I’ve seen several references to the idea that Susato whistles take a bit of extra finesse to play without sounding so loud and harsh, but I haven’t found an explanation of what this entails. Could someone fill me in on what I should be practicing to sound my best on a Susato? Thanks.
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They are always going to be loud the ones higher than C anyway.
Like any whistle, hitting the exactly right breath requirements will help avoid the harsher than necessary edges.
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I’ve owned and played Susatos in a lot of different sizes from the High D through the mezzo sizes to the Low D and Low C.
Yes the High D is loud but I wouldn’t call it harsh- it’s pure and relatively colourless.
Be aware that they’ve used a number of different bore sizes over the years, sometimes using as many as three different bore sizes for the same pitch whistle. This means that any blanket label for Susatos is going to have exceptions.
I once had mezzo “A” Susatos in three bore sizes, one being the same tubing they often use for their High D, a very sweet player it was.
And Susatos get better as they get lower, their Low D being a nice player and the Low C wonderful to play.
(However my Susato phase passed many years ago, replaced by a Burke phase before arriving at my current Goldie phase.)
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I busk a decent bit with a Susato, it’s a great whistle for the job. I have, on occasion, played it in a session/ensemble setting when playing a particularly noisy gig.
One thing I’ll say is that paradoxically, part of playing it well is committing. The top end is going to be loud. It’ll be loud no matter what. But if you don’t support it properly, it’ll be loud and flat, which is a bad combination. I’ve heard other whistle players back off high notes for fear of being too loud, and it ends up sounding worse. If you’re confident playing it, you should be confident that even if it feels loud, you’re playing well. Think of all the banjo players and pipers who also have nowhere to hide!
Another thing to keep in mind is that in my experience, whistles sound more compressed volume-wise from others’ perspective than to the player. I play with a guy who whips out an identical Susato to mine often, and the top end doesn’t sound as horribly harsh from across the table as it does in my ears if I’m playing it. Conversely, I sometimes find it hard to hear the low end of my Killarney in sessions, yet have heard the low end of Killarneys being played by others perfectly clearly. I’ve had the pleasure of playing with Séan Ryan, and it certainly doesn’t sound harsh coming from him!
So in the end it all comes down to playing well. Learning how to blow it in tune, knowing tunes well enough to be confident playing them, and if you’re in a session environment being able to listen to others while playing and adapt to what they’re doing, their tuning, etc. is going to go a long way towards making any whistle, Susato or otherwise, sound good.
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I stopped playing Susatos because I found they had too many shortcomings. High D susatos simply cannot be played in tune enough, in my opinion. If you REALLY push certain notes, and REALLY back off of others, you can get it kind of semi-in-tune, but it’s not good enough for my personal taste. I especially hate having to intentionally back off of the lowest notes to keep them from going insanely sharp, which Susatos require.
I also just can’t stand the harshness of high B. It’s simply too much, I think.
That said, I agree with bigsciota that having confidence while you play it will make it sound a lot better.
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That video is great!!! I’m a beginner at whistle and relatively new to listening to ITM in general, and it’s always nice to see a great musician playing at a tempo where I can somewhat comprehend what’s being done!
My High D Susato was right in tune. However I can’t remember if it came that way, or if I carved on it (as I do with any whistle whose scale is imperfect).
I very rarely used it, just for noisy outdoor things. I gave it to a street busker who said he couldn’t find a whistle loud enough.
At one point I had Susatos in every pitch from High D to Low D including unusual sizes like B natural, E natural, Gb/F#, etc. Nearly all of them had to be carved and/or taped and/or chopping the bottoms due to each having a unique out-of-tune scale. Sizes which were made in large numbers like Low D were right in tune, but the more unusual the key the more wonky the scale (not enough R&D).
I never cared for the High sizes. The mezzo/alto sizes were decent and the Low sizes were very nice.
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