Hi
I have a question. Sometimes when i play slow with my tin whistle and a go from note B to D the D note sounds bad. I dont know why, but i think its the way i blow or because its made of nickel. Becasue it doesnt do the same when i play my Chieftain High D, and that sounds great, and i dont think its made of Nickel its made of something else
I have a Generation Nickel D and a Feadog Pro D. And its does the same with both of them. But not with my Chieftain low d and high d.
Some help please.
Is this from B up to d (in the second octave) or B down to D (in the lower octave)?
If it’s the first, it may be that your whistle responds better to
O X X X X X
than
X X X X X X
for the D in the upper octave. As far as I know, most whistles do. I’ve found that it depends on the tune - I haven’t examined it too closely, but sometimes it sounds better with all the holes covered, sometimes with the top hole open.
If it’s going down, it might be that your middle left finger lifts off just a touch and doesn’t properly cover the second hole down. I sometimes squeak when I’m tired, for just that reason.
I can suggest a possible explanation, though I am unfamiliar with the whistles that you are using. I have had other whistles that exhibited this behaviour, and it seemed to be a feature of those whistles. Some whistles do not give a reliably clean second octave d unless you vent t1. This is awkward when going from B (xooooo) to D (oxxxxx) as every finger needs to move, so my tendency was to leave the t1 unvented. I had to retrain myself for tunes (like Lament for Staker Wallace) which have DBDBDB sequences.
So try doing the change with a vent and see if the problem goes. You might find that tonguing cleans up the transition.
And of course, I may be completely wrong.
(crossing with InnocentBystander, but two opinions better than one)
To make the change a bit smoother, instead of doing this: B (xooooo) to D (oxxxxx)
I do this: B (xoooox) to D (oxxxxx)
For me, keeping B3 covered keeps the whistle anchored without affecting the pitch of the note, resulting in a much smoother transition.
I meant like
x00000 to xxxxxx
when all holes are covered
When i do that then sometimes it sounds bad.
Maybe you need to drop the pressure for the XXXXXX (low) D, because neither the Generation nor the Feadog will take what you can give the Chieftains there?
I drop the pressure a little bit now its sounds aalot better. Thanks for help.
So embarrassing that i didnt try that. But anyway thanks for all the help to all of you guys