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Preferences for half-hole or cross-fingerings for C natural

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 1:26 pm
by greylarsen
I don't often visit these forums, so would someone be so kind as to point me to past threads that discuss the half-hole fingering for C-natural, and players' preferences for this fingering vs. cross-fingerings for C?

I'm particularly curious about such preferences among players of whistle music from non-Irish traditions, such as Scottish, Breton, Galician, etc.

Many thanks!

Re: Preferences for half-hole or cross-fingerings for C natu

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 2:06 pm
by fatmac
I'm only a beginner, but I tend to use oxx ooo (on a key of D whistle).

(I play non ITM.)

Re: Preferences for half-hole or cross-fingerings for C natu

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 4:10 pm
by Tyler DelGregg
I almost always use OXX OOO, and half hole for some airs. I tend to avoid playing whistles that can’t do a decent OXX OOO. I play Irish Trad and other eclectic non Irish music, especially Scottish and Appalachian, including Renaissance/ Medieval.

Re: Preferences for half-hole or cross-fingerings for C natu

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 4:19 pm
by fiddlerwill
I use both approaches depending on tune and position of note. Plus vaying fingering for c nat depending on whistle key and feeling.
Be adaptable and flexible.
Cheers

Re: Preferences for half-hole or cross-fingerings for C natu

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 7:57 pm
by ecadre
When I was a kid, no-one ever told me about such things as cross-fingering C naturals, so I half-holed away happily.

Much, much later I discovered cross-fingering the C natural, or rather I sort of became aware that it existed, and then came across someone who used it all that time.

These days I really don't think about it all that much. I tend to half-hole, but occasionally I'll cross-finger (depending on the whistle it seems, this is the trouble with these things) if it means an easier fingering pattern. I never try to cross-finger the top C natural (or equivalent on whistles other than D).

I play a lot of non-Irish stuff, but English and Scottish tunes aren't all that different to the Irish ones (oh, and the Welsh, we always seem to forget the Welsh).

Re: Preferences for half-hole or cross-fingerings for C natu

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 8:05 pm
by jiminos
I tend to use OXX OOO. The are a few tunes in which I half hole. But, mostly cross fingering. I play whistles with thicker walls. The cross fingering works really well on my Susato, O'Brien, Parks and Oz. It seems to work not as well on my Feadogs, Generations and Dixon Trad.

I play mostly trad. Some contemporary stuff. American folk.

Re: Preferences for half-hole or cross-fingerings for C natu

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 10:00 pm
by tstermitz
I originally used OXX OOO, but changed to OXO XXX when I started playing flute, for which that fingering had better tone. Even after getting a keyed flute, I never learned to use the C-nat key. (By the way, it's an 8-key Firth, Pond & Co, which I love).

I suffered a little bit building up speed for some note sequences. But, that pales in comparison to playing in flat keys on the flute.

Irish mainly, but occasional songs & pieces.

Re: Preferences for half-hole or cross-fingerings for C natu

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 5:45 am
by pancelticpiper
Coming from the uilleann pipes to whistle and flute the crossfingering came as second nature.

Crossfingered C natural can be bent, cut, pat, and rolled, so it's hard to know what advantage there would be to half-holing C natural.

Though on flute and whistle I do half-hole C natural in the common phrase that occurs in the 2nd octave B-C-B. Seems to be called for there.

Now some will say that crossfingered C natural sounds weak. Some drill C natural thumb-holes in their whistles to get a pure clear loud C natural. But I accidentally acquired a Low Whistle with the C natural hole and I've compared the C natural got from that hole with my usual crossfingered C natural and they're pretty much identical in pitch, volume, and timbre.

BTW I was a Highland piper before I became an uilleann piper. When I've played Highland pipe tunes on whistle the C natural issue doesn't come up, because you get the Highland pipe scale on whistle starting on A and using the open C#.

Re: Preferences for half-hole or cross-fingerings for C natu

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:35 am
by PB+J
Just a beginner here. I find it hard to wrap my head around half holing at speed, whearas cross fingering now seems extremely natural. On the whistle I play the cross fingered note does not have the same timbre as the other notes, and the half holed C sounds better. I’ve been trying to half hole instead of cross fingering but it’s not going well. At my age I don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good, so will likely stick with cross fingering