Still a newbie, and now in possession of a Clarke

[Dog Whistler]

First, a confession. I haven't been practising for about a month. I've been hibernating, instead. But I just started again!

Second, a kindly soul gave me a Clarke Original tinwhistle for Christmas. It's this one: http://www.clarketinwhistle.com/original-tinwhistle with the tapering tube and the wooden fipple, and the diamonds painted in between the holes. It's much softer and a little quieter than my Feadog (don't know if it's a Feadog Mk 2 or 3) and D is much easier to hit with much less concern over breath control. However, I do find the holes are more difficult to locate than on the Feadog - the edges seem to have a much lower profile - so now I'm missing D and E for a brand new reason!

I have read that as a beginner one should avoid wooden fipples until you know what you're doing and can diagnose a whistle that needs tuning. Also, I'm reluctant to switch whistle while I'm still learning, especially if I'm finding D easier on the Clarke, which could mean I'm not learning proper breath control on the Feadog.

So, should I investigate getting the Clarke tuned? And at what point should I feel confident in picking it up?

Cheers

I might add that the softer Clarke doesn't seem to upset the dog quite as much, which must go in its favour!

[Mr.Gumby]

Just play the whistle you feel most comfortable with at the moment. Don't worry too much about 'tweaking' (which is, I assume, what you mean) if you feel the Clarke is playing half decent. It's probably not the best idea to switch between two so different whistles while learning. On the other hand, do what keeps you motivated, it won't kill you either.

[ytliek]

Practice is the only way you'll get where you want to be on the whistle.

[s1m0n]

Your Clarke is fine. It's entirely up to you which you play: the conical bore Clarke provides a firm contrast to the sound of a tubular bore whistle. I love it. It takes more air and until you try to play a flute it'll feel like it demands way too much air, but a relatively small amount of persistence will get you to a state where you never notice the air demand again. When I was a novice my primary whistles were a feodog in D and Clarkes in C and D. I played the first two most often; although by that time I had the whole Generation 6 whistle range to choose from, as well as a whole bunch of other D tubular whistles.

When you progress to the point that you feel fairly fluent, and (especially) if you've had a chance to try other people's whistles and have had a few more experienced players put the wind up yours, it'll be time to worry about how yours sounds in comparison to others. This is the time that it's useful to consider tuning/tweaking an individual whistle. Until you get to this degree of proficiency, you won't be able to reliably tell an OK whistle from a good (or even great) one, and you'll improve faster if you focus on you rather than the whistle.

If you're having fun playing in the first few years you'll buy a wide range of whistles, only to discover that you almost always play the same one or two and ignore the others. Don't fight this; that's exactly what you should be doing. Now is the time to fine tune an instrument and play it so much it becomes an extension of your brain.