Hi There,
I spend a bunch of time in hotels and have been trying to locate a quiet whistle for the obvious reasons. The Clarke with the wooden fipple is about as good as I have found, but I’m hoping that there is a whistle out there specifically designed for low volume practice. I am aware of a few tricks like blowing sideways into the mouthpiece and stuff like that, but I have a hard enough time as it is. I tried to seach this site, but came up with nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. John
Try Mack Hoover’s Brass Whistles at http://home.bresnan.net/~mackhoover/ordering.htm
or Laughing Whistles at http://members.tripod.com/nherbison/?
Both are very quiet.
Hi John,
From what I know, Mack Hoover makes the quietest whistle around, specifically for playing when people are sleeping nearby and such. He also makes loud/regular whistles-so you should probably specify. Here is his address. If it looks like something you might be interested in, e-mail him with your questions-Mack is a great guy.
http://home.bresnan.net/~mackhoover/
Good luck and Happy New Years!
-W
Go with Mack.
Another quiet option is the alba Q1.
Specifically Mack’s very narrow bore brass whistle. He’ll know what to suggest when you talk to him.
Another option is to keep the whistles you have and practice with the technique of holding the fipple against your chin and blowing down into the windway. This is very, very quiet, but very effective. You may find it hard to discern the difference in octaves at first, but it is surprisingly easy after you get used to it. Joanie Madden uses this for quiet practice.
Just politely tell your whistles to…be quiet!
Dixons are fairly quiet.
My ultimate quiet whistle is a Feadog… that I tried to tweek and irreversably screwed up… so I got rid of the entire blade, all the way to the tube…! What I get is a very very very very light whisper. Not very attractive sound, but great for working up finger memory when you need the ultimate quiet whistle , and it works in both registers still. That’s my travelling whistle, never got banging on the walls since… 
The Hoover small bore gets clogged very quickly. It doesn’t stop me from playing it. You just need to get used to clearing it often. It has a great sound otherwise.
One of the most useful tips i learnt on this board is how to regulate the volume of a whistle by taking some Blutak (sticky putty for hanging posters on your wall) and placing a small bead of it in the window of your whistle. By the way you place it you can reduce the volume right the way down to a whisper. Fantastic tip and works much better than tape.
Thank you whoever first mentioned it.
The easiest way to get a quiet whistle is to take your current cheapie, take a piece of tape, and put it over part of the windway. Try it. Move the tape until you get the sound you want. I put it vertically over 1/2 the windway. Using this technique I was able to play a Gen in a hospital room and not wake the woman in the neighboring bed.
I’ve also used a small wad of unchewed gum stuck on the blade, and a toothpick in the mouthpiece.
I must say that the Granite Falls high D was a "peaceful "whistle.
Phil.
I find that a paper clip standing vertical in the windway does
the trick.
I’d like to see a picture of that befor I try it. Sound DANGEROUS…
Bob Z.
I have 2 quiet whistles, and a sneaky suggestion.
Whistle 1: O’Brien Bb with the open windway. Sweet sound, and comfy finger spacing (for me)
Whistle 2: Sweetone head with a homemade copper body in A. I used TWCalc to get small, close tone holes. It doesn’t get even moderate volume 'till the third octave.
Suggestion: Phil Farkas, legendary french horn virtuoso, lived in hotels for much of his touring life. His trick was to just play, but to have the TV or radio on as well. Even in swank hotels, if it was a decent hour for TV, it was a decent hour for practice. Dealing with the background noise probably helped him on stage, as well: soloists occasionally need the ability to ignore substandard orchestras.
Chiffed, that’s a great suggestion!
Sometimes when playing session the level of background noise can be pretty stiff–the ability to “filter” that out when playing is both valuable and necessary.
Also I’ve found playing for weddings tends to be pretty noisy–another place this skill has great value.
–James
Sure thing about weddings. We were doing a lovely, subtle pavane at the last one when one of the groomsmen toppled into the soundboard. Bit of a clusterplop, but the tip was huge (in addition to reimbursement for busted gear).
i just got the hoover narrow bore brass d for xmass and its instantly become my favorite whistle i havent noticed any clogging problems and its got a great tone i bought it mostly for quiet practice but its turned out i like for its playing characteristics
I tried the stickytack/windway trick and it works great! It actually improved the range of my least favorite whistle, a Walton’s brass D. That stickytack is a whistler’s best friend. For $.97 I have enough for years of tweaking!
The other thing I’m doing different is instead of sanding the blade I’m using a small penknife to gently scrape the blade and the sides of the windway. I noticed the sides were not 100% smooth and perhaps sanding had left a “fur” on the blade. It sure doesn’t take much to improve (or ruin) the sound of whistle but at the average price of my newbie herd of $5 it’s part of the fun. Does the fact that I have yet to really ruin a whisle make me more dangerous???
Thanks again for all the great ideas, 'turns out I like tweaking the darn things as much as playing 'em!
Bob Z.