Getting better tone, and other newbie questions

[Chrome-Oxide-Green]

Hello, all. I'm one of the rare Irish flute players who didn't start on whistle. A few days ago, I picked one up, assuming (quite arrogantly, it seems) that I would immediately be able to play it. I was able to play all the notes in both octaves without much difficulty, though the low octave especially took much less air then I expected. The notes that came out, however, did not sound nice. D and E in the first octave have a "buzz" to them, which I've found I can correct by blowing more softly. Second octave A, B and C, and third octave D are shrill, and almost impossible to play at a reasonable volume.

This brings me to my two main questions:
1. How do I improve my tone?
2. How does volume control work on the whistle? On flute, I can just put less air into it, and compensate for the resulting flatness by tightening my embouchure. Needless to say, this doesn't work on whistle, but perhaps there's something similar.

As for other, minor questions, I'm finding that the force of my fingers hitting the whistle when I'm playing quickly pushes the whistle around a lot. This is improving slightly, but I'm not sure what I'm doing differently. I'm gripping the whistle roughly the same way I grip the flute; thumbs on the back, bracing with right hand fourth finger. I'm also interested in any tips anyone might have for flute players starting on the whistle.

And, in case anyone wants to know, I'm playing a Clarke Meg. Yes, I'm aware that it's a terrible whistle. I'll likely upgrade if I still feel like playing whistle in a few months.

Thanks in advance!

[an seanduine]

First, the Clarke Meg is not a terrible whistle. It can be tweaked into a very nice whistle.
You might try keeping your bottom hand third finger down to steady the whistle. You do not need the same sort of percussive finger movement that some use on flutes. The whistle is a horse for a different course.

Bob

[tstermitz]

Yeah. Breath control.

Whistles don't have the dynamic range of flutes, as you describe pretty well. Emphasizing or accenting notes comes almost entirely from tonguing, or cuts, rolls or crans. Interrupting the air flow with a cut or roll and pulsing the breath at the same time does give you slightly more volume without jumping to second register.

You'll get used to the air requirements pretty quickly.

You'll also get used to the grip or slap with some practice.

Air pressure pushes the tone up or down, but you can shape the tonality slightly by mouth tightness or volume/hollowness (I hesitate to call it embouchure, but really it is part of embouchure).

Second register volume is quite variable depending on whistle design and maker. A smaller bore whistle like the Killarney has a much sweeter second register, at the cost of some overall volume, and perhaps a weaker low D note.

As the whistle is simpler, being limited in your control might actually inform your flute playing.

[Tor]

The Meg was one of the first whistles I owned. It didn't sound very good back then, so I spent a few years playing other whistles (eventually settling down on an Impempe D and a Bluebird, I choose one or the other depending on what and where I'm playing). And occasionally playing the Meg now and then, over the years. It sounds different now. It's sweet, and it's the only whistle I can, in principle at least, play in the third octave. It's a bit loud then (in particular for my slightly hearing-damaged left ear), but it isn't shrill.
I can only conclude that whistles sound better the more you play them.

[pancelticpiper]

There's no embouchure on the whistle, really. On the flute you can control the height and width of the embouchure, you can control the focus of the airstream and alter the angle at which the airstream strikes the blade, the cutting edge. On whistles these things are built into the whistle and are out of your control.

The chimney directs the airstream to the cutting edge in a fixed way. All you can do, really, is vary the force of the wind, and give the airstream good support.

Since you can't alter the pitch of individual notes by changing the angle at which the airstream strikes the blade, each note of a whistle is only in tune with its fellows at one specific level of airflow. Likewise each note has a fixed built-in timbre when blown to pitch.

So if you want a more in-tune scale, or more in-tune octaves, or sweeter high notes, or stronger low notes, or change anything else about how your whistle plays, you'll need to get a different whistle, or modify the whistle you have.

I also took up flute before whistle. Still to this day I find it more difficult to play a whistle in tune than a flute.

[Chrome-Oxide-Green]

Wow, thanks for all the replies. Interesting advice all around. I've continued playing, and I already sound better than I did. I guess now I'll only get better.

I'm starting to like the sound of my Meg, but I am curious about what tweaks you'd recommend for it, an seanduine.

Thanks for everything, guys!

[markbell]

I have found that for upper register, if I think about the air moving faster, rather than blowing harder, things seem to work better. There's probably some real technical something that explains this.

Noodling around right now, I observe that in the upper register, I do tighten my embochure a bit - maybe an old habit from playing cornet - and in lower register, my facial muscles are more relaxed.