How do I eliminate a squeaky C natural coming down from the middle D? (Did I word that correctly?)
If I practice it in isolation, I can eliminate the squeak after alternating the notes several times, while hardly blowing at all and merely dropping the note. If I’m not careful, there’s still the tiniest little mousy sound in between the two notes. Erg. But I can never seem to conquer the squeak in a tune.
Also the cross-fingering that my whistle favors exacerbates the squeak. So I’m left with that OXXOOO C, which doesn’t sound as good.
Still playing the Clarke and awaiting the anniversary whistle! While it behaves much better after “soaping,” that doesn’t help this problem much.
Is the fingering OXX XOX reasonably in tune for C on your whistle? It should be an easier change from D if it is. Or perhaps OXO XOX though that is a bit difficult to use. The other possibility is that you have one of the two C fingers very very slightly not covering the hole. When the squeak happens you tense the fingers rather automatically and that tiny movement might be enough to stop the squeak.
Just thoughts… I could be away off base.
half-holing?? That’s what I do.
Can you describe the fingerings you are using for D and C? Other than overblowing I am having a hard time imagining the Cnat being a squeaky note as it is usually a bit weaker and more breathy than others. Most whistles I’ve played require a slight drop in pressure between B and D to play the C in tune (when using cross fingerings).
I’ve been playing with this and having trouble squeaking Cnat as well. OTOH I do have issues with squeaking middle D, when coming to or from either C or Cnat. It seems to be a matter of not quite getting multiple fingers down on their holes in one precise motion – if there’s a little air escaping through the edge of a hole, it will squeak on me.
And then there is the blip of noise that can come when not transitioning cleanly between B and Cnat, or B and middle D. But this is less of a squeak than a blip of some sort, I think from not getting the fingers down/up in precise unison.
Though I have wondered at times whether there is perhaps an actual audible sound of crossing the octave break, or if it’s just that the fingerings in these region of the scales are tricky and it’s hard for me to get them down cleanly.
Have you also tried playing in front of a tuner to see if you’re overblowing your D? Some whistles will be more sensitive on the D if you don’t vent the top hole but others don’t seem to mind too much either way. Going from cross-fingered Cnat to D shouldn’t produce much if any unwanted sound, especially if you are venting the D (i.e., 0xx 000 to 0xx xxx). Still, transitioning from B to D shouldn’t require much of a change in breath pressure either on most whistles. I’m wondering if there is some kind of mental block that is saying, “self, you are entering second octave, blow real hard” and is causing the squawking? I know I had this problem when I was first getting used to the whistle. When going from B to D the most likely source of a squawk I can think of is if your bottom hand is going down quicker than your top fingers (leaving one or more of these holes open: xxx 000) or that some holes in-between aren’t being sealed properly.
Mockingbird … What you are calling a squeak is undoubtedly the natural chirp that occurs on a good whistle when transitioning across the registers from D down to C# or C-nat.
I say good whistle because this chirp is actually a desirable characteristic to nearly all trad whistle players. In fact, the D-to-C chirp test is one of the first things I check when evaluating a new whistle. If the chirp is weak or less than crisp, that earns a demerit mark in my book.
Experienced players learn to “play the chirp” through a combination of breath control and precise fingering. The secret is not to eliminate the chirp, but to exploit it as an essential element of the trad whistle sound.
An analogy I sometimes use is that of tasting a good Chardonnay for the first time, if what you’re used to is Coca-Cola. If your reaction is that the wine is too dry and needs a spoonful of sugar to improve it, then … The problem is not the wine, but expectations based on lack of experience, and mistaking a positive characteristic for a flaw.
So give it time for your ear to adjust and your knowledge of the music to improve. 
[edited to make sense… sorry, posting in a medicated state today]
MT, thanks for the tip about working with the chirp as a positive feature to the trad whistle sound rather than seeing it as a bug in my playing. I’d just always viewed it as a personal deficiency.
I know from personal experience that it’s quite possible to change this chirp into an unpleasantly prolonged squeak when fingering sloppily. As I’ve been working on my exercises in venting T1 as I cross the octave break, I’ve made some nasty squeaks here when my concentration flags and my fingers get lazy.
A question for woodwind physics geeks: Is this chirp perhaps the sound of the standing waves inside the whistle changing modes (aquiring a node) as the whistle shifts octaves?
I’m not a physicist, squid … But yes, I think that’s close to right.
You can hear it if you play D oxxxxx then lift B1 or B2 very slowly on the way to C. In between, the whistle starts screaming some really high pitch with lots of (seemingly) random harmonics, before it finally locks onto the new fundamental C note*. I assume that the barely open hole is acting temporarily as a node vent for a high harmonic of the D standing wave in the tube. And it’s this high pitched transient that you hear as the chirp when done quickly.
- And the cross-fingered C is just a fundamental C# oooooo that’s being flattened by end-loading with additional fingers.
This is why hole layout is so important not just for intonation, but for the overall response. For a given note/hole, there are a number of position-plus-aperture combinations that will give you an equally in-tune pitch. But those different positions may tap different transient nodes when the holes are partly open while transitioning from one note to another. And that can make all the difference between a bland/dull and lively/chirpy instrument.
So a “blip” is normal? Whew. Well, I can get it down to a blip, I think, at current skill level.
I must be still blowing too hard on those higher notes. Must work on that soon. Meanwhile, I’m going to try to decode all this whistle tech talk. I love the level of detail here! 
Is the fingering OXX XOX reasonably in tune for C on your whistle? It should be an easier change from D if it is.
Yes, the OXXOOO sounds a bit sharp on my whistle, but I do use it sometimes. I prefer the sound of the cross-fingered C, but it’s the squeakier version.
Oddly, I don’t seem to have the problem going up to D, or going from B to C nat. It’s coming down from middle D to the C nat. I’m going to work on breath control in that higher register to see if that makes a difference. I’m having a terrible time breathing and conserving breath at the proper times right now anyway, to the point of almost dreading the higher Part B’s of the tunes in my current (very limited) repertoire.
I’m glad it’s only my kids who can tell the tale of my inept beginner practice sessions, because they’re already adept at tuning me out. Heh!