I play Gaelic trad guitar and would like to take up an instrument better suited to learning tunes on.
I played tin whistle as a child and have a Michael Burke tin whistle but trying to learn it again is driving my wife mad. Therefore I need to come up with an alternative. I was wondering if there is a comfortable way of playing the tin whistle at a more suitable volume.
I love the sound of the low whistle and Irish flute so I would be interested in these also as an alternative. Is the low whistle a different monster with respect to the tin whistle?
You could try a Parks Every Whistle which has a volume control and can be played at full bore or at a whisper (I’ve got one on order).
A low whistle is a very different beast to a high whistle as regards air requirements and fingering can be difficult at first and practically impossible if you have small and/or slender hands.
The every whistle works well - I take with me on travels - but you can always just stick some blu tak (poster putty in US) in the window to adjust volume. Low whistles may not be so shrill in upper register but still make noise… You could buy your wife ear plugs or make her walk the dog during your ‘practice’.
There’s also a Dixon SV (soft voice) and Shush tweaked Generation and Clare High D whistles. Not as quiet as the Parks but may be of interest. Available from Big Whistle Music HERE
I don’t really have this problem anymore where I live but in this situation, I just get a short strip of that white crepe tape, a bit longer than the mouthpiece window. Then I lay the tape on the window so that it covers most of the window - you can leave just a millimetre or two of the window open if you want to really mute it to where only you can hear it. You get an increasingly windy or breathy sound as you cover more of the window but you can still hear the notes all the way to the top, which is good enough for basic practise, as long as you don’t get frustrated by that quiet, windy tone. The other thing is that the breath pressure required to produce the notes remains the same which is important. You have to lay the tape lengthways along the window and not across it.
You might want to start with a lower pitched whistle such as a Generation Bb. Once you have the feel of that, you’ll probably find that you can control the D whistle better and not have it sound as shrill.
If you’re just playing by yourself, this is the best advice. This puts things in a range that folks and animals with sensitive ears can bear. If this wouldn’t have been mentioned, I would have suggested learning to play a low whistle or a flute. A flute can play very quietly if you want it to.
Clarke whistles (especially the natural ones) are softer and easier on the ears than whistles with a plastic mouthpiece, and also very inexpensive! If you have a bit more to spend, try a wooden one from Tyrone Head. His are more flutey and very quiet.
I’ll second brewerpaul: a lower whistle can be way easier on the ears. I often practice on a Generation Bb, and for real quiet (and a sweet tone and easy upper register) on an O’Brien copper Bb. My mezzo A Burke is wayyyy too loud for quiet practice.
