I’m currently concentrating on learning flute (4 months in and enjoying every minute). A friend said that in learning the flute I “shouldn’t neglect the humble whistle…” and I’m not. I want to concentrate most of my energy on the flute but I can see that the whistle is a great way to get a handle on ornamentation etc. But I have a real problem in that towards the top end of the second octave I find the notes of a D whistle almost painful on the ear.
So my question is, which whistle do you think has the second octave least likely to hurt my lugs?
So far I have tried a Susato (horribly shrill and loud in the second octave to my ear), your bog standard Generation D (slightly better) and a Generation Bb (best so far). I have heard good things about John Sindt whistles, and have one on order, but what are your recommendations?
I’ll not comment on the whistle as a tool for learning flute.
If the volume of a high D is hurting your ears I could offer two whistle options. One, try a quiet whistle. I like Mack Hoover’s whistles. They are sweet as honey and have the highest giggle factor of any whistle I own. A Hoover Whitecap on a body you already own is a good place to start. Just tell Mack what you are looking for when you order.
http://tinwhistler.com/reviews.asp this site should also help with with what you are looking for. also, if you search around in chiffy, in the forum, and the actual site, you will find a bunch of good whistle reviews by dale and other fine people.
Better yet, put a pea-sized ball of poster-putty/sticky-tack/fun-tac, or whatever they call it in your neck of the woods, onto the window of the fipple. Cover about half of it, and experiment with shape and placement. The idea is to reduce the size of the window.
Any loud, strident, shrill whistle can easily become an excellent indoor practice whistle this way. I almost always play this way at home, and only remove it for playing at sessions.
Clarke is a great little indoor whistle--------ask any wife -who lives with a whistler -hands down if THEY eeevvveeennnn had a choice will pick a clarke
I think that you’ll be pleased with your Sindt in this regard. The second octave doesn’t sound much louder than the lower, and I find it easy on the ears. But if you want to play the second octave aggressively and drive more chiff into the sound, the Sindt handles that well too, all without screeching. Good stuff.
Mike
This is my solution as well. It means that when I travel I don’t have to pack a couple of quite whistles for hotels or train stations but just some stickytac.
I second the Hoover, and also recommend the Laughing Whistle, though the last I heard they were out of production.
A Susato in the second octave played indoors could be considered a weapon. It put me off the whistle for two years when I was starting out - I’d gotten sustatos on the recommendation of a performer, but he was playing outdoors and I was playing indoors. Ouch.
this man is a perfect example of -ONE an addicted whistler( which is common ) TWO, a family man ----------I getcha brother when that ictch comes and that tune sticks in your head you cant wait
Hoovers, Burkes, and O’Briens have very mellow second octaves.
However, don’t quit working on the whistles that you have entirely, either.
As you learn to tame the second octave of the whistle–which, at the end of the day, is the job of the person playing it, no matter how well the whistle is designed–the breath and airstream control that you learn will also come in handy when playing your flute.
An ordinary original Clarke tin whistle is rather smooth an not too shrill in the second octave. On the whole Clarke is still one of my favourite whistles. The only drawback is that it takes a lot of air. Buy a black D Clarke (The C model is crap!).
I’ve been pleased with a Sweetone C and with the Dixon Trad D, both are pretty smooth in the second octave and not too loud. I have a Mellow D that sounds great until I reach above the high e, then it’s a struggle. Good luck on the flute. Are you learning a regular flute or an Irish flute? Just curious…
One solution to the shrillness of your whistles could be a set of earplugs. Some people have had damage done by the higher octaves on the whistles. Somewhere on C&F is a thread with several good suggestions on specific types of earplugs for musicians.
Whistle-wise, another vote for a Hoover – mellow, quiet (if you want quiet), nice. An Alba Q1 would also fit the description. Happy hunting!
----------I getcha brother when that ictch comes and that tune sticks in your head you cant wait