Chiff and Fipple Forums

A meteoralogical music question...Why is it so hard, if not impossible to play the whistle in a strong wind? At least the times I have tried to I get little to no sound. How fast must the wind be to make it hard to play? What are the physics that cause the dissapearing sound?

OK I will take a shot at this one....but I am probably wrong.

I would think that if you are facing into the wind, the wind is going against the wind coming out of the whistle thus canceling it out.

Now, I would think that if you put your back to the wind that you would be able to play. However, if your back is to the wind, it could be that the notes are coming out of the whistle but you are not hearing it due to the sound of the wind going by your ears.

Um....yeah....that is what I think happens.

Rob

Yes, the wind gets in the way of your own, and your wind cannot hit the blade.

Some brands of whistles do better in wind than others. Wearing a hood, or hiding behind an object, turning away from the wind are all some tricks that can help.

Ugh, I hear you. You should try playing the flute in the wind--it's ten times worse. Sometimes at festivals I couldn't even get a sound to come out--boy was that embarrassing!

Caitlin

I wear a hood and hide behind objects but it has nothing to do with whistling
Sorry couldn't resist it

It's hard to play underwater too...

Nick E wrote:Why is it so hard, if not impossible to play the whistle in a strong wind? At least the times I have tried to I get little to no sound. How fast must the wind be to make it hard to play? What are the physics that cause the dissapearing sound?

Well, all acoustic instruments work on the principle of something vibrating, coupling those vibrations to the resonant part of the instrument and then to the air to produce sound. So in the case of whistle you have to ask yourself: what is it that's actually vibrating?

It's nothing obvious, like a reed or string or membrane. But the air from the windway hitting the blade sets up a series of small whirlpools or eddies of air - called a von Karman vortex street - alternating above and below the blade. This forms a virtual "air reed" that drives the sound. (Flutes work the same way, with the embouchure hole edge forming the blade.)

When a strong wind blows into the window, it destroys and dissipates these eddies as fast as they can form. So no sound. And it doesn't take much. Wind resistance will depend on the strength of the vortex street, which depends on things like the air velocity from the windway to the blade, the size of the window, etc.

The only solution is to shelter the window by e.g. turning away from the wind, covering the window, turning the head joint upside-down so the window is on the underside of the whistle. Obviously, these also reduce the sound reaching the listeners' ears. So it's always a compromise.

This is an animation of a "Von Karman Vortex Street". Thats a fancy-schmancy term for how the air works when it hits the blade edge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vorte ... mation.gif

When the wind blows across the top of your whistle, it disrupts this oscillation of air and causes the wistle to become silent. (no waves, no music dude!). You can make a simple wind shield from a thin section of plastic tubing that is at least twice the outer diameter of your whistle. A piece of double-sided tape is placed in a strip running down the bottom of this tube. Slide it over the voicing section of your whistle and stick the tape to the bottom. This TOTALLY TUBULAR whistle shield works like, WAY BAD Dude!!!

Thomas-Hastay wrote:You can make a simple wind shield from a thin section of plastic tubing that is at least twice the outer diameter of your whistle. A piece of double-sided tape is placed in a strip running down the bottom of this tube. Slide it over the voicing section of your whistle and stick the tape to the bottom. This TOTALLY TUBULAR whistle shield works like, WAY BAD Dude!!!

Heyyyyy!! TOTALLY rad tip, dude!!! i like SO woulda never thought of that!

Zax wrote:

Thomas-Hastay wrote:You can make a simple wind shield from a thin section of plastic tubing that is at least twice the outer diameter of your whistle. A piece of double-sided tape is placed in a strip running down the bottom of this tube. Slide it over the voicing section of your whistle and stick the tape to the bottom. This TOTALLY TUBULAR whistle shield works like, WAY BAD Dude!!!

Heyyyyy!! TOTALLY rad tip, dude!!! i like SO woulda never thought of that!

What a great idea. Even a rolled strip of cardboard or paper might work in a pinch. I might try the later, next time there is a breeze.

I practice in the open air.

You get weather-wise quickly. Here in the UK: South wind, good, North Wind, bad. West wind, wet, East wind, dry.

And you get so that you feel the wind on both ears to get the windway as shielded as possible. When the wind is gusting, I must look like a weathervane.

I practice overtone flute in the open air. Because the windway is towards you, you have to face into the wind for that. And hold the bloody thing up. Considering that, it ought to be possible to minimise the interference on the whistle by holding that thing up, too. I'll let you know.

There are a few things that one must really never do into the wind.

Whistling is the least problematic of them.

As mentioned above, turning the whistle head upside down helps.