Is it okay to false finger when playing the whistle, eg. keep fingers on the bottom hand of the whistle when playing on the top hand, if it can increase the fluidity of your playing and of course if it can’t be heard??
I am a Highland piper and so having trained my fingers for years to do things like always keep the bottom hand down, it is challenging to play the open style of whistle fingering. I suppose i am just looking for a short cut to learning the whistle and trying to skip the retraining of my fingers
I am not an expert, but from what I have read around here it is common to keep some bottom fingers down either for supporting the whistle or to make certain transitions easier as long as it sounds okay. Things may vary from whistle to whistle or from tune to tune----I don’t know. But I do know that some people do this when it is helpful and that it is not considered “incorrect”. Maybe you will have to learn some other fingerings at some point to work some transition out in the easiest way or to play a different whistle, but that would always be the case. I am not an expert.
Not only is the practice acceptable, but there are many times when using the ‘false fingerings’ produces a much cleaner movement between notes, than using the ‘standard’ fingerings.
I recall a clarinet player who knew of the practice, and called it “covering”. He didn’t regard it as a bad thing per se. I do it myself, and don’t count it as a negative, either, unless it adversely affects pitch or tone. In that wise I usually only have one or so fingers of the lower hand down, and it depends on what note I’m playing in relation to the the run of notes it sits in.
If all you play is whistle, I suppose the best obvious thing to do is anchor with your pinkie. In my case, I also play an eight-key timber flute, so my habit is to keep the pinkie in a floating state for the low Eb/C#/Cnat keys, and that habit carries over to the whistle. So, I do the practice of “covering” for the purpose of support and stabilising. It’s not wrong. It’s just another way.
For me, it depends on the tune. If it’s an air, and the tune calls for a wide open C#, then I’ll keep as many holes left open minus the lowest hole, or the B3 hole. C naturals all depend on your whistle in my experience, as there are many ways of producing this note.
It also depends on what works best for you, most comfortably, as a player. If the tune is rather quick, and calls for a B, middle D, B passage, I’ll leave all 3 of the bottom hand fingers down during that passage, although if you play such a passage slow enough, your B’s should come out somewhat to noticeably flat, but since the tune was fast, or at least fast enough that the flat B couldn’t be distinguished to a “normal” B, I can get away with doing so. An example of this might be the Kesh Jig, or better yet I think, The Leitrim Fancy. (forgive my spelling)
Take the advice of the aforementioned, and check out Brother Steve’s Tin Whistle Pages.
My pinkie is too short to anchor the whistle without contorting my hands oddly—not that I actually play the whistle—so I practiced for quite some time in a very bad position trying to anchor the whistle that way because I thought it was the best way. I wish I had known about being able to cover the lowest hole with my ring finger sometimes (okay, I should have figured it out but I’m not very innovative) because I think it would have kept me from holding my hand in a stiff uncomfortable way. I think men’s and women’s hands are proportioned differently—I read about this somewhere—so using the pinky might be a problem more for women than men. But I am not an expert.
Being a piper, you know the old joke, “How many pipers does it take to change a light bulb? It takes 5, one to change it and the other four to criticize the fingerings!” OK, this does not happen in whistle playing thankfully. Just enjoy and make it smooth.
Well I’m a guy, but unfortunately with smallish hands, and shortish skinny fingers. I myself don’t play with the lower hand pinky on the whistle, because it’s too short, and won’t reach comfortably, unlike my other hand, the top hand (my right hand), which will, but it doesn’t matter because I taught myself to play left handed (even though by nature I’m right handed), so I’ve learned to play without using the pinky rest deal. Instead I use the ring finger cover the lowest hole on the whistle for the majority of the time, and I myself get by doing so just fine. However the pinky rest isn’t the only rest point, you have at least 4 more; 2 thumbs, top hand pinky if you so choose, plus your lips. For me I rely mostly on my lips and my 2 thumbs to support the whistle. Having the ring finger on the lowest hole at certain times just helps even more.
Sigh. I suppose I could have qualified that pinkie bit with “…if you can.” Where’s that “rolls-eyes” emoticon?
BTW, Cynth, I’ll have you know that I have small hands (which, as a guy, it pains me to admit; there are women with bigger hands than I), and, moreover, suffer notably from dinky pinkie syndrome myself. You must really have stubs.
I had it in mind to ask a similar question, but in the opposite regard. Someone kindly posted an ABC version of “Ashokan Farewell” and suggested it be played on an A whistle. I’ve been practicing this.
I found that unintentionally I was using tabor fingerings for the top G and A - sorry, that would be on a D whistle - the top D and E. In other words, overblowing just a little bit more and uncovering the bottom first and second hole.
The notes play the same - it’s not that one fingering plays a more accurate tone than the other.
I didn’t ask because I decided it works, so I’m not going to fix it.
I’m only confused because this works better than the last time I tried playing a tabor.
Now I’m wondering, what makes a pinkie truly dinky?
Mine stops just below the top-knuckle wider-area of the ring finger begins, and is also too short to help stabilize the whistle. It seems pretty small to me…
Just compared with my roommate, and hers comes up to where the ring finger actually bends, and is long enough to comfortably reach the whistle. But her hands are also quite large for a woman, while mine are very average.
i always keep some bottom fingers down, it is okay. but some whistles are hard to work with that. it is much easier when you are skipping notes like on a hornpipe.
Oh honestly. If people like you are going to say this, what are those of who actually are not experts supposed to say? Golly .
“if you can”—now that makes sense. Here you go:
My hands are quite large because I’m a tall person (we won’t go into width). They are quite possibly large enough to fit around something the size of your neck, for example .
To aid squidgirl’s research—my pinkie ends about 1/8 " below the center of the top knuckle of my ring finger. I think that the length of your pinkie in comparison to your other fingers is the critical thing. A large-handed person could still have a pinkie that was relatively short in relation to the ring finger and so it still couldn’t reach the whistle comfortably.
When people’s eyes widen and they gape and say, “Wow. You DO have short pinkies,” when you show them.
Mine’s about 1/4 of the way down from the crease of the top joint to the next crease. Looks short, anyway.
I know for a fact that it’s my grip that allows me to use the pinkie. If I covered the holes of either flute or whistles with my fingertips instead of using the so-called “piper’s grip”, I’d be up a creek. I’ve tried, and no dice. But if you use the fingertips and have short pinkies, then in all likelihood you have no choice but to stabilise by “covering” instead. Makes sense.
I’ll ignore the possibility that you’re implying that I’m a pencil-necked geek and just point out that appealing to my sense of cheap thrills won’t get you anywhere, you know. I have my dignity to consider.
Besides, there are plenty of women already who want to strangle me. Get in line, sister.
In the arcane world of the Fipple Flute That Cannot Be Named, most notes have alternate fingerings for use in ornaments or for ease of playing certain sequences of notes. The object of the whole exercise is for the music to sound right, not for the fingers to look “right.”
If a finger falls on the whistle, and nobody hears it, then did it really happen?
Exactly, fluti.
FTR: My pinkie ends short of the joint in my ring finger. I have long fingers but have never had luck using my pinkie on the whistle because it is too short in relation to the other fingers.
:
: be glad it’s a whistle!
