Technique questions from a new practicioner

[Anglorfin]

First of all, glad to be here

I know I probably sound stupid because it's right after St. Patty's day and you all must be thinking, "Well give it a week or two, his enthusiasm will die down." But I assure you this is something I've wanted to do for a long time. So what is essentially a long and complicated story ends with me buying a pennywhistle and beginner's book from my local music store.

For only three days now I've practiced more or less 5 hours total each day. I've practiced everything in the book and more. I've started to do research onine about whistles and all that stuff and really feel like I am going at lightning speed through the beginner's to new-intermediate levels. I'm not exactly new to music however this IS my first wind instrument.

One of my questions then is; could someone please point me in the direction of some good material for intermediates? Or perhaps just sites with general lessons?

A few things though. I feel like I have not gotten a few of the fundamentals down. A big problem for me is how I hold the whistle. I find it hard to maintain a steady grip without the whistle slipping, resulting in me fingering wrong. I usually remedy this problem by gripping a little harder but after so many hours of playing each day it leaves my right thumb very tender. Is this normal or should I just keep experimenting with how I am holding it?

Another thing nagging me about whistle terminology is the word, "breathy". I've seen it a hundred times on many sites today but still have not found a good explanation for what it actually is. I think it might have something to do with how easy or hard a whistle is to play. And I assume that it has something to do with how easy it is to sustain a note through breathing. Can someone please give me an example of "breathy"?

[AlonE]

welcome to the forum!!

A good page for all the levels is: http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/

all the very useful ornaments, definitions and personal recommendations are detailed.

as far as the form to take whistle, single you must relax, to be very calm and to maintain it with the minimum possible force, with the thumbs smoothly without applying much force, single so that she does not fall, I have touched hours and hours and never the hand has hurt me. You must relax whistle not bite you whistle is your friend !

I to define “breathy” can have several meant according to you occupy it, but whistle is used generally to describe the sound as one, that in this serious case a very windy sound or rather burdens.

I wait for helped you!!! cya!!

[Adrian]

welcome to the forum!!

A good page for all the levels is: http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/

all the very useful ornaments, definitions and personal recommendations are detailed.

as far as the form to take whistle, single you must relax, to be very calm and to maintain it with the minimum possible force, with the thumbs smoothly without applying much force, single so that she does not fall, I have touched hours and hours and never the hand has hurt me. You must relax whistle not bite you whistle is your friend !

I to define “breathy” can have several meant according to you occupy it, but whistle is used generally to describe the sound as one, that in this serious case a very windy sound or rather burdens.

I wait for helped you!!! cya!!

Which translator do you use? Perhaps you should write in Spanish as a lot of people speak it and it would be easy for someone to translate. Es dificil entender lo que ha escrito en ingles. Si escribe en espanol alguien podra traducirlo en ingles. Gracias por intentar escribir en una lengua extranjera.

[Adrian]

A few things though. I feel like I have not gotten a few of the fundamentals down. A big problem for me is how I hold the whistle. I find it hard to maintain a steady grip without the whistle slipping, resulting in me fingering wrong. I usually remedy this problem by gripping a little harder but after so many hours of playing each day it leaves my right thumb very tender. Is this normal or should I just keep experimenting with how I am holding it?

Another thing nagging me about whistle terminology is the word, "breathy". I've seen it a hundred times on many sites today but still have not found a good explanation for what it actually is. I think it might have something to do with how easy or hard a whistle is to play. And I assume that it has something to do with how easy it is to sustain a note through breathing. Can someone please give me an example of "breathy"?

Welcome!

Where are you from?

How to hold the whistle:- Stand or sit upright and hold your hand in front of you. Blow a stream of air in front of you and find it with your hand. That is the perfect angle to be blowing into your wind instrument as the air should be blown directly into the instrument, although to be kind to your arms you can drop your head and arms a little. At this angle your whistle will not slip and your throat will be more open which can improve breath control. Your thumbs should not hurt as there is no need for a death grip on the poor whistle. Relax your arms so that elbows hang loosely down otherwise some of the tension in your arms will be transmitted to the wrists and fingers and affect your playing.

Breathy:- This is the non musical sound that some whistles produce. Put the wrong end of the whistle in your mouth and blow gently. The sound of you hear of your breath is a 'breathy' sound. Clarks have quite a breathy sound and many whistlers like it including me. Other non-music sound (i.e. it has no discernible pitch) in a whistle is called chiff which is also desirable by some whistlers.

[Cynth]

I think this is a good website for intermediate learners:
http://www.whistlethis.com/index.php?co ... dFpRPT0%3D
The main thing is that you can listen to a mentor play the tune you are learning that week---so you can hear how it should sound when played in the traditional Irish style----maybe this isn't what you are after, but if it is then you have to hear someone play the tune, you can't get it from the sheet music alone. Even better, you could learn the tune by ear just by listening to the mentor play it. There is a lot to explore there, but if you click on "Current Tune", you will see what the main activity is.

Pain when playing an instrument is a warning sign that something is wrong. Five hours is a lot of practice time and a lot of sudden, new activity for your thumb. Be careful not to cause an injury to your thumb which would prevent you from playing at all. As AlonE and Adrian pointed out, relaxation is extremely important. Do not grip the instrument more tightly. You must find another solution to the problem.

These links go to some discussions about ways of supporting the whistle, either with or without the pinky. If your pinky is too short to help support the whistle, you can often keep your ring finger on the bottom hole when playing higher notes as long as the pitch of the note is correct. You have to read through the discussions carefully because they are a little confusing at times.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... old#632601
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... ky&start=0
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... ky&start=0

[Anglorfin]

Word, thanks to everyone for the links. I spent most of the day at whistlethis.com reading stuff.

I am hoping that my grip problem will slowly correct itself. As my thumb hurts more it forces me to hold the whistle more loosely. I remember when I first started guitar. I'd play all day until my fingers were visibly bruised, then play just as hard the next day. But for guitar my fingers needed to learn the strength. I'm finding that training like that is pretty irrelevant to playing a whistle.

It's hard to shake off the background I have in stringed instruments. I think that's where my problem stems from. I apply too much force with my fingers as if I wanted to "strike" a note like a piano. And instead of lifting them straight off I do this wierd pulling thing as if I was playing guitar. I think I have a lot of stringy habbits that I need to work though if I ever want to be graceful about playing the whistle.

I just thought of something else actually. My hands and especially my fingers are ridiculously calloused. I wonder if this is why I have to grip so hard in order for my rigid skin to cover the holes.

[Cynth]

You should be lightly covering the whistle holes with the pads of the endmost segments of your fingers, not with the tips. Your fingers will curve just slightly in a natural way, but not in the way they curve when you are playing a chord on the guitar and have to avoid laying your finger across certain strings. They will be really almost flat, not stiff, but flattish compared to the curve you would have playing guitar chords. I don't know if your guitar callouses would extend to the pads of your fingers---my ancient memory seems to recall that my callouses were more on the tips of my fingers and that they wouldn't interfere. But your description makes it sound like you have callouses all over. Maybe hand lotion would help in that case. I just wanted to make sure that you weren't using the very tips of your fingers to cover the holes which would cause you to curve your fingers way too much. I guess if you were pressing down more than one string at a time or doing barre chords you would get callouses on your finger pads. Oh heck, I don't know .

See how Bill Ochs (on the left) is using the pads of his fingers and the guitar player is using the tips more? That's all I'm getting at. But I can see that the guitar player is using the pad of his index finger, so...

It is quite difficult for most of us to get the holes covered when we are starting out and beyond that even. It really isn't that easy a thing to do, at least for me. You will just swear they are covered, but there is some little leak somewhere or you move something just a bit. Your callouses might be a problem, but I would also say that you haven't been playing that long and so you would expect to still be having difficulty. Just go very slowly when you practice and your fingers will eventually learn. Don't press your fingers down harder if you don't have the holes covered. Move your finger to the correct position. Don't squeeze the whistle.

I would caution you against hoping that your sore thumb problem will cure itself. Read the links about holding the whistle and then teach yourself to hold it in a relaxed way. Tension is an automatic response to learning something new and it actually takes a lot of concentration to locate and get rid of tension.
http://galaris.com/modules.php?op=modlo ... =0&thold=0

[Anglorfin]

Unfortunately for my whistling career my callouses aren't solely from playing guitar. I have a number of other hobbies that cumulatively make blocks of wood out of the underside of my hands. I do play with the pads of my fingers but even then I have this wierd ridge of calloused skin right in the way. But whatever. If old Irish farmhands could play this thing then I must be able to.

The main thing I have to stop doing is "hammering on" the notes. That's probably the reason for all the pain.

Thanks for the link once again. I read the other one that somebody posted earlier about relaxing and I think it helped put me on the right road. I'm trying to pay more attention to having a lighter touch.

[DCrom]

Unfortunately for my whistling career my callouses aren't solely from playing guitar. I have a number of other hobbies that cumulatively make blocks of wood out of the underside of my hands. I do play with the pads of my fingers but even then I have this wierd ridge of calloused skin right in the way. But whatever. If old Irish farmhands could play this thing then I must be able to.

The main thing I have to stop doing is "hammering on" the notes. That's probably the reason for all the pain.

Thanks for the link once again. I read the other one that somebody posted earlier about relaxing and I think it helped put me on the right road. I'm trying to pay more attention to having a lighter touch.

I've noticed that too much pressure can lead to a worse seal than gentle pressure.

My biggest problem when I started playing low whistle was bad seals, and of course I tried to solve the problem by gripping tighter . . . Once I learned to relax my death grip, things went much better. And a more relaxed grip halps your speed, too - it's really hard to play a fast tune when you're gripping the whistle like the rope in a tug-of-war.