I’m a classical flute and piccolo player, and former recorder player. For whatever reason (it probably has a lot to do with the recorder playing) I often find myself doing a lot of doubling when unusual instruments are called for. The latest iteration of this is that – to make a long story short – my inability to keep my big mouth shut has gotten me stuck playing a pennywhistle solo in a flute choir piece. (I’ve begged the conductor to let me just play it on piccolo, to no avail. )
My tone is very weak – with the amount of breath support I’m using, I keep going flat at the end of phrases, but I also feel like if I used more support I would get the higher octave (the entire passage is in the low register). The sagging pitch is alleviated somewhat if I stop notes with my tongue, recorder-style, instead of trying to taper them, but 1) something about the shape of the whistle mouthpiece as compared to the recorder mouthpiece makes this awkward and 2) is this even a “correct” thing to do (e.g. I had to unlearn that habit when I switched from recorder to flute as a kid)?
What makes this even more problematic is that this is a classical(-ish) piece that just happens to have a pennywhistle part in it, not a traditional piece. For one thing, it’s really slow and has a lot of long held notes (which is why I’m so concerned about intonation). From what little I know about the music that is traditionally played on this instrument, it seems like this is an atypical feature and this particular piece would be thought of as kind of boring from a traditional perspective. It also means that in the unlikely event that my problems would be solved by modifying things or using ornamentation, then that’s too bad because I have to play exactly what’s on the page. (I’ve also been searching the Internet for pedagogical-type materials, and not found much about tone development – most of what I’ve been reading is how to do various traditional ornaments. This is absolutely not uninteresting to me – in fact, it’s sort of gotten me interested in learning the traditional music – but isn’t terribly useful for my present situation.)
The particular instrument I’m using also probably isn’t very good – I got it very inexpensively at my local music store a few years ago, back when I was in high school and needed one for a school play. But all I really care about right now is being able to play it at a level above “terrible” in the concert at the end of the semester, so I doubt that the quality of the instrument itself matters very much for my purposes.
One final thing – what is the most correct term for referring to this instrument? I’ve most often heard it referred to as a “pennywhistle”, which seems to denote exactly the same thing as “tin whistle”, but do they have different connotations, or is one name more correct than the other? Or can they be used interchangeably? (Somewhat hilariously, I recently witnessed a professional classical musician’s confusion about whether a “pennywhistle” and a “slide whistle” were the same thing. )
What, specifically, is the instrument you have now? There are quite a few good instruments in the inexpensive range (i.e., $10-$50). Embrochure is not irrelevant to the whistle, but you certainly can’t do as much with it as you can with a flute, so if you want different tone/volume, you’re likely going to have to look at a different instrument.
In my experience, no one cares whether you prefix “whistle” with “tin”, “penny”, etc. - there’s no hidden tabu there.
I am inclined to offer that what you need for your purposes may indeed be a better whistle. Even knowing the make of your current inexpensive whistle wouldn’t give a reader much ability to advise you about what you are struggling with because the cheap mass-produced whistles out there tend to be very inconsistent. What I will venture to say is I think you’ll likely find that your serious approach to the instument - and to instruments in general - will be quickly rewarded by a better quality whistle. You obviously already posses an understanding of breath control… some of what you are describing could very well be owing to the whistle you are playing. Perhaps trying out other whistles, if you are able, would be worth a little of your time.
If the whole passage is played in the lower register on a soprano D whistle you might try playing it on an alto A whistle instead. You would use the whistle’s the mid range, which might save some breath. This being based only on my personal preference for alto whistles
What’s the music and what’s the brand and key of your whistle?
My first observation would be that you are thinking about this too much. You’ve planted a self-fulfilling prophecy in your head that is going to keep this from working out well for you. Give it up! You play flute, piccolo and re*&^er (the fipple flute that shall not be named). You can do this. “Luke, use the force” That’s my advice.
Forget the whole “traditional” notion of music for the whistle too. I know it hard, Paddy’s Day right around the corner and all, but the whistle is an instrument that can play all kinds of music. And all kinds of music is played on the whistle - jazz, bluegrass, folk, and yes, classical pieces. It’s all music. It’s just a matter of getting comfortable playing the piece with the instrument. Long notes are common on the whistle. There are a lot of slow airs played on the whistle. Just listen to this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6LVUoUQ2uI or this (from about 50 seconds to 2:25 at least) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAyENIYI328 It’s not all diddley-dee-dee-dum traditional dance music. You just gotta have a feel for the piece and the instrument. “Use the force”.
Some of the advice given above may apply.
That’s a brilliant point and you might want to act on that one. Would you rather play a soprano re(0&%er in its lower range or an alto re@#^er in its middle range for a solo performance? Whistles are simple diatonic instruments but they are made in keys other than just high D. Whistle players don’t have the simple luxury of only having to carry ans SAT (or SSATB) set to a gig, we have to have one for every likely key we’ll need to play.
It’s a D whistle, and the brand name seems to be “Oak”. I just might try to find myself an A (although, as a dilettante who is more serious about at least two other instruments, I don’t really know if that’s worth it), because the low D is in fact the most problematic note. The left-hand notes in particular really aren’t bad, but the D (and E, somewhat) are a lot less stable, and kind of thin-sounding. And I have to play a lot of low D’s in this solo (the highest note is a middle D, so yeah, it would be eminently playable on an A). It also doesn’t have a tuning slide – which is not the end of the world per se, because in the eight bars of pennywhistle that occur in this piece, there’s almost nothing else going on (two other people are playing whole notes, and they can tune to whatever my pitch centre is); but playing in tune with myself is…difficult. Although the scale of the instrument itself is fine, I think.
There are a lot of slow airs played on the whistle.
I had heard of this, and accordingly I’m pretty surprised not to be able to find anything online or in books about how to deal with that side of things. That Youtube link: So pretty. So, dropping the pitch at the ends of phrases deliberately seems to be a thing that people do…interesting.
If I say or have said anything ludicrously ignorant, I apologise, and it just goes to show how much I need help, because I don’t know anything. ^^;
Oak whistles can be a love or hate relationship. I like them personally. They have a rather unique sound which some people describe as buzzy. They are somewhat tunable. The plastic head can be adjusted up or down on the metal tube to set the basic pitch. Once set, the scale is pretty good. Sometimes you have to soak the head in warm water to loosen the head to make it move at first. The procedure for making a whistle tunable is described here: http://www.chiffandfipple.com/tunable.html Then tune your whistle to the first octave G or A note.
Also you can try the 'blue tac" or “poster putty” tweak to strengthen the bottom D. The tweaking method is described here: http://www.chiffandfipple.com/tweak.html
Or you can use the search facility at the top of the page to find posts explaining these.
I still think you might consider an A whistle if you have to play a lot of low D notes. It just puts the range of your performance into the sweet part of the whistle’s overall range. There are a few tunable A whistles which should play well and not cost a bunch. Perhaps something like the Susato Kildare medium bore A. A dixon polymer in A could work as well. Both are tunable. You don’t have to spring for an Abell or O’Riordan blackwood concert whistle for your first performance.
As for Slow Airs, they can be tough to play well. There is a deceptive complexity involved. The links I posted are good examples of what’s possible. Joanie is a great player and a great teacher. I picked her because she does let the pitch drop at the end of some phrases with good effect. It’s like she is singing a song. And that’s what it is, really. I could have picked examples by James Galway on whistle and that would have shown other techniques. I’d suggest you listen to some more Airs. Spend some time watching good players on Youtube or elsewhere. You are a musician. Emulate what you hear, practice what you see and then “use the force”. You’ll do fine.
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Just kidding.