Hi,

I'm a newbie whistler and have just bought a Shaw Soprano D whistle and find the c# and c natural don't sound normal. I think the c natural is too sharp.

Has anyone else had this problem or am I just worrying over nothing and it's just normal for the whistle to sound like this.

It's ok if I play the c with only half covering the first hole but not when I have only holes 2 and c covered.

Appreciate any answers on this because I'd rather get it changed sooner rather than later.

Peter H

Hi Peter ... welcome! Since no one else has stepped in yet ...

Your whistle is probably just fine. The "standard" C cross-fingering oxx ooo is just a suggestion, not a rule. Different whistles may require a different fingering for that note.

You can try these as well: oxx xoo and oxx xox

[ If you're not familiar with that notation, imagine that you're looking at the whistle with the mouthpiece to the left. o = open hole, x = closed hole. ]

Either of those will flatten the C-natural slightly, and may result in a better-tuned note.

Of course, you can also half-hole the C-natural, as you described.

Also be sure you're not blowing too hard. That will make the note go sharp, and the C-natural is very susceptible to breath pressure.

Good luck, and enjoy your whistling!

Thanks Guru, appreciate the help.

I'll give those other fingering methods a try. The half hole method doesn't come too naturally at the moment so need to give it a bit of work.

Hello and welcome to the board Peter. MT's suggestion should work, but I might also add that another technique commonly employed on whistles is having to go easy on the breath pressure to flatten and slightly harder to sharpen individual notes. This breath pressure adjustment is an integral part of playing whistles and the sooner you get used to employing it, the better. After a while (especially on cross fingered notes like the c nat.) you'll be so used to adjusting your breath pressure, you won't even thik about it.

hi ,i have a shaw D too. if i use the fingering oxxooo, the breath has to be a little weaken,or the C-nat would be too sharp.\

In not reduce the breath of premise,i found a well fingering to play C-nat, it works well!! like OxxxxO.

you can try it,go for all of SHAW whistles,excpet E and Eb----who still use oxxooo.

good luck!!

I've found that with my Clarke Original C as well (have never played their D). oxx xoo seem to work fine for me. (2nd octave C-nat is something else entirely on *any* whistle, at least for me... but probably to be expected.)