I have very little idea of the physics of either the tin whistle or the uilleann pipes and I’m prepared to get torn apart after posting this but…
Would it be possible to make a tinwhistle with uilleann pipe fingering? I know the are similiar to begin with but would it be possible to have a tinwhistle with the thumb hole in the back and 7th hole in the front for the pinky?
I’ve looked around for such a thing but haven’t found any information which leads me to believe that its either:
No reason the basic fingerhole layout couldn’t be reproduced, I’d think. But … why?
The back D wouldn’t have a particularly distinctive sound as on the pipes. You’d want to adopt piper’s grip on the top hand, even on smaller whistles - which could be awkward. Since that’s usually not done, even on larger whistles, the thumb hole ends up in an awkward spot. With the thumb that high in standard grip, you lose leverage for crisp articulation of top-hand ornaments.
As for the bottom hole … Seems to me it’s motivated mostly by on-the-knee closed fingerings. And there’s no way you’d want to do that on a whistle without first bending into contortions and then knocking your teeth out. Besides, some closed fingering effects can be emulated on whistle with breath articulation, which is of course not available on the pipes.
As a sort of practice chanter whistle, I suppose so (and this has been done, no?). But bag and bellows and closed chanter are at the heart of piping, and a whistle chanter doesn’t seem to attract much interest among pipers. Besides, pipers seem to be able to move back and forth to whistle without confusion, and treat each instrument on its own terms.
As a sort of practice chanter whistle, I suppose so (and this has been done, no?).
The fingerings of whistle and the Irish chanter are founded on two totally different approaches. Non-legato fingerings would not be available on the whistle and therefore the whole concept is useless as a means to practice the pipes.
I’m kinda with MTGuru - why? It would not behave like a pipe chanter. Song of the Sea of Bar Harbor, Maine used to offer an uilleann whistle. It may have been made by Eddie Damm, himself a piper. I don’t know much more about it than that. Sadly, Song of the Sea has closed their retail store. They do still have a website but I don’t see the uilleann whistle listed there. It might be worth sending them an email. I am sure if you search the Uilleann Pipe Forum that you could learn more about that whistle and possibly others as well.
Plus, I just discovered there’s a very basic physical acoustical problem - by end-stopping my Gen D with a big wad of blue-tack and having at it.
First, the whistle continues to sound even with xxxxxx and everything closed. And there’s no light amount of breath that can prevent it from sounding. Because an open fipple is not an airtight reed and cap that can be completely stopped. Any hope of closed fingering is completely futile.
Even worse … The stopped whistle behaves acoustically as a closed-end cylindrical pipe. Which means that it wants to overblow to the 12th, not the octave (exactly like a clarinet, for the same reason, with the ends reversed). Thus rendering any hope of playing into the 2nd register useless.
So there’s another part of the answer to the OP’s question.
Besides, some closed fingering effects can be emulated on whistle with breath articulation, which is of course not available on the pipes.