I’m completely new to the whistle, but loving it. I play clarinet and, to a lesser competence, recorder, so not completely unfamiliar with the basics. I bought 2 low D instruments, which are both breathtakingly beautiful, in my opinion - a Dixon 3 piece polymer and an MK tuneable. They’re like chalk and cheese. The Dixon is so much easier to play quietly, at home, alone. It resonates like it’s made of a fine wood, I think. And like it has a narrow bore. The MK feels like it needs to shout a bit more. It resonates with a beautiful big round boom, quite unique, fantastic. Feels like the bore would be larger. In particular it’s harder to overblow the MK and reach the second octave. The top three notes, second octave, have to be blown at a constant and fairly impressive pressure in order to overblow. There’s not much room up there to alter the pitch of the note by decreasing pressure. Louder, larger bore recorders are like this too, of course, so not complaining. On a recorder you have a thumb hole to ‘help’. I find if I want to play the MK a bit quieter in the second octave that it’s easy enough to use the top hole as an octave key, just by shading my finger off it ever so slightly. Then the whistle overblows very easily. On the tuning meter playing quietly like this doesn’t seem to very seriously flatten things, so it adds a bit of dynamics. Just wondered whether anybody ever does this - shades the top hole to overblow quieter? Or if there’s something stupid and worng about it?
Hi, and welcome to the board. 
Well, I suppose if there’s a technique that can be used, it will be used by someone, sometime.
But there should be no need for trickery to play the upper register of the MK. The MK’s volume is pretty well-balanced, IIRC. So if it seems too loud, then I’d guess either your expectations are off, or your breath technique needs work. And if the latter, then you’re better off tackling the real problem than trying to hide it with a trick like shading the hole.
A whistle shouldn’t need a node vent like a recorder in order to overblow properly (except perhaps the standard oxxxxx d fingering). Shading the #1 hole as a habit will only slow down your fingering and playing, and interfere with ornamentation.
The upper notes (A and above) sometimes need a bit of breath finesse. Basically, you tighten your embouchure and narrow the air stream, to increase the velocity of the air without increasing the volume of air. That should even out the sound volume, and allow those notes to speak easily without blowing too hard.
Hope that helps!
Thanks. That’s helpful. Wasn’t thinking at all about changing the mouth cavity, speeding up the airflow etc. Will experiment.
The MK’s a great instrument, but it would be greater if it had an octaving thumbhole. This was discussed briefly on another thread.
MTGuru’s suggestion works, not unexpectedly, but you buy the lower volume at the cost of degraded (rougher, breathier) tone, since his technique introduces turbulence into the air flow.
I don’t really understand why whistle designers wouldn’t want to use a tried and tested solution like the octaving hole - after all, you only need use it if you want to. Plus, an octaving hole allows you to fine tune the pitch of second octave notes. I’d be tempted to drill a hole in the MK if I hadn’t sold mine off, mainly because of this very problem, which seems to me to be the main limitation to whistle design. I’m going to learn to play the flute instead…
Killthemessenger, what was MTGuru’s suggestion, that worked? Not sure I understand what you mean. You mean my idea about shading the front top hole?
I notice that Burke whistles standardly offer a thumbhole as an option, by the way.
I should add that I don’t think the MK is outstandingly balanced. You surely can’t say that when the breath requirements for the top A, B and higher are very noticeably different from the rest of the whistle? It IS balanced over about an octave and a half. And sounds incredible, and is very easy to play within that range. The Dixon I have, by contrast, is balanced across the entire instrument range, and very easy to blow. It also sounds beautiful - very diff to the MK - but it is very much quieter. I guess it’s swings and roundabouts. Looking at whistle/blockflute history, it’s clear the instrument only blew about an octave and a half until the arrival of baroque recorders. You get the extra range at a price, usually loss of clear, stable bottom end (comparatively speaking). Could anyone say whether a whistle exists which has a similar big earthy tone, like the MK, with almost that kind of volume, but which blows easier across the full range?
As I understand it, he suggests reducing the aperture of your lips behind the windway entrance, so that you’re effectively narrowing the air stream and thus presumably using less than the full width of the labium. This reduces volume, but the added turbulence makes the note breathier.
I think the Burkes use the thumbhole for playing the C natural, not for octaving.
I agree with you about the MK, many other whistles are like that in my experience. It just seems to be integral to the cylindrical whistle design. And in the end, a whistle is a whistle, not a recorder, I suppose.
If your whistle has a C nat thumb hole, you could use that, like an octave hole, to get softer second octave notes up to high B. With a proper octave hole you could get softer second octave notes up to high C sharp. But then you loose the C nat hole.
I’ve done one experimental low D body with an octave hole (added the hole, and taped over the C nat thumb hole). It works, but feels quite awkward, as the thumb is now in a very different position, and the added work it needs to do for the effect is certainly slowing things down. I do find the C nat thumb hole far more useful.
Yes, KTM has it right.
Of course, I can’t speak to your particular whistle. A Goldie/Overton low D is my low weapon of choice. I’ve tried maybe 3 or 4 MK low Ds over the past few years, and they’ve all been well within my expectations of how a low whistle should sound and respond. They do require a pretty good puff to get the most from them. So if the high notes seem too loud, it could be that you’re not putting enough air into the lower notes to produce a more consistent volume. And doing so without accidental overblowing or other problems may be, as I said before, a matter of developing your beginner’s breath technique.
When it comes to tricks like shading, the proof of the fingering is in the playing. If it sounds good and doesn’t impair your facility, then no one is going to arrest you. But there’s a reason that standard techniques are … well, standard. Nine times out of ten, when a beginner perceives a problem with a time-tested instrument, the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars (or whistles), but in ourselves. It’s not as if experienced players haven’t heard it all before. 
Most whistles respond well to some degree of embouchure control to sound their best. It’s something that beginner players tend not to realize, unless there’s a teacher or mentor around to point the way.
Good luck!
I’ve ordered a Goldie Low D, and since Brigitte says it will be best to speak to Colin, before the final choice, I’m assuming I’ll be able to suggest embarrassing beginner things like - if poss I would like not much pressure diff between top G and the A and B above (not to mention the C and D), providing that doesn’t mean the bottom end becomes completely uncharacteristic. We’ll see. They seem super friendly and helpful at Goldie. It’s marvelous that in the whistle world you can get this kind of contact from top makers. Doesn’t happen in the clarinet world, unless you have 10k to blow, or even in the recorder world, where a top handmade instrument will set you back at least 1.5k.
What I would really crave, however, is not a whistle that has a smooth full 2 octaves. I don’t care if there’s only 1.5 octaves freely manipulable (as a beginner), like a renaissance flute/blockflute. Not really. What I crave is a chromatic whistle - one that has the same chromatic possibilities as a recorder, but with a whistle sound. Then I wouldn’t need to play clarinet, recorder, and whistle. I play jazz on the clarinet and, though there are a very few exponents of jazz on the recorder, their style is not for me and always sounds a little like Pavarotti doing pop. The whistle, on the other hand, has a great sound for jazz. But it’s difficult t see how you could really do it without a full palate of notes available.
I wish there were a fully chromatic whistle, even if only 1.5 octave range. Susato (I’ve never touched one, so no idea what they’re like) do a ‘wide bore recorder’ which recorder players suggest (usually derogatively) ‘sounds like a whistle’. I wonder if that would be the thing? Anyone try one?
That said, the MK is absolutely amazing. I mean it. The tone is incredible, I think. Really something special. if you have to put up with a limited palate (which is fine for, for example, Irish music, but less so for jazz) to get that tone, then maybe it’s worth it…
You can play the whistle chromatically, whether using forked fingerings or half-holing. (Since you’re familiar with the recorder, you’ll know that half-holing was much more prevalent in the pre-baroque period of its history than it was later.) Most whistles I’ve played have a pretty good, solid cross-fingered A#, G# and C natural, which only leaves D# and F natural to half hole. Or you can half hole them all, which gives you good access to slides. It isn’t really so very difficult, especially on low whistles with their big toneholes.
A good introduction to gaining these skills would be Telemann’s flute fantasias, many movements of which are very suited to the low whistle, with just a few chromatics (usually the last movement prestos and allegros). But you probably have a better idea than I of what would be the right approach for you - I don’t play jazz.
Practice practice practice!
I wish people would refrain from this kind of comment - it may encourage our makers to start charging higher prices. 