My kids know that I suffer from a serious case of WHOA and decided to buy me a gag whistle for Christmas. They saw a store selling- American Indian handmade - bamboo whistles for next to nothing and bought me one. They stuck it in my stocking and when I received it - I wasn’t really impressed. Large holes - all the same size - equally spaced down the pipe. Blew into it and heard large amounts of air and little note character. Looked in the end and could see only a little of the plug was glued. We had a good laugh and they left for a little while to visit friends. I went to my shop and sealed the plug with 5 min epoxy. When it dried I cleand out the airway and found that this “gag” whistle was very mellow and had a very nice tone up through high D.
I checked and found that it doesn’t really play in a “key” but it still manages to sound great and for a solo instrument it will be my favorite just to play around with. It is very forgiving … and is hard to overblow.
My kids couldn’t believe the change … and their gag gift turned out to be one of my best gifts ..ain’t life strange
I have three of these gift store wood instruments. One I picked out myself, the other two were gifts. None of them would be called in tune, and only the one that I picked out makes somewhat pleasing sounds. Even that one I can only tolerate for a short time. I do keep them, but do not play them. It is the thought that counts.
Mine may be out of tune ( LOL) but it is out of tune in such a way that playing songs with D fingering is pleasing to the ear. I would not attempt to play it with our praise team but my wife (who plays the keyboard) likes it and my daughter (who sings and plays the flute) does as well .. and both have very good ears and are trained musicians.
I have other whistles ranging from cheap to expensive and find that the quality of the instrument does play a part in the sound that comes out of it but every once in awhile you just get lucky. I also have a great whistle that I couldn’t get anything out of when I bought it because I was lousy on the whistle but I kept playing. Now .. would you believe …I am only moderately bad
I purchased one as well just because I thought it would look nice as a whistle-like decoration. When I first played it, it sounded horrible but I noticed the faults in the sound and went to tweaking. It now sounds great with the exception of a very weak “high D” (I’m not sure what key it is if it even is in one).
Now not only does it look interesting but it has a pleasing sound to it as well.
If it’s a “real” native american flute it is probably tuned to a minor pentatonic scale. Some of them, even the inexpensive ones, sound quite nice, though they are often not in concert pitch.
