Whistles don't have to be round!
-
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2014 7:40 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Whistles don't have to be round!
Found and old piece of hexagon tubing in my garage. It came from a floor lamp. I thought "this would make a real cool whistle if it would work". Well it does!
Keyed in A. The tone is a little too airy but it works and is pretty well in tune. Some notes are still a wee bit flat but I will tweak it as I go.
Keyed in A. The tone is a little too airy but it works and is pretty well in tune. Some notes are still a wee bit flat but I will tweak it as I go.
- Feadoggie
- Posts: 3940
- Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2005 11:06 pm
- antispam: No
- Location: Stout's Valley, PA, USA
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
Cool piece of work you've done there.
Right, whistles do not have to be round. You just need to contain the air column.
In fact, it is hip to be square.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ranjit/12711872143/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4-ndIBbzHI
Of course, Daniel Bingamon has tried it all .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5oiLaID93g
And on a more (or less) artistic level ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC7TSM3oeN4
You'll know that you've got it bad when every pipe and hollow object you look at can be seen of as a potential whistle.
Feadoggie
Right, whistles do not have to be round. You just need to contain the air column.
In fact, it is hip to be square.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ranjit/12711872143/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4-ndIBbzHI
Of course, Daniel Bingamon has tried it all .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5oiLaID93g
And on a more (or less) artistic level ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC7TSM3oeN4
You'll know that you've got it bad when every pipe and hollow object you look at can be seen of as a potential whistle.
Feadoggie
I've proven who I am so many times, the magnetic strips worn thin.
-
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2014 7:40 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
Yeah. I accidentally ran over my aluminum framed fishin net with the lawnmower. As I was walking the remains to the garbage I thought "a piece of this frame might make a cool little whistle." So on my work bench it sits.
- Feadoggie
- Posts: 3940
- Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2005 11:06 pm
- antispam: No
- Location: Stout's Valley, PA, USA
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
Well it sounds like you are on your way down the slippery slope. There's no cure I am afraid. At least I have not discovered one. Just make more whistles.
Have fun.
Feadoggie
Have fun.
Feadoggie
I've proven who I am so many times, the magnetic strips worn thin.
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
Very nice !!
How is the finger-action, closing on a "flat" facet, rather than a round tube ?
trill
How is the finger-action, closing on a "flat" facet, rather than a round tube ?
trill
-
- Posts: 43
- Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2014 7:40 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
The flat surface is comfortable to play. easy to close the holes. It is just a little more airy than I would like. I'm going to fool around with the airway and see if I can improve it. I also need to clean it up and paint it. At least the fipple area. It is steel and leaves a metallic taste.
- Mr.Gumby
- Posts: 6628
- Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:31 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: the Back of Beyond
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
Although sharp edges, square corners and turbulence are things that require consideration.Right, whistles do not have to be round. You just need to contain the air column.
My brain hurts
-
- Posts: 562
- Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:30 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 12
- Location: Ohio
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
Especially when the tubes are large drain pipes!You'll know that you've got it bad when every pipe and hollow object you look at can be seen of as a potential whistle.
“When a Cat adopts you there is nothing to be done about it except put up with it until the wind changes.” T.S. Elliot
- whistlecollector
- Posts: 493
- Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 3:29 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Somewhere between Here and There.
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
Yep. And yet organ builders have been making such things as square whistles for a thousand years or more...Mr.Gumby wrote:Although sharp edges, square corners and turbulence are things that require consideration.Right, whistles do not have to be round. You just need to contain the air column.
The whistlesmith can either fear turbulence or work out a way for it to give musical shape to the sound.
Overton!highwood wrote:Especially when the tubes are large drain pipes!You'll know that you've got it bad when every pipe and hollow object you look at can be seen of as a potential whistle.
By the way, I like the appearance of that octagonal whistle!
Cheers
-- A tin whistle a day keeps the racketts at bay.
-- WhOAD Survivor No. 11373
-- WhOAD Survivor No. 11373
- Mr.Gumby
- Posts: 6628
- Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:31 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: the Back of Beyond
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
The whistlesmith can either fear turbulence or work out a way for it to give musical shape to the sound.
And that why I said it needs consideration, at a minimum.
Arguably the air column inside an organ pipe playing the one note differs a bit in it's response to one that is required to play a scale of two octaves so there are different things to consider.
My brain hurts
- whistlecollector
- Posts: 493
- Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 3:29 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Somewhere between Here and There.
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
Yep! I wasn't disagreeing with you at all! Just noting that master craftsmen have been "considering" the problems of square whistles and how to make them sound beautiful for a very long time!Mr.Gumby wrote:The whistlesmith can either fear turbulence or work out a way for it to give musical shape to the sound.
And that why I said it needs consideration, at a minimum.
Arguably the air column inside an organ pipe playing the one note differs a bit in it's response to one that is required to play a scale of two octaves so there are different things to consider.
And yes, the tone holes are things that organ builders don't generally have to worry about at all!
Cheers
-- A tin whistle a day keeps the racketts at bay.
-- WhOAD Survivor No. 11373
-- WhOAD Survivor No. 11373
- brewerpaul
- Posts: 7300
- Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2001 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: Clifton Park, NY
- Contact:
- Mack.Hoover
- Posts: 943
- Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2001 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: Clifton Colorado
- Contact:
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
...nor do they need holes.
...or a fipple.
...or straight.
...or even a melody.
...and did you know a whistle with no holes will play all the notes a bugle does?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iA9NYzLfr8
...or a fipple.
...or straight.
...or even a melody.
...and did you know a whistle with no holes will play all the notes a bugle does?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iA9NYzLfr8
- whistlecollector
- Posts: 493
- Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 3:29 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Somewhere between Here and There.
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
Neat! You can get neat effects by blowing through a flexible microphone gooseneck -- sans microphone & wire, of course!Mack.Hoover wrote:...nor do they need holes.
...or a fipple.
...or straight.
...or even a melody.
...and did you know a whistle with no holes will play all the notes a bugle does?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iA9NYzLfr8
Yep -- all wind instruments have the ability to play a characteristic series of partials. Some more than others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-ZLgsq_nSg
On most whistles I can reliably get the first four or maybe five: D d a d' f#'. Not much use for bugle calls, which would generally require partials 3 through 6. Though on your narrow bore d, I can get one or two higher than that, and without piercing eardrums and shattering windows! Of course, on the whistle we can cheat by venting one or more 'octave keys' to help the higher partials sing more clearly: that f#' requires (at least on the whistles I tried) three 'octave keys' to be vented: 1, 2 & 4. No such help on the bugle, which is why its range is so limited.
Once you get over to the french horn or the baroque trumpet, you're playing among the eighth through 16th partials, and even higher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa2vzx-aNrw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPl2LUq-vpw
Cheers
-- A tin whistle a day keeps the racketts at bay.
-- WhOAD Survivor No. 11373
-- WhOAD Survivor No. 11373
- tin tin
- Posts: 1314
- Joined: Tue Jun 25, 2002 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: To paraphrase Mark Twain, a gentleman is someone who knows how to play the spoons and doesn't. I'm doing my best to be a gentleman.
Re: Whistles don't have to be round!
There's a Boehm flute maker who creates flutes with square tone holes: http://lopatinflutes.com/SquareONE.htm