I only started playing this winter and earlier this month I started noticing that my whistle sounded bad in the kitchen, when it used to sound good. The change of sound was concurrent with my buying a Sausato and it had a wavering tone that didn’t like. It took me a few days to figure out that it’s the ceiling fan, which wasn’t really used this year until the second week of June.
We have fans all over and I started playing in different places to see the effect and its amazing how easy it is to mess with the sound of a whistle. Even the slightest breeze can ruin a note. I was also playing in the car with the windows down while waiting for my son and whenever the wind would blow just right it would virtually wipe out my ability to make any sound other than a squeak.
Try playing with your back to the wind. With 2 piece whistles, you can turn the head joint backwards which looks funny, but keeps the little window somewhat out of the breeze. Higher whistles do better outdoors than low ones. Although playing outdoors is a great pleasure ( I spent some time yesterday breaking in a customer’s whistle along the banks of the Mohawk River…), you will never probably sound your best outdoors-- too much of the sound simply dissipates.
I usually play with my back to the wind, though sometiems facing directly into the wind can help too.
Also, it depends partially on the whistle. My clarke traditional would go silent at the merest hint of a cross wind. My Silkstone alloy is particularly wind-resistant.
As kids we used to sing into the fans. Just the other day I had a great time playing a whistle into the new ceiling fan we installed. You don’t have to get dangerously close to get the oscillating effect on the tone.
Board members often mention that turning a tunable whistle head windway down, like on a Susato, works in mild wind–its a good idea. I haven’t found anything to help trying to play a flute in the wind…
[ This Message was edited by: ysgwd on 2002-06-24 10:23 ]
I don’t know, they seem a little different to me. With a flute, you are forcing a lot of air across the opening, and the wind would have more trouble interfering with that. But with a whistle, your wind is being applied at the mouthpiece, not the fipple, and the wind has more chance of mucking it up.
Hey Walden:
Having played over 100 outdoor weddings in my flute and guitar duo, I can say that fairly strong wind will counteract the blowing and stop all sound, to the distress of everyone involved. Whistles probably are more sensitive but it does happen to flutes.
But I love whistlin outside. The experience in the redwoods last week was great. But then, its always about me. I pulled it out at a park in San Rafael too and finally got over my self-consciousness. It was windy but not too bad. If I ever played Highland pipes, I would love to pipe in the sun. I have a great delrin practicechanter but I always think I am going to pop a blood vessel when I play it. Es mas macho!!!
[ This Message was edited by: The Weekenders on 2002-07-14 01:33 ]
I’ve noticed that when I play my pipes, and the ceiling fan is going, I also get a vibrato efect. I spent the better part of an hour inspecting, and tweaking my reed, and looking over the pipes to make sure I didn’t have any leaks or cracks the first time I heard it.
Then I turned off the fan and it stopped. EUREKA!!!
Well, anyway, regardless of the location of the wind escaping the particular instrument, if the fan’s going, you’re gonna have vibrato due to the sound waves bouncing off the walls and then the ceiling - like it or not!
Well, anyway, regardless of the location of the wind escaping the particular instrument, if the fan’s going, you’re gonna have vibrato due to the sound waves bouncing off the walls and then the ceiling - like it or not!
Most of us probably learned as children (well…if we’re under 60 or 70) that we could sing into an electric fan and it would sound choppy. It’s just that you don’t always think about sound going through the ceiling fan.
As a kid, I used to love playing ‘Darth Vader’ through the fan…"Luke! I am your father!!!’ Sounded all mechanical and spacey! Now that I can play the Star Wars theme on my pipes, it seems to have come full circle in weirdness! LOL
