I’m new to this forum (and in a way new again to the world of whistle-playing, having given it up 10 years ago when I met my wife-to-be, a definite non-whistle player and whistle non-appreciator, non-plussed by whistle nonsense.)
Some friends of mine from years back invited us to stay with them a couple of weeks ago as there was a beer festival in the their town, and the offer seemed too good to miss… but when we got there it turned out to be a folk festival with beer in it. I was happy … my wife less so, but now I’m back home I haven’t been able to forget those jigs and reels. They’ve been haunting me, dragging me back into the world (and the new world wide web) of traditional music.
All well and good, but to be honest, the only way I’m going to feel comfortable actually playing whistle around the house again will be if I manage to find or create a REALLY QUIET whistle, so that my wife and I carry on in married bliss.
Does such a thing exist ? (a quiet whistle that is)
The absolute ideal would be a whistle with headphones !
I’d never seen that until now, but I am going to try it.
What I’ve been doing until now is using play doh on my Mellow D. You roll it up into a little ball and then flatten it some and put it over the windway. You use a piece of something straight (I use cardboard cut out) and make the new edge perfectly straight. It changes the volume DRASTICALLY if you do it right. I do it because the upper notes hurt my ears if they’re not extremely quiet, and with this they are.
I suppose you could mabey let the play doh dry, and it would be permanent or semi-permanent, but I like playing with play doh so I do it over and over and over. It gets sloppy because I don’t let it dry (LOL, that sounds so bad) but I don’t care.
Okay…silencing a whistle is FAR EASIER than I’d ever imagined. I’ve done the fancy schmancy, but this past week, staying in B&B’s where people sincerely might not have wanted to listen to my practicing but being utterly without anything I thought I could use, I devised the ULTIMATE easy mute for the whistle.
I took a piece of gum, chewed it, and wadded a piece of that onto the blade of a Gen.
The next day I did it without chewing, just folding up a piece of gum, tearing off the end and pressing it in place.
Forgive me, but I think you’ve completely missed the point. What Tim wants is not a whistle quietener, but a quieter whistle. i.e. he is an incipient victim of WhOA, though he may not yet realise it.
We Chiffers need to offer him the wealth of our knowledge about whistles that spouses cannot object to, and will positively encourage our their other halves to spend hard earned cash on.
Soon Tim will have a flood of quiet whistles arriving in Fed Ex packaging, and all will be sweetness and light in the Tim household.
Tim (welcome to the board by the way),
Mack Hoover makes a lovely range of quiet whistles, I believe. The Noah Herbison Laughing whistle (folding model) is also very quiet.
Several makers have a special narrow bore model (e.g. Susato make a VSB or very small bore) which is designed to be quieter than their regular whistles.
Another possibility is to get a whistle in a lower key, I would suggest you try a Dixon low A or G. These lower tones will have less wall penetration than a high D, or at least be less offensive to the ears while in the hands of a re-beginner.
These are my offerings, but I know there are quiet whistle specialists out there who can do better.
BTW, there is such a thing as an electronic chanter, that is, a practise pipe for pipers which is silent & has headphones, but we could not find an electronic practise whistle in the same style.
Noah Herbison’s “laughing” whistle, telescopic model is what i use most of the time when i want to be quiet. It was quite a job getting this whistle, though; i’m not sure he even makes them anymore. I heard many good things about the Hoovers too, in the quiet whistle department.
Or, if you have children in your home, just take a normal whistle, and make a little “wall” of play dough right in front of the slot, right in front of the airstream. This makes any whistle very quiet without changing the sound or the way it feels. Works for flutes too.
So much for silencers… what i really need is a LOUDENER!
The quietest whistle I own is a Hoover narrow bore - and it is truly, truly quiet…It takes very little air, and quiet conversation can drown it out…I don’t think Mack’s order back-log is large… Possibly now would be the time to order…
Best.
Byll
I just got an Elfsong wide bore E, and I have to say…I love it.
It’s not what I’d term ‘quiet’, but it is very mellow and agreeable, even to be a high E, and the upper notes don’t pierce my ears AT ALL, and don’t have that sheer blow you away-volume, the way they do on all of my D whistles. I love this whistle. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it.
E is an odd key for irish music, but very popular with modern music and most guitarist love playing in E. I’d like to get one, but I think I am going to get the Low E (the Eb is high enough for me), if anyone has one or a suggestion of a good Low E, let me know.
I miss it too, it rocks.
I don’t know if you can dig Pascal’s language, Bloomfild, but if you do, try this fiction: “La disparition” * . Among various things, it told about an Anton’s Vowl guy vanishing. Fun is, if you wasn’t told, you don’t spot what’s missing. Actually, a vowl lacks, but you may track it down hiding in this book.
My quietest whistle is, without a doubt my Hoover Whitecap (nicknamed “Whisper”), followed closely by my O Briain “improved” and, slightly louder on the spectrum, my Elfsong D. I can play any of those and my family scarcely notices me unless I hit a REALLY sour note. If I take the Hoover into a closed room, nobody in the rest of the house can hear it at all.
Both of these whistles tend to clog if not warmed up because of the small opening in the mouthpiece, that is what makes them quiet. If they are properly warmed up, I have very little clogging problems but if I play them cold, then they do clog. If they clog then I place my finger over the window lightly and give a quick forceful blow and it clears it out and I keep on playing.
Thanks for all those marvellous sugestions, I’m definitely going to try some of these (although I haven’t yet as I’ve come down with a cold and haven’t been fit for anything).
How’s this for irony though - I may not have a quiet whistle, but I’ve completely lost my voice !
