Second Octave C

[ytliek]

Thanks, that makes sense now.

But to return to a question I previously asked, how in the heck do you properly half-hole on a low whistle with piper's grip? Is it an up/down motion rather than left/right? Any tips or tricks in this area? Just seems clunky and awkward trying to half-hole so far, but that also could be that I've only been playing the low whistle for about a week now.

Here are some examples of piper's grip and playing low whistle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLuexTflcVc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nca0OT5e6yI

http://pipersgrip.50webs.com/

Everybody's reach or stretch is different so you will have to be patient and see what works for you. How long it takes to develop the skills is up to you. A week isn't very long to be playing anything.

[Amergin]

Thanks for the reply, I've been watching Phil Hardy's tutorials on the low whistle the past few days actually. Really the piper's grip was awkward at first but I've mostly got it down now and can play the whistle fine. To give an example, I've mostly mastered playing "The Parting of Friends" in imitation of Matt Molloy on it which is a new tune for me (I hadn't played it on the regular "high" whistle before.) My main technical issue so far is getting perfect hole coverage after lifting most of my fingers off the whistle to play a B note for example only to be followed by an E or D.

Really my problem here is just figuring out the half-holing. Again, so far going left or right or up or down with the fingers in attempting half-holing feels awkward.

[tstermitz]

@mae regarding the OXO XXX fingering for C-nat.

I happily played OXX OOO for a long time, but when I started flute, that fingering produced a fairly weak C-nat note, but the OXO XXX sounded good. So, I started working up the forked fingering on whistle so that I would have less difficulty going back and forth. On my whistles, the OXO XXX fingering sounds good, but I imagine that isn't always the case.

It turns out there are a couple of advantages OXO XXX:
- It makes C-nat rolls pretty easy.
- OOO XXX makes C# rolls possible (not quite as easy for me as C-nat - especially on flute).
- As my lower XXX fingers achieve more agility, playing the forked G# is easier.

[Mae]

@tstermitz: I didn't think about how those different fingerings would affect the flute as much since I don't play it well, but now you've got me thinking about it. I'll have to get some practice time in, first, before I try it, though. I'm okay until about halfway up the 2nd octave, then I start having trouble getting notes. I also don't have an Irish flute; mine are Hall Crystal or Chinese dizi flutes. Same principal with most 6 hole flutes, but I wonder if a good Irish flute would help my playing.

@Amergin: when half-holing, sliding fingers off sideways seems to work for me. Takes a bit of practice, though.

[pancelticpiper]

Has anybody touched on this: in ABC notation the letter "C" can stand for either C natural or C sharp- you have to look at the key signature at the beginning of the tune.

It's the same in staff notation: you don't put a # in front of every C, because the relevant # is on the far left of the staff, and you know to play all the C's that way (unless they're marked as a accidental).

Anyhow there are a few common uilleann pipe tunes that need high C natural, which is why the pipes have a key for that note. Normally the high C is proceeded and followed by high B, in other words the tune goes b c b. For those I generally half-hole the high c rather than use a high c fingering.

On some of my whistles high c natural oxo xxx is too flat and oxo xxo is too sharp and to get it right in tune I half-hole Hole 6.

[benhall.1]

Has anybody touched on this: in ABC notation the letter "C" can stand for either C natural or C sharp- you have to look at the key signature at the beginning of the tune.

Yes I did in my post above. I also mentioned that there may be accidentals as well which could affect whether it is natural or sharp.

* It's natural or sharp depending on the key signature and any accidentals there may be.

... anyhow, I also established that it doesn't really matter, for the moment, about high Cs, because the tunes that Amergin is interested in don't have any high Cs. I mean, I suppose high Cs are interesting things anyway, but they don't come up that often in my experience - partly because fiddlers and the like don't really like playing up there.

[pancelticpiper]

Really my problem here is just figuring out the half-holing. Again, so far going left or right or up or down with the fingers in attempting half-holing feels awkward.

What I do depends on the note, and which size whistle I'm playing.

On small whistles I play with the ends of the fingers, the fingers being arched, and I half-hole by bringing the end of the finger a tiny bit more inward, closer to the palm of the hand.

On Low Whistles I play with piper's grip, with the fingers slightly curved, and I half-hole by making the finger straighter, moving the finger-tip away from my body, cracking open the hole on the side away from the palm of the hand.

But on E I do it differently, moving the little finger closer to the ring finger, and cracking open the lower edge of the hole, the edge towards the open end of the whistle.

I guess I should make a little YouTube video of this stuff, which is easy to see, easy to do, but hard to verbalise. (I did it for whistle vibrato and it's so much easier just to post a link.)

I just did a Church gig last weekend where I had to do a load of half-holing, playing What Child Is This. We did it in A, so I had to half-hole G# all over the place.

Phil Hardy is really good at half-holing as you well know if you've heard him play.