I was wandering through one of those cheap “import” stores today, and I came across a bunch of weird looking bamboo whistles. After trying a few, and realizing I could actually get some noise out of one, I picked it up (they were anywhere from $2 to $8 depending on the size – this one was $3).
The fipple is made by slicing the edge off of the bamboo, and blowing into a little hole (which is where the blade is) by way of the space between the edge of the bamboo and a small piece of wood wrapped around the top. I surprised the lady there by actually being able to make music with one of these things.
The low octave has a really nice sound to it – although it’s horribly out of tune in the second octave and impossible to get past high C. It also seems to cease to function when it gets too moist around the fipple.
Just wondering if there are any other kinds of 6 holed whistles made from bamboo that would give the same type of sound, and perhaps be a bit more reliable than these.
www.mid-east.com has an assortment of cane whistles, many keys from $8-$10. The one I have (low F) is a decent whistle, though I hear there are quality control issues. I plan to buy more in other keys, once I get the money.
The picture just came in for me. That thing looks funky. The ones from mid-east actually look and play like whistles (and have fingerholes that are the right sizes).
My particular whistle has much more appropriately placed and sized holes than does that one.
Here is the page I got it from, the mid-east page is sometimes hard to get around:
I was going to order a snake charmer from them, but they put it on backorder. Anyone ever play one of these things? It’s a hollow gourd with a double reed and two bamboo shoots sticking out. One shoot plays a drone note and you play the melody on the other one. The blemished one I ordered was only $10, so maybe I’ll switch to one of their whistles.
A lot of things mid-east sells aren’t of very high quality…but the whistles and flutes, being relatively simple to make, are passable, especially with tweaking. I don’t have personal experience with the snake charmer, but I’d personally stay away from it…and go with the whistle(s).
I have a D bamboo whistle, almost identical to the one in Cranberry’s picture. It was made in India, I bought it in an exotic music shop in London some years ago. It has a lovely mellow tone with no squeaks and is a great instrument to play.
I have another bamboo whistle, made in the Third world, which I bought in Oxfam, which has an extremely airy tone & is pretty useless.
They should really be tried out before you buy (if possible). Otherwise you might just get an unplayable instrument!
