I read a lots of descriptions regarding the sound of tin whistles using pure, clear, sweet, breathy, loud, quiet and voulme. I would like to learn those words’ definition in term of describing tin whistles. If you have any other word to describe the sound of tin whistle, please also give the definition. I also like to know your opinion about the sound of tin whistle using the above words. For example:
Tin Whistle ABC Key D:
Pure (or Clear): 1; Clear: 1; Sweet: 1; Breathy: 5; Quiet (Volume):5.
(1 to 5; 1 is the highest and 5 is the lowest)
It means that the sound of the D whistle ABC has the most pure(clear), sweet and highest volume sound, also it is the least breathy tin whistle.
Thanks.
(edited after read Feadan’s message. Thanks.)
[ This Message was edited by: tinwfun on 2002-01-13 10:54 ]
Chiffy is another term that often comes up in describing the sound of whistles.
Sound is a subjective thing, and is very hard to describe (at least for me). I certainly don’t have any better words to describe pure, breathy, sweet, or chiffy. I would think that pure by definition meant not breathy or chiffy. I’m not sure what other people mean by sweet (I often think that the purest sounding whistles are the sweetest). And I have no idea how to describe the difference between breathy and chiffy, except to me it’s the difference between a Clarke and a Water Weasel.
This is a really neat idea. I wonder how much of a spread there would be in the marks different people give to different whistles?
And this is just across one criteria - tonal quality. Then there’s expressibility, responsiveness, breath requirements, ease of play (which could include breath), comfort to play…Appearance…I might as well ask a question here on something I think I understand, but can’t articulate even to myself. Some recently (Loren and others)have spoken of a kind of “back pressure” (Ithink that was the phrase)evident esp in Overtons that seems related to both required breath and tonal quality and transitions and responsiveness. Can anyone expound just a bit? Thanks. PhilO
This is like the Dungeons & Dragons way to discribe a whistle. “My whistle chiff is +7 because of a tweak the wizard down the road made.”
I’m going to take the cheap road and say it is what it is. Hows that for a cop out?
I’ll take a stab at the back pressure issue though. If you breath from the diaphram, that is push air from bellow, the sensation is almost like it’s coming from the back of your open throat. The resistance the whistle has would be the amount of back pressure. With good technique you can play very long runs on one breath if the whistle is high in back pressure.
I believe this is accurate, but then again what I see as red, my girlfriend says is the color of the mid day sky. Mind games.
I would like to hear how the ratio of back pressure effects the “pop” and playability of the instrument.
