I’ve not been playing too long, but long enough that I should be able to hit all notes in the second octave - but I can’t, at least not without taking a good run at it !!
I have a Feadog D , an O’Brien tweaked Feadog D & also a black diamond D but it’s the same thing with all of them most of the time. I have adjusted the mouthpiece and had it in every possible position but to no avail. I can get to G without an issue but it falls apart from there - what am I doing wrong? I tried various blowing pressures too. Any help appreciated.
As I am sure King Friday knows, it’s more than just blowing harder.
Did you ever put your finger over the end of a water hose when you were a kid? The smaller opening makes the water speed up - great for water fights.
You can do the same with your lips. If you have the whistle tip between your lips and not too far back in your mouth, you can tighten your lips to help pop up into the next octave.
Just keep experimenting. This becomes very automatic with time.
Indeed. But when I was first starting out, it helped me very much just to tongue really hard and blow even harder. It was actually a hard habit to break, but it helped out at the time.
It helps me to think about the speed of the air, rather than blowing harder.
Practice by trying to blow out a candle from about 18" away, and with a small stream of air, rather than a “whoosh.” That’s the feel I have when playing upper octave.
Takes practice and patience, but you’ll find it becomes second nature.
If you whistle (with your lips, that is), then you already likely have the skill, just haven’t translated it to the whistle instrument. The speed of the air increases when you whistle higher notes, because you tighten the sound chamber, or the muscles of your mouth. Same thing works for the whistle instrument. Practice makes better!
I think ‘just blow really hard’ is about the worst advice for the situation as most people already blow way too hard. Do go into the notes tonguing slightly when playing them separately or alternatively go up very carefully but fully legato coming from G until you figured out the way you should blow, after that: keep practising.
Thanks for the help guys - it does seem to be a bit harder to solve than blowing harder I’m afraid. I’ve been trying some of the techniques mentioned and I think I’m on the right track, but it’s practice that will finally crack it I guess.
I’ve also noticed that confidence seems to make a big difference. If I am afraid of squeaking or making some terrible racket in the upper second octave, that’s usually what happens.
When I just throw myself at it, it works a lot better.
Tongue the notes and play them with higher air pressure. This means you can’t play them with empty lungs - I say that as a friend of mine started playing with tiny breaths and could not play the higher notes until she learnt to breathe more deeply.
A bit of tongueing definitely helps. Start playing a short run of notes up to and including the tough notes amd bacl down eg: E,F#, G,A,B,A,G,F#,E.
Tongue each note SLIGHTLY. Start at a breath pressure that allows you to easily play the lower notes, but where the higher ones break up. As you play this over and over, gradually increase the pressure. In time, the stubborn ones will fall into line. You’ll find that each whistle has a different sweet spot where the pressure is just right.
I’d agree 99.99% with Peter’s comments here. If you were playing a Chieftain, I’d say blow harder (as that damn cannon takes more breath than most would expect). Your normal whistle though, well it requires a change in embouchure rather than a change in breathing.
The more I work on my flute playing, the better a whistle player I become…who’d of thunk it. Just remember, the whistle is deceptive. When you pick it up, it seems that all you need to do is blow soft for the first register and blow harder for the second (and many tutorials even say this. It’s a shame).
Fozzy Bear is right. BUT. It’ll be years before embouchure becomes an issue. Right now, blow hard. You can finesse it later, but for the moment blowing harder will get you where you need to be. Try plugging your ears. You may be inadvertently sparing them the damage that your inner self knows will occur if you exceed a threshold volume.
Just a thought but I have seen beginners play nothing but high notes and thinking they were the low notes! In that case they are actually trying to play in the 3rd ocatve when trying to play higher. In this case they need to blow softer - just breathing into thewhistle - to play the lower octave.
A couple of hours ago a neighbour of mine complained about my practicing (I have only played about six hours today!) Well, so as to keep up the good christmas spirit, I have used a mute ( a piece of cardboard inserted into the hole - is that what’s called the “window”?). Not only has there been no complaints since, but as a side effect I find it much easier to play the second octave! Hoorrayyy!
As a newb who is just now getting confident in the second octave, I have to agree with all the above except “just blow harder.” Practice helps, of course and brewerpaul has a nice approach. I also looked for tunes that had one note higher than I was comfortable with, e.g. when I had the high D down, I would find tunes that had a few high E’s in the B part but nothing higher. When I had the E down, I went looking for high F’s and so on. Embouchure helps but, for me, this seemed to come more by accident than by any planned movement of my lips. I just kept “trying things” until it sounded right. And markbell is completely correct - if you worry about it, it will squawk! Trust the Fipple, Luke.
