Ok all, I am an on again off again whistler and a board lurker. I spent a stint tryin the recorder (ducking) for a switch and kinda liked it.
I been tryin to hit the higher octaves lately on the whistle (generation “C” and a Generation “F”) and if I stand on one hand, spread my legs apart, lean to the left under a full moon on a leap year, I can hit em without squeeking. This as you can guess happens rarely.
You guys have any pointers as to hitting these high notes without a vice on my um…well you know? I dont seem to have this problem with the recorder.
Well, next year is a leap year, so at least you’ll have a few good nights then!
Other than that, it’s possible that you just have squeaky whistles. Generation is known for somewhat spotty quality control. You might want to check the main C&F page for info about tweaking whistles. More likely, though, is that you just need to work on your breath control. Try doing long tones on each note. Vary your breath until the squeak goes away, and try to hold that. At some point, you will find it easy. Problem is, of course, that each whistle has different requirements, especially in the upper octave, so you’ll want to play each whistle a lot so you get used to it. The squeaks will likely go away soon with practice.
Yes, some whistles squeak more than others, and some not at all (so long as your fingers and breath are going in the right directions together). Some practice may be in order to get used to the whistle more, or if you are really frustrated you may want to tweak it (it could be the whistle) or try another whistle all together.
My first cheap whistle I had problems with those high notes, and switched to a different whistle and was able to hit all those notes right away. Since then, even though I’ve found some whistles are just more particular about how you play them and will squeak until you get used to it, others are just plain poor quality and need a little tweak.
Keep practicing and if you are getting so frustrated that you want to throw your whistles through a window then get another whistle. (Or if you know some other people with some whistles, see if they will let you try out a few songs on one of theirs to give you some ideas). Try one that’s been already tweaked or a consistant quality hand made one from one of the variety of whistle makers (stay away from another cheap mass manufactured untweaked one for now, unless you feel confidant in tweaking them or the ones you have yourself.)
I found the difference to be night and day as a beginner, and was encouraged by it and practiced more as a result. Now I can pick up a whistle and most of the time can tell if it’s me or if it’s just not so great a whistle. Also can play some of the whistles that I had trouble with before to, and if I had just stuck with the whistles that I was having trouble with just starting out, I might not have stuck with it. Nothing against mass manufacture whistles, they can be great, but a real bear to if you have one that’s not made as good as it should be.
First, try to find a good whistler to check out your whistles to make sure they play OK. No sense trying to get high notes out of a defective whistle.
I think the most common mistake on the high notes is being too timid about it. Start with, say, an A. Play it in the lower register repeatedly, tonguing between each note. Then, keep doing this, but start blowing a tad harder for each note. For a while they will sound really squeeky and cruddy, but eventually you will find where they start to solidify into good high notes. Keep blowing a bit harder and you will soon discover where they start to get cruddy again. Somewhere right in the middle of the upper and lower cruddy limits is the sweet spot. This differs from note to note and whistle to whistle. It just takes practice. This type of practice is not as much fun as playing tunes, but in the long run it will help a lot. You’ll also want to do this when you test or buy a new whistle-- in time it will become pretty instinctive.
In addition to tonguing the notes, some notes require a bit of a “huff” in the breath to get the note started speaking. If the note is to be held as in a slow air, you can back off of that huff once the note speaks.
It could very easily be the whistle – a good Generation is a good thing, but hard to find.
If you really like the sound of a Generation whistle, try one of Jerry Freeman’s tweaked Gens. I’m very happy with mine, and it’s not hard on one’s WhOA.
For hitting the high notes, Cathal McConnell has suggested sliding into the high notes and not holding them too long in order to maintain “sweetness.”
Thanks for the ideas all. I spent most of last night disecting both whistles and keys. I came to the following conclusion.
On both whistles I can scale fine right up to G on the second octave, then it sounds squeeky and almost a first octave G. I tried starting out low and slowly raising my breath but never found a sweet spot.
My conclusion is it is more than likely me as this is the case with both whistles and I need more practice. However I may go out and try a better whistle just to see if that is the case.
Just one more thing. I have been messing with the song “Inner Light” which all of you are surely aquainted with. Those are the high notes I cannot reach.
However I recently purchased the 30th anniversary star trek CD which has (In my opinion) the best version of this song.
