I’ve tried some of the best (Overton, Copeland) and it was a combination of hole placement and air requirement that has held me back from low whistle. Which is odd considering my only flute right now is a bamboo Olwell D.
The nice thing about flute is you have some control over air requirement with embouchure. It’s definitely due to familiarity. I just tried playing pipers’ grip on my flute and found the left hand to sound mushy because I’m used to playing on the top pad, not the middle joint of those fingers (GHB and flute).
Cheers,
Aaron
To offer a different perspective, I started playing whistles (high and low) after 10 years of playing saxophone. So I’ve always been comfortable with the breath requirements on Low D’s, though the finger spacing has been a bit of a challenge. I tried a couple Burkes, and ended up using my pinky to reach the 6th hole, which worked quite well. The Kerry that I have has a different hole spacing which I can reach pretty well with the pipers grip. I still get some fatigue if I play it for long periods though.
I’ve been thinking for a while about starting on the flute, and just ordered a Tipple. I do LOVE the sound of irish flute, and low whistle seems sort of secondary to flute in a lot of ITM, like it’s kind of a novelty that the fluters and pipers will pick up now and then. Both instruments occupy the same range, so once I get good at flute, I’m not sure how much I’ll use low whistle. I deffinitely like Low whistle, but i mainly started on it just cuase I already played high whistles. Ultimately, I think I would rather play flute for most stuff that i play on low D whistle now. But we’ll see.
I don’t really think that any instrument is more expressive than another, in and of itself. It’s all about the player. Just listen to Paddy Keenan on low D, how’s that for expression?..aaah
Good choice, Skyeward, you can’t beat a Tipple for a first flute, especially if you want to limit your budget. It was my first flute too.
I can’t agree more, about the expressiveness of Paddy Keenan either on the Low Whistle, or the pipes-amazing! I love his newer ‘Long Grazing Acre’ album, great stuff to aspire to, or just listen!