Chiff and Fipple Forums

pancelticpiper wrote:Seeing these square whistles reminds me of these
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9LBckOHeYs

I've tried those whistles in "Import" type stores and as a musician who's picky and liking the store I was in, I had a talk with a local owner of one, about 15 years ago now, that since musicians would find his supply of wind instruments very "hit and miss" for musical quality, and that he'd just get stuck with the unsold duds anyway, that he mention to his makers in South America and Asia that he was only interested in taking on instruments that played very well, and in key. The prices were all mostly below $45, apart from the Tibetan bowls, so he could either attempt steady sales or end up with dusty whistles and flutes that he'd eventually throw out.

The exact type in that video, is common on that store, I like their tone, and the store has about 6 types of wind instruments, some made of block wood like that and some out of bamboo. Many of the block wood ones seem to be made of a heavy tight-grain wood (a version of rosewood?) that would allow a windway/blade area to be carved out with precision. Years later now, I've gone to that store dozens of times since and the wind instruments (and hand percussion) are just about guaranteed to be nice sounding through their full note range. The owner also added a couple racks of "world" type music CDs and it's a real musician's library. I wish I could afford to walk out with a few Tibetan bowls, but that will have to wait some time longer.......

RoberTunes wrote: Congrats, Sedi, on the square whistle tone and playability! Very very nice work!

Having Nathaniel play it alongside a McManus establishes a high standard of comparison and really shows the square whistle as having appealing tone with a lot of clarity, character and control. It's probably going to contribute to the expansion of WOAD symptoms this website induces once you put a coffee maker in your basement and offer those rascals for sale.

Thanks! I was slightly shocked, when I saw Nathaniel playing my whistle alongside a McManus. Then I thought "well, it seems at least I got the tuning right" and I also thought maybe the recording makes them sound more similar than they are in real life?

RoberTunes wrote: The exact type in that video..I like their tone...the block wood ones seem to be made of a heavy tight-grain wood...

Yes those are Tarkas, from Boliva, carved out of what appears to be cedar. They're not in cane, the cane ones are different flutes such as Kenas, Mosenos, and Sikus.

I had a set of Tarkas that I hand-picked to be right in tune with each other.

You play them in groups with different sizes, playing octaves and 5ths with each other.

Their repertoire is as far as I know unique to those. (A tune they play is called a Tarkeada/Tarqueada.) They have a one-octave scale and have a strange tuning unlike any other Bolivian flutes as far as I know. You play them in a marching band, with snare drums. Each type of Bolivian flute is played in its own unique ensemble, the mixing of different flutes in folk groups is a recent thing, I think.

Here's a better recording, you can hear that though they have an odd scale they're quite in tune with each other

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avNSF6bSy-E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQgYAhfGO8E

Now, that professional stage stuff is well and good, but here's the real Tarqueada, in the street, with dancing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1xNFvEmXpA

Finally managed to upload a short clip:
https://youtu.be/8sy6vBtzAzA
I will do some more videos with that whistle soon. It's my favourite whistle at the moment. But I think I need to make a version with sligthly smaller holes to bring down the volume a little. It's not "session killer"-material but still louder than most others I made. But that was the point. I think the combination with a much wider windway made a huge difference. Now I only need to try the combination of wide windway and slightly smaller holes for the upper three at least.

Thanks for the video Sedi. Very nice!!! Best wishes for continued success with your design.

Thanks very much! It seems, I'm getting there, just need to balance the end of the 2nd octave a bit more. But it's basically just the C# in the 2nd octave that is a bit too loud and there is not that many tunes that even go that high. "City of Savannah" is one that I like to play for instance.