Okay, I bought a whistle a few years ago, and just found it again, so I’m basically a newbie. I’m a former clarinet player, so I have music experience, and certain habits that are adjusted to clarinet, like setting my teeth on the top of the whistle.
For some reason I’m having trouble with my Clarke D whistle, the original kind, with the wood block mouthpiece. I have trouble playing the E and D in the lower octave of the whistle. I’m fine if I’m just running through scales, but when I try to play a song, it always slips into the upper octave, or a sort of whistly wheezing sound. I’ve tried breathing softer but all it does is stop producing sound. I was wondering if maybe something of my technique is causing it, and if anyone could tell me what.
I’m also wondering if it might be better to get one with a plastic mouthpiece since I’m a beginner.
I’ve always found that overall breath control with the basic Clarke is a bit more challenging than other whistles. Once you have that mastered they are capable of some lovely tone (especially with the “thumb tweak”). Whistles are relatively cheap though, and I would say it is worth auditioning another one until you get the breath control down. Flipping up an octave on D and E is a pretty common problem for a beginner, and at this point I don’t recall whether the Clark is notoriously bad at that, or just average. Why not try an Oak, Dixon, Generation, Susanto, or Feadog and see if one will work better for you. Even better a tweaked whistle by Freeman or O’Brian will be almost assured to be a “good one” and will allow you to work on your technique and not worry about the whistle itself.
I don’t have this problem on my (relatively new) Clarke Original, but I’ve had similar symptoms on one or two of my home-made whistles, when there’s been an air-leak around an ill-fitting fipple-block. As you’ve “just found” your whistle, after some period of time, I’m wondering if the wood has shrunk a little in storage. Nothing to lose by resealing the mouthpiece with a couple of drops of candle-wax or similar, to see if it makes an improvement. If so, that may be all that was necessary, if not, it shouldn’t have done any harm. Do block up the windway with a bit of folded paper first to save having to dig wax out afterwards
“Whistly weezing” on a low note can also be caused by a poorly seated finger further up the pipe. If you’ve got thick skin on your fingertips (some of us have) or loss of sensation, partial or otherwise, try working a little hand cream, petroleum jelly or similar into your fingertips to soften them and improve the seal on the holes.
You’ve demonstrated that when “just running through scales” the whistle works, so it’s more likely to be a problem with finger placement … bin there, still there, still doin’ it, but getting better!
My first thought when reading this was that there may be something inside the whistle body or the windway which is partially obstructing the airflow. My second thought was exactly what Kypfer said about not getting a good seal on the upper tone holes. Third, is that it very well could be the whistle. The problem with fipple shrinkage (IMO) isn’t so much that air can leak - air can leak around the fipple and it can still play fine. The problem is that it can lose it’s alignment with the blown edge, and that could create the problem you are describing.
The clarinet and the whistle are on different sides of the globe as far as breath pressure goes. Are you blowing too hard? All you have to do with a whistle is to breathe into it, expecially in the lower notes of the first octave. I’d say you’ll get the hang of it soon.
The tonguing technique required to start a clarinet reed to vibrate may be much too strong for a whistle. Try just barely touching the upper palate with the tongue.
Doesn’t sound like a technique issue but rather a whistle issue.
The great thing about Clarkes is that you can, with some pliers and such, adjust the voicing. You can adjust the height and width and shape of the windway so as to focus the airstream better, and you can adjust the blade to get a stronger tone.
If you could get hold of a Clarke that plays great to use as a guide it would help. I have a 30-year-old Clarke C that plays great. I spent several hours working on the windway and blade to optimise everything.
Or, you can get a Freeman Tweaked whistle on which Jerry has optimised the voicing for you. Or get a Burke that plays great as it comes.
Yes, get one with a plastic mouthpiece. I recommend a Clarke Meg – still inexpensive. Soak it in hot water to remove the mouthpiece and perform the putty fipple fix (filling in space beneath the fipple – google it).
True, my favourties are great-playing vintage Generations and Feadogs.
However I’ve found over the years that people coming from Sax, Clarinet, and Brass instruments generally get on better with whistles that require more air put through them and require more “support”. They generally overblow the sorts of whistles I play, and get on better with things like Burkes.
I have a Clarke Original. I rent it out to NASA and they do rocket engine tests in the windway.
I considered trying to tweek the windway to half the size of it, but it would require great precision in the outcome to assure the air flows directly at the blade correctly, and I can’t be assured of that. The top is a looped single sheet of tin and with the tiny size I don’t have the proper tools. Not worth the risk; I know I’d ruin it.
Bigger concerns are that the blade is of such a design that about 50% of the air approaching it is not turned into musical tone, it’s wasted. Add to that the wood block is quite a weak wood and is highly absorbent, and basically I’m looking at such a bad mouthpiece area design that I’m not going to spend 2 minutes or 2 cents trying to improve it.
Anyone having troubles with that model can continue to use it for finger practice while shopping around and using other REAL whistles to develop your genuine musical skills. Inexpensive whistles that basically get consistent good reviews: Oak, Tony Dixon Trad, Tony Dixon DX001, Walton Mellow D, and a long list of whistles priced into the medium price range.
The reason I spent quite a bit of time working on my old Clarke C was that my original mentor/teacher (back around 1980) had an amazing-sounding Clarke C, just a superb whistle in every way.
It didn’t come that way; he had spent time and care achieving his goal.
Likewise on his early Bernard Overton Low D he had removed the aluminium block and carved his own out of some sort of black plastic. His Overton was a phenomenal player, far better than Overtons as they came.
He came from the old school where you didn’t expect instruments to play exactly the way you wanted off the peg. Rather, it was up to the player to have the know-how and skill to turn pretty good instruments into superb ones.
In any case he loaned me his precious Clark C (which Micho Russell had proclaimed excellent) for a few days and with adjusting I got the sound of mine to around 90% of my mentor’s. No amount of adjusting could get that last 10%.
So what did I change?
the windway. You make the roof flat and bring it down lower, more or less like an Overton windway, narrow and parallel planes.
the blade. You change the shape (they come in kind of a gullwing shape that wastes a lot of air) to be fairly flat, but my mentor had left a slight dip in the middle, which I found out was necessary to get the best tone. You also change the relationship between the blade and the windway opening to maximise tone and efficiency.
No worries about about the risk involved: anything you do you can just as easily un-do, and if you somehow ruin the thing (just how it could be ruined I can’t imagine) they only cost around $5 back then.
About tools, just ordinary pliers, a bigger one and a small needle-nose, were all I needed.
About the porous wood block, my mentor had sealed his with something and I did the same.
Realising that Shaw whistles offered the same potential I’ve long had my eye out for used ones. (All the ones I tried had mediocre voicing as they came.)
