Sitting here at work, I started thinking about Baroque music, possibly buying a rec#&*er for it (I even went so far as to look up the fingering chart for sopranos), and then I wondered if anyone has tried cross-fingering sharps and flats on the whistle. My mind obviously has a tendency to wander at times. I tried searching the board, but the search engine found no hits. I cross finger on certain flutes, so I think it is theoretically possible…but does it work as well on the whistle? Before someone says “why not just half hole the notes?”, I’ll simply state this is just pure whistle science for it’s own sake!
This question has grown in importance by the minute since I’m trapped at this desk all day with no access to an electronic tuner to see if the cross fingerings are close enough to work, and I’m pretty sure the whistle would carry just a tad to much over to the next cubicle which might get me killed…
I would be surprised if anyone hadn’t tried cross-fingerings. In my experience they depend on the particular whistle. The general rule seems to be: the wider the bore in relation to the length of the whistle, the more sensitive the whistle is to lower holes being covered and the more amenable it is to cross-fingerings.
Here are a few classic ones:
Hi g# xxo xxo (good; works on many whistles)
low g# xxo xxx (rarely good)
f-nat xxx xox (not very reliable)
XXOXXX works well for Bflat in the upper octave on many whistles, too.
Some conical-bore whistles are a little more amenable to cross-fingering. Jon Swayne says that his lower whistles offer quite a few. I haven’t tried any of his below C, so I don’t know.
I’ve often wondered how the one-key flute is different from the later flutes. I can’t get many cross-fingered accidentals at all on any of my severla keyless flutes, but the traverso can cross-finger everything except the Eflat. Anyone know?
Chas - I can’t recall the hole size on your flutes. I can’t cross-finger very much on my Seery, but it has whomping prattenesque holes. My Dixon does pretty well with several of the cross-fingerings Bloomfield listed above (thanks for the reply - I’ve just honestly never thought to try cross fingerings on the whistle until today), but I do have to lip them up and down. I think the transverso does so well with the one key and cross fingerings because of the very small hole size and their placement is optimized for chromaticism.
BTW - I really want a baroque flute, but marrital strife would ensue if I bought one so close on the heels of my Seery acquisition. I must wait patiently, bide my time, and strike when a sudden tactical advantage arises…
Flutes are krazy things. It’s a combination of hole sizes and bore configuration. Later flutes were built around a different set of compromises, that is more power, more “in tune”. You can’t have your brioche and eat it too.
Baroque flutes btw, have the most complext bores, with different slopes in the cone, perturbations, the works!
Some half holing seems inevitable. Here is what I use on a Silkstone and a rose. It doesn’t fit with various finger charts one can find on the web. Note that bb is not a misprint. Curious.
D XXX XXX
D# XXX XXx
E XXX XX0
F XXX Xx0
F# XXX X00
G XXX 000
G# XX0 XXX
A XX0 000
Bb X0X XX0
C 0XX 000
C# 000 000
d XXX XXX
d# XXX XXx
e XXX XX0
f XXX X0X
f# XXX X00
g XXX 000
g# XX0 X00
a XX0 000
bb XX0 XXX
c 0XX XX0
c# 0XX X00
d’ XXX X0X
d#’ XXX 0X0
e’ XX0 0X0
g’ XXX 000
It isn’t too hard to play in the key of C ( half hole F) and key of F (cross finger Bb and half hole F) on a D whistle.
Yes! Which also opens up d-minor/d-dorian. For example, I used to play the Maids of Mitchelstown in “e-minor” on a C whistle, but I like it better on a D-whistle with d-minor fingerings (in particular, a half-holed f-natural). Peter L turned me on to this.
Wow Brian, thanks for all that info. That will keep me busy for a while. Do those fingerings work on flute also?
Hey Bloomfield what fingerings do you use for e-minor? A lot of the blues tunes I used to play on guitar are in e-minor.
Im with you on the baroque flute Eric. I want one realy bad but I got to get control of myself. I think I will make it my newyears resolution; only one new flute in 04. So I only have to wait till January. Heck maybe Ill give it to myself for my birthday.
E-minor is related to G-major. That means, you only need to half-hole/cross-finger the c-natural, which you are used to doing, anyway.
If you are going to through in some blue notes, though… I guess in e, that would be esp. the d-flat which you can half-hole in the upper octave (xxxxx/, the slash being a half-hole) and which you can achieve in the lower octave by covering all holes and half of the bore-end. It hasn’t occured to me, though, to try to play blues on the whistle.
Except that, in jazz and blues, minor is hardly ever “natural” minor. More often, it’s akin to harmonic or melodic minor. In which cases you’ll already need Eb/D#… if you’re lucky and don’t get these special “gypsy” minor modes. It’s a “sensible” issue in any other minor mode than Eolian. I don’t know any comfortable fingering for harmonic minor scales on a whistle.
I have to go out and shovel horse poop right now before it snows but
oh boy this is going to be fun. I never thought about covering half the bore Bloom, your not pulling my leg are you?
These are the times when my lack of musical knowledge drives me nuts.
And zoob how is the Rango comming along. Remember you can only use 2 fingers.
Never! Me? Preposterous notion that ever I would do such a thing. In fact, here is a little add-on tip: you may find it awkward to cover the bore with your pinky: dip the whistle onto your knee at an angle. Really, it works.
Oh yes, i can get C#/Db and C by covering the end of the tube with my pinky. But since i have short fingers, it’s not very quick, and i haven’t found a good application for this skill yet (better just jump the octave).
Bloomfield is quite right; pinky with high whistles, knee with low.
Not that I’d master it enough for a roll on bell D, though it’s precisely there it could be useful to practice it…
Btw, isn’t this odd half-holing standard practice with the xistu (Basque tabor pipe)?
