Hi all whistle tweakers and makers, I have a question for you…
I have a thick walled (low D) whistle which has small diameter finger holes. What effect would it have if I widened the finger a little holes on the outside of the whistle? I dont particularly want to change the tone, its just that I am used to bigger holes for bending (and to be honest finding) the notes.
Knowing me I would probably be too cautious to mess with things if there is a risk to an otherwise fine whistle, but it would be interesting to know the answer.
Actually the real answer is probably to learn to use the small holes properly…
Hi Phill. The location of the hole affects the lower octave, and the size affects the upper octave. If your whistle plays fine best to leave the tone holes as they are.
My advice is . . . DON’T.
You would probably make all the notes go sharp while the bottom note would stay the same pitch. Result: An unusable whistle. Sell it and buy one with larger fingerholes.
I never intended to make the holes bigger ‘all the way through’ though. I was more thinking of increasing the hole on the outside of the whistle to say a third of the thickness of the wall and leaving the inside two-thirds unchanged. (I am not sure of the engineering term for this - in wood I think of it as counter-sink).
I wouldnt want to sell the whistle - its a nice one. I wouldnt want to risk messing it up either. Its just a bit frustrating when I miss that a change 'cos the holes are small, and I cant feel them (yes, practice, practice, practice). Bending notes is a little more tricky as well.
Part of my reason for asking is just to learn. I’m curious. People tell me that quite often
Countersinking the holes will cause less turbulence and improved efficiency, and could therefore very easily raise the pitch.
Make a whistle from pvc-tubing first and experiment.
Now, this is me being ignorant here … but wouldn’t a smaller holed whistle normally have a higher back pressure (other things being equal) than a larger holed one? I thought back pressure was to do with the wind channel, and stuff like Rabaiotti’s (or whatever he’s called) narrowing thingie … or something … ? You know, where the wind channel tapers upwards, or some such …
emtor is very correct here. The sound waves don’t give a hoot how big the holes look to you, they care how big they feel to the air moving thru them. If you start with a very sharp edged cylindrical hole, to the air the hole will feel smaller because the air can’t make the sharp corner. Think of yourself running down a hallway and making a 90-degree turn into another hallway without slowing down. You have to swing wide of the corner. Same with the air. Turbulence at the sharp corner will make the holes “work” the same as smaller holes with a “kinder” corner. If you simply radius the corners a little bit the note will get sharper because there will be less turbulence and thus more air can get out of the hole before things reverse.
If your playing is “visual” you can apply a dot of white-out between each hole as a marker or color code the dots with tempura paint. If your playing is “touch sensitive” you can do the same with thick paper punched dots glued on with rubber cement. both “tweaks” are non-destructive and can be easily removed. Here are some examples of Bainbridge Flageolets with this feature…
Thankyou Thomas - the touch sensitive version certainly sounds interesting. I am getting used to the small holes slowly, but might try the ‘braille’ version. My problem is mostly for B3 finger - which oddly enough I over-reach as often as under-reach.
$.02… if you are playing more than one whistle… try playing only one whistle for a goodly while. this will facilitate your muscle memory for the B3 finger. eventually, with enough practice time, your finger will just “know” where to go… (if you are playing more than one whistle at this early stage of your playing, your fingers may not be getting enough time with the whistle to “memorize” where that itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny danged hole is hiding.)…$.02
