We had a whistle player come to our session last week who is a beginner.He said to me,i noticed you play with your left hand on top of the whistle,i put my right hand on top he said.then asked me if i thought it made any difference.It didn’t seem correct to me,but i couldn’t come up with a good reason why.
By the way he is right handed.I told him i would see if i could get some other opinions for him.Any thoughts?
I am right handed and play with my left hand on top. The reason is because I started on a recorder in grade school and that’s how they told us to do it. Also there are two piece recorders where the bottom hole is tilted toward the right and you can’t adjust it. I am not a flute player but I think flutes are also geared to have the left hand on top and the flute pointing toward the right.
It doesn’t seem correct but I know of a few extremly good whsitle players who do the same so on the other hand (sorry..) it is probably not a huge problem either
The only problem I could see is if he decided to move on to other instruments like the pipes or flutes (any variety). I think they all pretty much need to be played with the left hand nearer the mouth. Actually, now that I think of it, the sax, clarinet, and pretty much all other woodwinds are “left hand on top”…interesting.
Anyway, good luck to him!
Eric
On 2002-04-05 03:16, vaporlock wrote:
The only problem I could see is if he decided to move on to other instruments like the pipes or flutes (any variety). I think they all pretty much need to be played with the left hand nearer the mouth. Actually, now that I think of it, the sax, clarinet, and pretty much all other woodwinds are “left hand on top”…interesting.Anyway, good luck to him!
Eric
I think Eric said it all right there - if he ever intends to play anything other than a whistle he’s going to have trouble, or a big bill getting one built lefthanded.
I’ve seen a few keyless flute players playing with the flute sticking out to the left, and right hand nearer their head, but they weren’t sitting to the right of the fiddle player.
I play this way and am learning the keyless flute without any real problems. However, if I was starting out I would definitely learn the other way as it is consistent with most other instruments.
Having said this, it is also possible to learn both ways. Seamus Egan plays the whistle with the right hand on top and the flute the other way round.
I remember reading somewhere (don’t recall where, unfortunately) that left-handed whistle players may reverse their hands if it feels more comfortable to them (i.e., right hand on top), but that they they didn’t really need to. I mention this at my whistle workshops in case there are any left-handed people there. Last month, there was one – he tried playing left hand on top and right hand on top, and said it didn’t make any difference to him, it felt pretty much the same either way. I know that when I first got a fife, I somehow played it “right hand on top” (why, I don’t know) before realizing that I was doing it “wrong”; I switched to the “right” way, and it seemed a little more comfortable, but not enough to make a fuss over. Interesting topic; I guess it’s culturally ingrained.
Tom Bingham
tomandceil@bigsplat.net
We’ve done this discussion before - both ways are “right”, it’s what feels comfortable to the player that’s “right”. Right hand down is better if the player wants to learn other woodwind instruments, but left hand down is better if they want to learn keyboards or harp. And if they’re only interested in the whistle it doesn’t matter.