This is my first post on these forums. I’ve been playing the tin whistle for one to two years now, and I should say I fare rather well, considering I live in the Netherlands, where tin whistle input (or any other form of folk music) is lacking, to say the least. I do have a history of playing saxophone for some 10 years, which made whistling easy to pick up on.
My question is two-fold, actually. For one, in the Netherlands, tin whistles aren’t readily available. I eventually found a music store that sells them, but they only have cheap, mass production whistles (usually worth no more than 7 pounds or so). At the moment, however, I feel that the quality of those whistles is limiting my performance. In other words, I am looking for more advanced whistles, perhaps hand-made ones, that have a better sound quality and tone. The problem is that there is an amazing amount of different whistles out there, ranging from 30 pounds to 150 pounds, and I am quite simply clueless as to which ones I should or shouldn’t buy. Logically, I do not intend to spend 150 pounds all too readily, but then again I do not have a clue on what makes a more expensive whistle better than a cheap one. My question is whether any of you might supply me with some advice. Which whistles have a good quality, price, and durability and are fit for a non-professional whistler?
Secondly, I recently heard a rendition of the Lonesome Boatman by (I believe) Crooked Reel, played in high G. I’d love to play along on my high D whistle, and while I can manage to reach the high C, C#, and D, they sound extremely shrill. In the abovementioned song, however, those same notes have a very high quality and do not sound overly shrill at all. I would like to know whether the sound quality of those extremely high notes are due to the quality of the whistle or not. In other words, are there whistles that can produce these notes properly? The only other possibility that I can think of is that that song is actually played on a high G whistle, although I have not been able to actually find any whistles in that key. Are there whistles in the high G key?
I look forward to your replies and to spending more time on these forums
Your high C/C#/D will sound pretty shrill on a cheap whistle… I don’t play high ends so I wouldn’t know about them. However as you practice it more you should be able to quiet it down some. You won’t get an even volume, but think about how (I assume) the volume and control with your high B has improved over time.
Well, Colin Goldie is rather close to Netherlands’ borders - he makes Overtons, which are great.
Anyway - I doubt that cheapies would limit your performance. Some of the best whistle players played them (and still do) - this has been discussed many times though, so there’s no point in further explanations (search works).
Very likely the tune was played on a higher whistle, such as the high G TheSpoonMan mentioned.
As for cheap whistles, perhaps you ought to try tweaking them a bit. There are numerous guides to tweaking whistles, including a very extensive one on this website. I’d venture a guess that every member of this forum owns and still plays (regularly) cheap whistles. The whistle started as a cheap instrument and still thrives quite well in the cheap arena: Generation, Feadog, Clarke, Walton, Oak – these are all cheap whistles (< $10 US, usually) that we all know and love. With a bit of tweaking, we can even make them better… a bit of poster putty here, a bit of sanding there, and the tone is bright, even, and lovely.
You can always order whistles online, too, though I don’t know what the shipping costs would be like. If you decide that you would like a nice, inexpensive tweaked whistle without having to tweak it yourself, you simply cannot go wrong with a Freeman whistle. Jerry does a bang-up job.
To be honest, I didn’t have a clue on what “tweaking” meant. The guide helped me out a great deal, so thanks for pointing me to it.
On a sidenote, I do apologise for my inexperience with whistles. It’s really hard to get to know the way around if you don’t have anybody to explain even the basics.
You have absolutely no reason to apologize. A lot of us here are beginners (myself included), and we all need help in one way or another. Overwhelmingly, people here are happy to help answer any and all questions and point you in the right direction.
The D you’re trying to play is on the third octave for your whistle. Not all whistles can manage that with a good tone. I’m not sure all whistles can handle high C or C# either.
I would recommend the Jerry Freeman Blackbird if you want to venture into third and upper second octave. It has a very clear and stable sound and is easy to play at higher notes.
You might also find a recording of “Lonesome Boatman” in B minor (same notes as D major) and play along with that. Finbar Furey’s original rcording may be in Bmin but I’m not sure about that.
Anyway - if you want to play along the record, you can digitally re-tune a tune.
I frequently do this with tunes in obscure keys. Audacity can do it, for example. As long as you’re not making 2 octave shift, it keeps very high quality.
On my recording (The Fureys’ Finest) of Finbar playing TLB, the tune is in A Dorian, probably played on a C whistle in B Dorian. The highest note is a fingered g#.
The tune is in a minor mode, so it’s hard to tell from your description (“played in high G”) what you’re hearing.
You don’t say what whistle(s) you are playing. But consider this. Imagine someone who has never played the saxophone, and who picks up a saxophone for the very first time. You know nothing about the instrument. It may be a Selmer Mark VI or an inexpensive student instrument. But the beginning player sounds … terrible. Is it more likely that the bad sound is because of the instrument, or because of the player?
Now consider some of the best trad whistle players in the world - Paddy Moloney, Mary Bergin, Micho Russell, Liam O’Flynn, et al. And ask what kind of whistles they are playing. The answer: cheap, mass production whistles worth no more than 7 pounds or so. So what is an “advanced whistle”?
You can draw your own conclusions.
There are many good reasons that an experienced player might choose a particular whistle, cheap or expensive. But not limiting one’s performance is not one of them.
The worms are getting restless … must go close the can.
When playing in the keys of D, G, and A, (or their relative minors), I am usually playing a Clarke Traditional. While I don’t often venture up there (for the sake of the glass nearby), the old Clarke can reliably hit third octave D, E, and sometimes F#.
It takes a lot of moxie, correct fingering, and breath control, however. If I am less than confident in nailing the note, it will sound terrible.
I think it’s less a matter of the whistle (though some of my collection don’t have the range), and more of technique, usually.
Yes… Meantime, I did figure out what the problem was… There was a tiny slit in my mouth piece, severely disrupting my air flow, especially at higher pitches. I had a Generation D, by the way. So I got me a new one, Clarke Sweetone in D, and I can’t say I regret the choice
Aha, thanks. Can you describe the slit, and where it is located? If a manufacturing defect is appearing on Generations, it would be interesting to know the details.
Err… I don’t have a clue on how to explain this properly, but the slit was at the ‘rear end’ of the mouth piece (so where it connects with the actual body) and slightly to the side. I noticed it when it was already quite big and there was an audible release of air.
Now that you mention a manufacturing defect, this did happen to me before, to one of my other whistles. That one was a Generation high F, though, and the overall quality of it was lacking anyway (very impure tone and all).
I’m not exactly sure if it’s due to me being careless (I kept the whistles in a compartment of my bass guitar carrier bag) or if it’s actually a manufacturing problem, but I’m currently satisfied with my Clarke Sweetone, so I do not intend to find out anytime soon
the “slit”, if i understand, is something that happened to my Generation High F when I was removing the glue and replacing the mouthpiece back on the tube to make it tunable. I put a bit of superglue in the crack to seal it up and it seemed to work.
I have two red top Generations (b flat and c) that eventually developed a crack or cracks at the whistle end of the plastic mouthpiece. Why I don’t know, probably age/humidity fluctuations/temperature fluctuations. At any rate, since I like the sound of each of them, and there’s no certainty that a replacement would sound the same, I bound the cracked end with parcel tape and they’re still serviceable, though it doesn’t look pretty.
