Are playing the high notes something that somes slowly? I seem to be getting them one at a time. I can now do a crisp second octave A, but the B is giving me trouble. I can slide into it well enough, and it’s only in the past few days that I’ve been able to hit it by itself more than half the time, and I wouldn’t try it in public. (The tune I use to gauge it is Londonary Air, going from the G to the B).
Also, I could never even come close to the next C or D but tonight I found that I was able to slide into them pretty nicely (if a high C or D can ever be termed nicely).
So, are the high notes like anything else, they just need time and patience? Or have I just taught myself the technique that a good teacher could have shown me in a day?
It depends on the person. I found that I could belt them out in a relatively short amount of time, but that’s due to the fact that I have a large air supply from playing the Saxphone. But that’s just me. I know people out there that’ve had to practice in an order to hit them.
Just keep at it, and eventually you’ll be able to belt them out with the best of them!
Are you practicing Londonderry Air on the VSB Susato? (I just got mine recently.) In going from D to B (you did mean D, didn’t you, not G?), I just use considerably more air than seems reasonable, and the B always comes out clean and clear (and rather loud, but that’s the nature of the beast).
And yes it’s loud on the Sausato and I find that it takes an enormous amount of air to get it and the air requirement drops drastically as I go down the notes. I’m a percussionist by training and this is my first wind instrument. It’s learning a whole new thing with the breathing etc.
On 2002-06-24 00:41, FJohnSharp wrote:
Yes I meant from D to B. oops.
And yes it’s loud on the Sausato and I find that it takes an enormous amount of air to get it and the air requirement drops drastically as I go down the notes. I’m a percussionist by training and this is my first wind instrument. It’s learning a whole new thing with the breathing etc.
I’ve noticed the same thing about the breath requirement. However my problem (among innumerable other problems) is the opposite of yours. I have a tendency to overblow the lower notes (including the second octave D on the Susato). (I was a French horn player for more years than I care to count, so maybe that accounts for it, i.e., striving to be heard above the trumpets and trombones.)
For the second octave D, my VSB requires only a tiny bit more air pressure than the low D. The larger bore SB is more reasonable in this respect, but its second octave doesn’t sound nearly as clean and pure as that of the VSB (at least not when I play it).
Congratulations on taking up a wind instrument! I don’t have the intestinal fortitude to try percussion, not even the bodhran.
In addition to needing MORE air, the higher notes usually need a bit more “attack”-- that extra air needs to get into the whistle a bit more explosively. Try playing them with a little “huff” in your breath, or using more tongueing. This is a subtle thing-- too much and the notes will sound really awful. On some whistles, it is very hard to get these notes to speak. If at all possible, have a very good player check out your whistle and make sure that it is playing the way it is supposed to.
The other thing that I would add to a discussion of high notes, and one reason that I believe that they often take time to develop, is that it helps to be able to hear the note that you are aiming for. That is, if you haven’t coordinated the tone, breath requirements, attack, then it is likely that the note will break up. I find this most necessary on the flute, but I think that there is application to the whistle as well.
