I started with pipes too, but I’m having a hard time imagining playing a High D whistle with piper’s grip, if we define “piper’s grip” meaning using the middle-joint pads of the index and middle fingers on both hands.
I just tried it on my Feadog D and my fingers don’t really fit that way- they’re pressing against each other.
Well, it’s not the same piper’s grip as is normally done on Low Whistles, because the high whistle is so much shorter and the hands are coming at the whistle straight rather than at a downward angle as they do on Low Whistles. So, to use the middle-joint pads of the index and middle fingers means also using the middle-joint pads on the ring fingers, on my High D.
The caveat is that “piper’s grip” as usually done is completely different on the upper hand, between Highland pipes and uilleann pipes. Most Highland pipers use the end-joint pads of all three upper-hand fingers. It was this usual Highland piper’s grip that I transferred to whistles, rather than the usual uilleann piper’s grip.
I did see that some prominent uilleann pipers don’t in fact use the usual uilleann piper’s grip on the upper hand, but an upper-hand grip more like the usual Highland one.
And, a large number of Highland pipers use the middle-joint pads on all three upper-hand fingers; once again this is different from the usual uilleann piper’s grip.
To diagramme all these things, using M for middle-joint pad and E for end-joint pad:
usual Highland grip:
E
E
E
M
M
M
E
2nd most common Highland grip:
M
M
M
M
M
M
E
Usual uilleann grip:
M
M
E
M
M
M
E
Usual Low Whistle so-called piper’s grip:
M
M
E
M
M
E
Usual High Whistle grip:
E
E
E
E
E
E
