Having just received my first whistle after Christmas (a Clark Sweetone), I have conquered the basic notes and would like to try some ornaments. I have “Mel Bay’s Complete Irish tin whistle book and CD”, which I am enjoying so far. A couple of questions though…
For a slide, does the finger move across the hole horizontally, or does one attempt to bend at the first finger joint to raise the pad of the finger slowly off? I seem to do a more gradual slide the 2nd way, although I fear if I’m doing it wrong, it may slow me down when my speed picks up.
Also, I have difficulty between a C and a C#, getting the right pitch, could this be my whistle? or just a lack of talent?
are the higher notes such as high A and B just played loudly to get the correct pitch, or should I be able to produce a quieter sound on these notes?
Now here’s an ediquette question…what to do with the moisture in the whistle while playing? Just have a small towel nearby? or is there a cleaning stick of some kind that is used like for a recorder?
Please forgive any dumb questions but feel free to laugh at them!
I think it all depends on how your hand is configured and your fingers lie on the whistle. I think I mostly tend to push my fingers forward, gradually uncovering the hole, but as you suggest in the second part of your statement, you can often just move the first joint, straightening the finger.
Also, I have difficulty between a C and a C#, getting the right pitch, could this be my whistle? or just a lack of talent?
Not sure what you’re asking here… For a C#, simply lift all your fingers off the whistle. You can keep the 3rd finger of your right hand down to stabilize the whistle though.
There are various ways of getting a C natural. You can either half-hole the top hole or use various “cross fingerings”.
oxx ooo is the easiest although on a Clarke you might find you need to play oxx xox on longer notes to get a note that is in better tune (slightly flatter than the first fingering).
are the higher notes such as high A and B just played loudly to get the correct pitch, or should I be able to produce a quieter sound on these notes?
You have to blow harder, there’s no way around that. How hard you have to blow, and how loud & piercing or sweet & pleasant the note is depends a lot on the whistle.
Now here’s an ediquette question…what to do with the moisture in the whistle while playing? Just have a small towel nearby? or is there a cleaning stick of some kind that is used like for a recorder?
You can make your own mind up about this one. I can’t recall ever having seen a whistle player with a bedside box of tissues at hand and if I did I would find it amusing. Plenty on wet spots on the knee of the jeans though.
Norma, I think with time that your breath control will develop and giving the right pressure for low and high notes will eventually become second nature, and you won’t have to think about it.
Over time you will probably also have less of a moisture problem, however I imagine that different players vary on this.
When I have “moisture” build-up I tend to sling my whistle around to get rid of it. Don’t know why no one will play with me.
I also tend to glide my fingers forward when sliding between notes.
When switching between a C# and C, I leave the third finger of the right hand down for the C# then add the second and third fingers of the left for the C… ooo oox …oxx oox
This works on my Sweetone.
Excellent suggestions, took a few notes and will try it out! One clarification, those who mentioned sliding “forward”, do I assume you mean forward TOWARDS the note you are sliding TO? or do you pull your finger to the right? :roll:
It’s pretty much what ever is most comfortable for you that works. I don’t think there is a wrong way. After you do it a few (hundred) times it becomes a lot easier.
I think with the slide, for example, if you are going to half hole a note, and want to slide down to it or slide up out of it for effect, then you might approach each differently. Moving up out of a half hole I would slide my finger towards the fipple, and the reverse if moving down to it, and a combination if I’m sliding into and back up out of it. I play fiddle and slide (no holes of course) up and down into and out of notes for the same reasons, I think?
“Forward” would mean away from the palm. For example, if I’m playing D and want to slide up to E, I would finger D and then slide my bottom finger over the bottom tone hole more or less gradually so instead of moving crisply from D to E, I kind of “scoop” or “slide” into the higher note. Some people prefer to kind of drag the sliding finger back toward the palm or rolling it upward (toward the top of the whistle), but I find that sliding it forward works best for me.
I’m rather new to all of this…but I think how you slide your finger off the whole seems somewhat dependent on how you play the whistle to start with. I play with my fingertips covering the holes and so I find it easier to slide my fingers off the whistle toward the palm. The people I’ve noticed who play further down on their fingers slide away from their palm. What they do doesn’t really sound any different than what I do in the end. So I’ve come to the conclusion that it probably doesn’t matter HOW you do it, so long as it sounds right.
When you get into faster tunes, you’ll probably find that a) it works better to use the pad of your finger rather than the tip (less motion involved in moving the fingers) and b) slides are easier when you move the finger forward. You’re right in that the sound’s the thing, and there’s not a “right way” or “wrong way” to do it so long as the sound is right, but it’s amazing how much easier it is to slide quickly but distinctly this way.
That’s actually what I mean…I play with the pads of the fingers (didn’t actually mean the tips themselves…couldn’t do thay even if I tried…my nails are just too long for that!)…the same way I cover holes on clarinet. From 20 years of playing I actually have weirdly shaped pads on my fingers…they almost come to a point right where I always cover holes. It’s most comfortable for me that way.
I’ve experimented with the slide forward and I can’t seem to play it fast at all…the motion’s somewhat foreign to me (on clarinet, when you do any slide type motion you pull your fingers off the instrument, rather than pushing them off). But I can usually play a slide by pulling my finger off in tempo (still working on that…it works most times and sometimes I move the finger off too fast and no slide is heard).
