I've found that playing a heavy low D can be taxing on the hands and fingers. As a remedy to that stress, I've cobbled up a knee-rest to carry the weight. The idea was to support the weight without occluding the barrel (which flattens the pitch). I call it my "garage-scrap-special" . . .
As a bonus, it adds a great deal of roll stability, freeing up finger dexterity to focus on the notes.
Tell us something.: Whistling for 8 years after 40 year break from oboe, not enough puff for that anymore. Play gigs, sessions and for own amusement, though not cat's.
I found my MK slippery which, being a heavy whistle, was a job to keep in the correct position. I stuck two small squares of butyl rubber pond liner on the underside where my thumbs rest which did the trick and very unobtrusive.
I find that losing grip on the whistle to be a problem for me, too. I've been trying to keep the picky on the 6th hole and that's seemed to work well, but I may try putting something like this together for myself.
Tell us something.: I like whistles, flutes, lyres, cittern/mandolin/bouzouki family instruments, as well as heavy and nasty slap bass. Languages, linguistics, history (especially Migration Period and Bronze Age Europe), cuisine from various parts of Latin America, chili growing, bushcraft, and the works of JRR Tolkien also tickle my fancy.
farmerjones wrote:I find that losing grip on the whistle to be a problem for me, too. I've been trying to keep the picky on the 6th hole and that's seemed to work well, but I may try putting something like this together for myself.
I have found that for myself it works best to put the pinky on the whistle shaft beneath the lowest hole. It doesnt get in the way of any of the holes, and you can lift it up when you are playing on holes where the instrument is stabalized. Eventually it gets to become a reflex where the pinky just goes down when you are playing in a way that requires it. Everyone has their own ways of doing things, though.
I really should get into that habit. I've found with the low Eb that I made that I can't do that on some notes on it comes out very flat. I'm sure other whistles are going to be the same way too.
