I’ve been playing Irish music a long time (though that hardly makes me any kind of “authority”, just someone who has experienced a lot of stuff) and over the years I seem to have noticed a pattern with whistle preferences: trad Irish players tend to value whistles with a “light action” (to borrow string terminology), a whistle that easily negotiates the gamut, that can effortlessly jump from the lowest to the highest notes, while people coming to the whistle from non-trad-Irish backgrounds (perhaps from Boehm flute, or recorder, or whatever) tend to prefer whistles with a decided “break” between registers, which requires leaps to be tongued/articulated.
I am definitely in the former camp, and I’ve often demonstrated the value of the former style to people by playing a tune such as The Gravel Walk with all sorts of leaps with no tonguing whatsoever.
It’s why I don’t play the higher-pitched Susatos. I do play and love my keyless Susato Low D and Low C. Both of them seamlessly negotiate the octaves.
pancilticpiper, thank you very much for this info. very insightful. i have to admit that i like the whistles that jump quickly between octaves without tonguing… and i’ve spent a pretty good chunk of the last year learning not to tongue like i learned with the boehm flute and the clarinet… i am slowly learning what my fingers are for… i resisted playing irish trad for quite awhile, but now i am finding that i am looking forward to practice each day… i never thought i could play a jig, but i am finally learning the Kesh… (yes, i know, overused and overplayed)… it’s slow… i sound like an american when i play it. my articulation needs a LOT of work… but i love playing it…
and so far, in all honesty, as i have stated elsewhere, my favorite whistles by far are my feadog and my dixon trad. (and my dixon poly D is so quiet i can use it for practice at home when the kids are sleeping.)…
anyway… i ramble… forgive me. thank you again for your post.
One really good advantage to learning to play the Susato high D well? When I got my Overton high D, I didn’t have any trouble at all playing it, even on the high end of the second octave.
The skillset developed on one whistle directly transfers to the other.
And an Overton, gentlemen and ladies, is a whistle like no other. My Overton even outshines my beloved Burkes.
I made the mistake of buying the Susato as my 2nd whistle not knowing that it is not a beginner whistle.
When playing “Down by the Sally Gardens” on the Susato, the jump from the 2nd octave d to an a…the note would always “stick” instead of drop down. So I think this is the same problem that you are experiencing. I have decided to put the Susato away for now, and play on my beautiful Blackbird which is much easier to play. Once I get a whole lot better, I will try the Susato again.