Sealing the holes

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Constance
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Location: Ashland, OR

Post by Constance »

Dr. Giggles (Frank) just brought up a subject that is quite a mystery to me, namely "sealing the holes". I mean aren"t the holes just holes drilled in the body of the whistle? And if these holes are not all jagged and rough and have sharp edges then the covering of these holes seems like the responsibility of the player. I hear statements like some holes are hard to cover and I suspect that the player is not using the soft fleshy part of their finger to cover them with. It seems to me that the biggest problem is in covering the holes in Low whistles, especially low Ds because of the stretch. And when players use the pipers grip and their fingers are all stretched out to reach the hole, their fingers are not relaxed and pliable which does not make for an easy and complete cover.
My solution is to use the soft fleshy pads of the first joint and I use the little finger to cover that most difficult 6th hole.
How bout some feed-back on this issue?
Constance
Wandering_Whistler
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Post by Wandering_Whistler »

Constance:
It sounds like to me that you're using a fingertip/pad and pinkie combination for playing lows..if I've read your description right, then as near as I can determine, I would be the only other person on the list that seems to advocate this playing style whenever the topic arises. Glad to have the company! :smile:
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raindog1970
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Post by raindog1970 »

My Silkstone alloy high D has beveled finger holes which makes it very comfortable to play, but it can be a bit tricky to get a good seal sometimes because I have very small fingers.
The subject came up in a thread about Dixon whistles, which is a mystery to me because my Dixon has no such beveling and it is almost effortless to get a good seal even with my little fingers.
I hear Thom is planning to stock Dixons in other keys very soon, and I plan on buying a couple more of them because I like my high D so much.
bsykes62
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Post by bsykes62 »

Hey I'm a pinky player, too! It works for me and I love it. :smile:
Constance
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Post by Constance »

Hey guys, welcome to the pinky clan!!!
I see nothing wrong with using this wonderful little finger to cover a hole with.
I mean like, HEY its part of my hand, why not use it?
Constance
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