i’m sure i’m not the first but i’m the first to start this thread this year. a relative just mailed me a bamboo whistle for christmas. this relative plays and teaches the silver flute. she said she had a collection of strange uniquely ornamented bamboo piccolos that were bequethed to her from someone i’m not related too. it was a bamboo whistle made in india. it actually plays at a whisper and plays a unique scale too. the mailing tube it came in rocks and will come in quite handy!
I gave my grandkids (ages 3 and 9) each a Walton LBW last year for Christmas. They still “play” the whistles with some regularity; the older one has actually tried fingering the notes. (They live far away, so they do not have the “benefit” of my limited experience.) Their mother has not yet murdered either child nor has she taken out a contract on me, so the experiment appears to be a success.
Got myself a Whistlesmith Low D for Christmas last year.
(And a Balinese suling carved into the shape of a dragon for my anniversery, an NAF in G for my birthday, an ocarina from Chile for …Independance Day, a dvoyanka in C for…um…president’s day, a carved 6-hole in C for…uhhhh…Cinco de Mayo, and one of those chip-carved ukrainian doubles with 3 holes on one side and 4 on the other for…ummmm…for…Oh, yeah, for the Hell of it! )
Most of my friends and relatives have learned to ask me before making any woodwind purchase for the holidays. It spoils any surprise, but it avoids conversations like this:
"Did you like that flute I got you?> " (meaning a South American import bamboo whistle thingie with equally sized and spaced holes all painted in reds and blacks and accented with wrappings of orange plastic cord.)
“Oh yes, it’s quite lovely. I have it mounted on my wall right now as a matter of fact!”
“Do play it for me, please! I want to hear what it sounds like!”
“Oh, um, er…alright.” [time passes] “Ok..here it is…” [sounds of hissy wind rushing through said ‘whistle’]
“Oh…”
“No, no..it’s quite alright, really! That thing was really meant to be put on a shelf or mounted on a wall…”
“Oh…”
That’s a dramatization of an actual post-christmas conversation I had with my mother once. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I didn’t even have the thing actually mounted on my wall…it had gone in the “drawer of unplayed whistles” along with the pan pipes in the key of “Rb” (That’s the key of “random flat” ) she’d gotten me from the same store.
At least once per year I get a mass-marketed CD with the words “Celtic” or “mist” in the title. Same story.
Once though, when I was a teen, my mom got me a plastic cooperman Bb fife. I put it in a drawer for years until I ordered a flute. The fife was handy for woking the embcouchure until the flute arrived, and for that I am actually very grateful. So you never know - sometimes those “instrument” gifts can be very nice .
You can get something decent as a present once in a while as Wormdiet pointed out.
For example, my parents went to Ireland and had the common sense to ask the owner of Shanna Quay what whistle would be good for an experienced player (in their eyes at least) who plays in sessions back in the states. I ended up being pleasantly surprised when I opened up a Cillian O’Briain tweaked Feadog on Christmas day.
Thinking about several other threads I’ve asked Santa for a Vargas tweaked gen D and I resolve to randomly select and purchase a gen D out of the next display that I see in the interest of testing some things I’ve said on those other threads.
LOL, I just knew someone would ask that. You’re gonna want to reach thru’ the monitor to wack me on top of the head with something (who says they have no use for a recorder?!), but the reason I didn’t say anything before is because I’m just not good enough to judge the sound yet. Whoa hit me just as I went back to college full time, so I’m still learning . (Been trying to consistantly hit the one upper octave note in ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen all week.)
For what it’s worth:
I can just barely make the reach with a regular grip (when a spread my hand out as flat as I can, it’s 7" from pinky tip to thumb tip.)
To me it sounds similar in amount of ‘chiff’ to my Clark, just maybe a little more so (or is it just the depth of the Low D that makes sound that way).
Sounds mellower than the Clark to me, tho’ that could just be the deeper pitch too, or maybe that it’s in PVC…
Nothing to say on backpressure, not enough experience to judge what is a lot.
Having a night shift Hubby I avoid loudness as much as possible, so I couldn’t tell you how either of my pennywhistles get.
<----Holding still while a Yamaha emerges thru’ the monitor—or is it a Susato?---->
)
. (Been trying to consistantly hit the one upper octave note in ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen all week.)
<----Holding still while a Yamaha emerges thru’ the monitor—or is it a Susato?---->