Question about high C

Whistle
1

You know, the C WAY up near the 3rd octave. I was playing Carrcikfergus for the first time, and the abc I have has this note in it. It took me a while, but I discovered that if I half hole the B, I can hit the note accurately. But is this how you’re supposed to hit the note? I know that it more than likely doesn’t matter if it seems to be accurate, but I’m wondering if there is a more “technical” way to hit those notes in the 3rd octave…not that I intend to be there too often, but it’s good to know these things. :wink:

2

That’s the only way I know to reliably. oxoxox sometimes works. If you worked at it you’d probablylearn to use that one well.

3

That’s precisely the reason that I have trained myself to half-hole the C-natural - so it’s the same in both octaves.

The usual C-nat cross-fingering for the lower octave, oxxooo, usually gives a spot-on D for the top of the second octave when the whistle is overblown.

For torturing small animals, a couple of 3rd octave fingerings that I have been known to use:

xxoxxo = E

xoxxox = F

Mark

4

I’m a whistle geek, so I have this, framed, on my wall:
http://www.cafepress.com/fullbodyburn.14715044

Here’s a link to a smaller edition:
http://www.fullbodyburn.com/html/flutes/whistle_main.html

When playing the high end in doubt, I sit facing the chart and work it out.

5

It depends on the whistle, but in addition to the one Spoon posted,

OXO XXX
OXO OOO
OXO XXO

The last I only use on the flute, but I’m sure there are whistles it works on.

6

Thanks for the alternate fingerings, everyone. And thank you, Mark for the fingerings for E and F; I’ll be sure to remember them if I am ever in the mood to torture small animals, or children which would be more the case here :laughing:

I am glad that when I started out, I half holed C-nat. If I hadn’t started that way, I don’t think I would have thought to do it for the high C. I’ve now gone over to cross fingering for the C-nat, although I have found that in some tunes, it’s just easier to half hole, if that makes sense.

That chart is definitely something I could use (be being a whistle geek wannabe and all that). I wonder if it’s too late to send a little note to Santa :wink:

7

easy way out (not perfect but will do a lot of the time for a lot of people) is jumping the harmonic: XOXXXO on a lot of whistles XOOXXO is slightly clearer.