I suddenly am having trouble hitting the high A and B on all my whistles. I never had this trouble before and I wonder where it could have come from. I can make the notes come out, but I really have to blow harder than normal. Any ideas?
Caitlin
Not saying this is what’s happening in your case, but often this is the result of subconsciously anticipating those notes being quite loud and possibly screechy, thus underblowing to compensate. I’ve been through this phase myself and have seen it many times among players. This also is an issue if you’re bouncing back and forth between several whistles with varying air requirements, especially on the high end. You never get used to any whistle. Try concentrating on only one whsitle for a while until you get used to hitting those notes and become accustomed to that whistle’s personality.
I’ve also seen this happen with players who once blew from their abdomen with a nice, steady flow (which is as it should be), then for some unknown reason start blowing from their throat. Concentrate on blowing/pushing from yout gut/abdomen with a conistent flow of air and see if it helps.
Depending on the whistle, you might indeed have to blow quite a bit harder to get those notes. Try to have an experienced whistler check them out for you.
Make sure there is no condensation in the windway.
If you’re not doing it already, add a little bit of tonguing to start those notes. You may want to start by adding a LOT of tonguing to get them to speak, then gradually reduce it until you find the right amount to get the note to sound clearly, but not too staccato.
Give up the smokes…Maybe you only THINK you’re blowing harder 
.
Mick
I have a feeling this is what I’m doing. When I was playing with a band it was never a problem as I wasn’t so concerned about “waking the neighbours” with my loud, Abell whistle. I have less of a problem on my Feadog and it’s a much softer whistle in general.
Thanks for all the replies!
Caitlin
Decades ago a fiddler I knew in Australia made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, went to find Frankie Gavin, went straight up to him and asked for a lesson. Have to admire the Antipodean directness! Gavin was probably too taken aback to refuse… anyway when I asked my friend what “God” had told him, one of the most memorable injunctions was “get used to making a lot of noise”… i.e. stop being timid.
This seems to be the issue here - perceptive comment from Ballyshannon. In beginner or intermediate whistle classes, early on I have students learn a slow air that repeatedly returns to long high a and high b notes - very often they have a fear of these notes, and this helps them overcome it.
I’ve never heard of this before but I’ve done it for years. For a sustained high B (on a D whistle) try playing with just the B hole open and pinch the top hole tighter than usual. For some reason this works for me without reaming the wax out of my ears.
Pinching harder is what I do too. Besides anticipating the screech of a high note, perhaps you’re shying away with your fingers as well. When I have to make a big interval ending on high B, I have to concentrate on pinching harder.
You could always try the Australian technique on one of MT’s new C/D combo whistles. The Australian method makes high notes easier to play because, due to the quantum acoustics effect, they’re actually lower.