Hi. I've never played a whistle with a thumb-hole for c-natural, but I'm wondering if it can be used (uncovered slightly) to make the 2nd octave easier to hit and sweeter sounding (like on a recorder).
-Brett
C-natural hole for 2nd ocatve?
- brewerpaul
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- peeplj
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I have a whistle (a Hoover) with a C-natural thumbhole.
It works as advertised (produces a perfectly-in-tune C-natural in both octaves), but I've not found much other use for it.
It will not act as an octave vent like a recorder's thumb hole. I believe this to be because of its altered location on whistle vs recorder, and because of the bore differences between the two.
There is one other use for the C-natural whistle thumbhole: like the long C key on a flute, you can vent it to bring a sustained C-sharp up to pitch. On whistle this isn't as big a deal as it is on flute, because on some flutes the second octave C-sharp is quite flat.
--James
It works as advertised (produces a perfectly-in-tune C-natural in both octaves), but I've not found much other use for it.
It will not act as an octave vent like a recorder's thumb hole. I believe this to be because of its altered location on whistle vs recorder, and because of the bore differences between the two.
There is one other use for the C-natural whistle thumbhole: like the long C key on a flute, you can vent it to bring a sustained C-sharp up to pitch. On whistle this isn't as big a deal as it is on flute, because on some flutes the second octave C-sharp is quite flat.
--James
http://www.flutesite.com
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- Thomas-Hastay
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The Whistle and the Recorder are "apples & oranges". The Whistle has a cylindrical bore and the Recorder has a tapered conical bore.
The Whistle achieves register changes by overblowing and the Recorder by cancellation of the fundamental register using the thumbhole pinching technique.
Because the Whistle has a cylindrical bore, it becomes progressively flat with each register change (phase-shift) but it has a greater range. The Recorder uses the tapered conical bore to compensate for flatness in the upper registers but is limited to 2.5 octaves.
The Whistle achieves register changes by overblowing and the Recorder by cancellation of the fundamental register using the thumbhole pinching technique.
Because the Whistle has a cylindrical bore, it becomes progressively flat with each register change (phase-shift) but it has a greater range. The Recorder uses the tapered conical bore to compensate for flatness in the upper registers but is limited to 2.5 octaves.
"The difference between Genius and stupidity, is that Genius has its limits" (Albert Einstein)
thomashastay@yahoo.com
thomashastay@yahoo.com
I have been playing whistles for over 40 years and I have never played a whistle whose range exceeds 2.5 octaves, mostly only up to third octave's mediant.Thomas-Hastay wrote: ...........
The Recorder uses the tapered conical bore to compensate for flatness in the upper registers but is limited to 2.5 octaves.
C thumbholes are good for D tubes except that you can not piper grip with your left hand properly. If that is not an issue for you I would recommend the thumbhole without qualification. I have one on my Irish flute and tape over it when I need to play music with full pipers' grip.
qui jure suo utitur neminem laedit