Tin Whistle buttons to help with arthritis

[Terry McGee]

Hi all

Pardon my temerity showing up here with a hair-brained scheme. It may be that this is already common practice, or may be roundly condemned by experts, but hey, if nothing else, look at it and laugh! As the story linked reveals, I'm starting to suffer a bit from arthritis, and I find holding a thin tin-whistle aggravates it. So, how to thicken a whistle? Here's my solution:



If that looks of interest to you, read on at:

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Tin_Whistle_Buttons.htm

Terry

[brianholton]

Great idea!

b

[brewerpaul]

Excellent idea. I've seen a lot of very clever adaptations to musical instruments over the years to allow people with difficulties to play.

[Feadoggie]

Interesting solution.

Arthur Itis has visited my house too. And thicker walled whistles can help some. I was thinking of making some whistles with an eccentric bore. You know, hole not down the middle of the timber but more towards one side. Don't know where I could have gotten that idea though. It escapes me at the moment.

Probably came from looking into bassoon design not Terry's eccentric flute head design, which is still a good example of the method.

Earlier this week I had a discussion with a friend about the Mollenhauer Elody modern recorders and I pondered if a radically shaped body profile might be helpful as well. That takes eccentric boring and turning to a whole other level.

Rubber/eleastic bands wrapped around the tubes at strategic positions could be helpful. It is simple, inexpensive, adjustable, available. While this has the drawback of not being able to position them right where a hole is located it can still work out. After all "it seems we are not too fussy about where our thumbs go".

Feadoggie

[Terry McGee]

Interesting solution.

Arthur Itis has visited my house too. And thicker walled whistles can help some. I was thinking of making some whistles with an eccentric bore. You know, hole not down the middle of the timber but more towards one side. Don't know where I could have gotten that idea though. It escapes me at the moment.

Heh heh, that crossed my mind too, but for the amount of thickening I was looking for, it would probably end up rather heavy, which would bring its own problems! Hmmm, I could even have a C whistle and a D whistle in the same block, facing the opposing directions!

I've been trying to think of a suitable thickening approach for wooden whistles - the approach above works fine for thin-walled metal, but would be too bulky in a thicker-walled wooden instrument.

I've been planning to make myself a nice wooden whistle, but I've been too lazy. But I guess when I finally get to it, I'm going to need to find a way to thicken it!

Terry

[Feadoggie]

I've been planning to make myself a nice wooden whistle, but I've been too lazy. But I guess when I finally get to it, I'm going to need to find a way to thicken it!

I guess one could approach fashioning the "buttons" on a wooden whistle in a manner similar to how you fashion the wooden mounts for flute keys. You could leave a ring of larger diameter material in a place where you would normally position the delrin buttons on your brass whistle. Then mill the ring to normal diameter on the face of the whistle but leave it proud of the body on the rear of the whistle. Shape those to a comfortable fit for the thumbs and away you go.

I mentioned the Mollenhauer Elody less because of the way it looks as a finished product and more from how I have seen Mollenhauer fashion them in their promotional videos. It got me thinking of irregular body profiles. Of course they are using CNC milling machines to do the work. My thought was to leave the body diameter well larger than the rest of the whistle on the underside and to mill thumb holds into that. But really, that's overthinking the issue. Making a whistle with "block mount" thumb holds would be far more straight forward.

I started four whistles this afternoon but the billets I already set aside started off too narrow to try this approach. I'll have to experiment with some furniture wood before I commit a nice, larger piece of exotic timber to one of these.

Of course I could also see myself making cast silicone rubber clip-ons similar to your delrin buttons.

I was struck again today by how my son describes my whistle making. He calls it "a very expensive and involved process for making sawdust". It is sobering how much material we remove from a solid timber billet to produce a thin walled whistle tube (or wooden straws as my wife refers to them).

Feadoggie

[Terry McGee]

Yeah, I'd run into the same trouble as you - my stock wouldn't be thick enough. And I'd hate to waste all that beautiful wood by using thicker stock. But maybe gluing a bit on would be an answer.

It is objectionable how much wood we waste as sawdust, especially for keyed flutes. Lucky this stuff grows on trees! Of course, it may not always be as available as it is now, and that may prompt future makers to use a more considered approach.

[Feadoggie]

It is objectionable how much wood we waste as sawdust, especially for keyed flutes. Lucky this stuff grows on trees!

I've actually started caching the chips and sawdust from the lathes. My hope is to produce composite blanks made from the chips and dust embedded in acrylic resin. Have to invest in some new equipment first.

Feadoggie

[PCL]

Hi Terry,

There's something almost samurai in the look of that!

If it's any consolation, the great jazz flautist, Don Burrows, was afflicted with arthritis at age 38 (he's in his mid-80s now). As he said, arthritis is very bad for playing music, but playing music is very good for arthritis.

Maybe it's time to take up the pipes!

Cheers, P.

[Terry McGee]

A seasonal update....

We've had a burst of hot muggy weather here, and I found sweaty fingers made the delrin buttons a little slippery. The same could happen under hot stage lights. It prompted a little improvement which would be worth incorporating as standard.

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Tin_Whistle_Buttons.htm

[Feadoggie]

Very elegant solution, Terry. I might try my hand at fashioning a couple of those, if you don't mind.

After we last visited this thread I looked into some of the devices made for Boehm flute players by Bo Pep thinking there may be some lessons to be gained from them like materials and shape. If folks are not familiar with those devices, here is a photo.



And that led me to this pad which is more of a sticky silicone rubber gizmo much like the things people use to anchor their tablets and smart phones in some instances.



There are a number of other devices, some from sponge rubber, that are meant to solve grip and repetitive stress issues on other instruments which could prove useful. I just don't know how available these aides are outside of the rare specialty flute shops or similar.

My thinking being that there may be some materials or devices out there that could be readily co-opted by a player to assist in the relief of their grip issues.

As he said, arthritis is very bad for playing music, but playing music is very good for arthritis.

True enough.

Feadoggie

[Tommy]

Good to see you all have a good hold on this topic.

[Feadoggie]

Right. Thumbs up.

[Terry McGee]

Very elegant solution, Terry. I might try my hand at fashioning a couple of those, if you don't mind.

Go for it!

After we last visited this thread I looked into some of the devices made for Boehm flute players by Bo Pep thinking there may be some lessons to be gained from them like materials and shape.

Yes. My next thought is to dish the surface of the button slightly, like the Bo Peps. I don't think you'd want to overdo that.