No this isn’t a face off 
I’m just enquiring if anybody out there can give me some idea of what a Fife is, and is it similar to a whistle in terms of playing one. I recently listend to Othar Turner & The Rising Star Fife & Drum Band…and my whistle doesn’t sound like a fife, so I’m wondering if I should get one 
I’m certainly no fife expert, but I’ve seen 'em and recently picked up a cheap one at a Colonial American re-enactment festival.
Basically, a fife is just a smaller, higher flute. It’s a trans flute (blow hole that you blow across, rather than a fipple flute like a whistle).
It’s got six holes though, and the basic fingerings as far as I’ve been able to tell, are all the same as the whistle. My fife is Bb, and I’d say the hole size and reach are pretty close to a Bb whistle as well.
I’m not sure about any advanced cross-fingerings or upper octave stuff. I’m having a heck of a time getting the embrouchure right to even get a steady scale out of it without jumping up or down an octave or two.
Tristan is on the money. I have a couple of fifes, although I wouldn’t call myself a “fifer”. The distinctive thing about a fife is that it is typically played in the second and (ouch) third octaves. The idea being to shatter the eardrums of the opposing army, and thus win the battle. They’re also great to take along on wild dog roundups.
crookedtune, thanks for the chuckle. Oops, maybe you were serious about fifes being good for shattering the eardrums of opposing armies and for wild dog roundups. In that case, sorry (but I still think its’ funny).
How does a fife differ from a piccolo?
A piccolo is typically keyed in D, and a fife is most often in Bb, although C was used in Revolutionary War times. All are fingered exactly like the pennywhistle. For anyone interested in having a go, the Sweetheart Pro D whistle can be ordered with an interchangable fife head. I’ve got one, and have messed with it some. The whistle’s so good, though, I tend not to have patience with the fife. (Not that it’s bad…I just haven’t gotten the embrouchure for fifing yet). Of course, you could argue that being in D, the Sweetheart is more like a piccolo than a fife, so I guess it comes down to semantics. Is Walt Sweet lurking here and willing to comment? 
crookedtune, thanks for the great information.
In South Dakota there’s a drum and fife corps that gives concerts in the Black Hills periodically and also marches in parades. I heard that some of the fifers played piccolos instead, and I wondered what the difference was.
I just wanted to throw in the concept that there is more difference between a fife and a piccolo than just their diatonic key; a fife has a narrower bore, and a louder, more shrill tone than the piccolo, and is generally played exclusively in the second and third octave and rarely, if ever, in the first.
A piccolo is merely an octave flute; like the flute, the instrument is designed to be played in all three octaves.
The fife was a traditional military signalling instrument; I have read that on a cold morning, an (American) Civil War era fife could be heard for more than ten miles.
–James
Your right, James. It’s actually a bit more complicated than just which key you’re in. And in fact, there are hybrids that could accurately use either name. A good example is the McDonough “concert fife” currently being manufactured by Cooperman in Connecticut. This fife has a larger and profiled bore, and is meant to be used more in the first and second registers, typically to play more complex parts as well as harmonies with the standard military fifes. Many of these have extra holes for chromatic playing also.
My long-unanswered question is, why did the fife, whistle and piccolo fall from popularity in American folk music? Is it because they became associated with military activities? Did they just conjure up bad thoughts and memories? More’s the pity.
The fifes played by the late, great Otha Turner are a different thing than what most of us think of (and most of you have described). Otha’s fifes were made from cane, and had 5 tone holes and a two octave range. He made all the fifes he played himself, using a heated metal rod to drill the holes.
Obviously, Otha’s music and instrument came from a different tradition than the military one that today’s Ancient style fifes and fifers do, though there’s a bit of overlap in the repertoire.
Thanks for all the info folks having looked around it seems fife’s tend to be more expensive than whistle’s, so I’ll have to save up for a while, which might not be a bad thing cause they seem to be more difficult to play than whistles too
Gavin,
A cheap way for tryout as to whether you’d like to play a transverse flute/picolo/fife, is via a Yamaha YRF-21 so-called fife. It is actually a recorder/flute hybrid, around £5-50 in the UK. Tape up the thumbhole and the first hole from the blowhole and it plays just like a standard six holer as do most recorders.
Hope this proves useful
Bill.
Another cheap way to give it a go is with a hardwood fife by Al Fontana, of Little Woodwinds. You can pick one up for under $25 US, in a number of keys and woods. I was impressed enough to buy a D in Teak, and a C and F in Sissoo wood. They’re fantastic for the price!
http://stores.ebay.com/Little-Woodwinds_W0QQssPageNameZstrkQ3amefsQ3amesstQQtZkm
More good ideas, but my wallet cant take them all I’ve just started adding to my whistle collection, so perhaps next month