybe not. Now I’m going to be paying attention to this whole pinky issue … but they stay down on the flute no matter what! Then again, there they support actual weight…)
–Chris
Yeah, E-C#-A (for instance, in Atholl Highlanders) is easily done
xxx xxo
ooo xxo
xxo ooo
If you need a good tune to practise finguering with lots of awkward C sharps, try Rosie’s Reel (recorded by Lunasa on alto F whistle), and find out what position is best for you. Here you can find it :
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/FindTune.html
cheers,
Erik