I’m curious about voicing whistles. What characteristics of a whistle’s sound can be affected by voicing? And just how does a whistlemaker physically voice an instrument?
What do you mean by voicing? Humming through it while playing? I’ve seen it done on a trombone, and of course on a didgeridoo…but never on a whistle…Hmmm…
Tom
The voicing of a whistle has to do with the way the air moves thru the fipple or head joint, and there are many choices involved in this voicing. The amount of air that passes thru the airway is one concern, is it a thin sheet of air or a thick sheet and how wide is the airway? Also where this sheet hits the edge of the ramp is a critical factor in the balance between registers. The size of the window is another choice as is the angle of the ramp and how much wall is around the window (to stabilize the tone). The thickness of the splitting edge is another factor. The material from which the headjoint is made also affects the sound quality of a whistle. So an aluminum whistle sounds very different than a wooden one. All of these choices put together give the whistle its distinctive tone, whether it be dark or bright or sweet or rich with overtones or breathy, etc. Basically the choices are so great and the combinations so varied, that no two makers whistes sound alike.
And I guess thats why there is such a thing as WHOA.
I hope this helps with your understanding of voicing.
Be well Ronaldo
[ This Message was edited by: reyburnwhistles on 2001-10-02 11:39 ]
Oh…Well, I still think humming through it while playing is fun! (It sounds awful, though–maybe with my low D? 
)
Ronaldo:
Thanks for your explanation. It helped a lot. Now we have another perfectly good reason for WHOA.
Bob