new here

[kardea]

Hi everyone! I bought my first whistle last Tuesday. Addicted already. I bought a Feadog 'D'. I have a little bit of a background in music, have [;ayed or at least attempted to or can say that I have owned......piano,guitar,violin,duclimer,drums. (I would really like to add bagpipes eventually).
The only difficulty that I have been gaving is when I get to the higher notes F and upwards I can't get a clear sound. I have a feeling that practice and patience would be the only way to clear this up but I just wanted to ask if there was any advice anyone had for getting these higher notes?

[Danner]

Welcome!!

As for your higher notes, you might just need practice, or it might be the whistle. If you'd be willing to risk a little, you could tweak it. There's a lot of info. on the main site. Here's one: http://www.chiffandfipple.com/tweak.html
You might also consider getting a few other whistles to try.

[Cynth]

I am still a beginner but that never stopped me from giving advice .

My high notes have changed in quality as I have practiced them. I guess I do things a little different inside my mouth and throat and with my lips. Some times I think about when I just whistle with my mouth how I change things in my mouth when I change pitch.

I would say to practice more on this whistle, like a few months, before you mess with it. Just my two cents. Nice to meet another whistle learner.

[StewySmoot]

I bid you Welcome...

I know. I have been there and for me it seemed like I would never play outside the lower octave with confidence, but practice and patience got me there. Took a good year to play "Si Beag, Si Mohr" confidently

[fearfaoin]

I guess I do things a little different inside my mouth and throat and with my lips.

Sounds like singing (or kissing)...

I think the high notes are a matter of breath control, which involves the diaphram and (like Cynth says)
any other part of your airway that you can voluntarily control. I was having trouble with the second
octave on my Freeman-tweaked SweeTone at session today, because I have not gotten used to the
(admittedly slight) difference in breath it needs compared to regular SweeTones. So I tried to remember
to tighten my diaphram and that cleared things up (though, I was a bit louder than usual...)
I think I've just gotten lazy and spoiled with the ease of the SweeTone. Maybe I should have started
with a Feadog...

[Cynth]

You do something with your lips when you kiss?

[Jack]

Welcome!! Post often, hang around, ask lots of questions!!

[Unseen122]

Welcome.

[Jerry Freeman]

Feadogs tend to be rough in the upper register. I would suggest you try filling the cavity under the windway with poster putty (the "blutack tweak"). That helps stabilize the airstream a bit and can help clean up the upper register.

Get some poster putty (it's the stuff for hanging posters without tacks) at a WalMart (next to the crayons; do you have WalMart in Canada?) or an office supply store, hardware store or home center. Make a ball of poster putty about the size of a large pea. Remove the whistlehead. On Feadogs, they just pull off with a strong twist.

Drop the poster putty into the cavity under the windway and tamp it down with the end of an unsharpened pencil or similarly shaped tool. If the poster putty's too much to fill the cavity even with the end of the windway, fish it out again with an unbent paperclip, exacto knife or other implement, reduce the amount and try again. If it's not enough to fill the cavity, drop a little more in.

You want a nice, flat surface that's even with the end of the windway. You may find that moistening the end of the tamping implement makes it easier to shape the poster putty by keeping if from sticking to the implement.

That one, simple tweak can make a big difference with Feadogs.

Best wishes,
Jerry

[anniemcu]

Welcome! Practice! Get a good tweeked one from Jerry Freeman and have a great time learning and deciding what you like.

[Craig Stuntz]

In addition to the other good advice given so far, breath control is really important. Try this: Finger an F, and blow the lower octave. Increase breath pressure until you just break into the second octave. Keep blowing harder and you'll eventually hit the third octave, as well as annoying dogs within half a mile or so. Pay close attention to the sound you hear when you're "in between" the first and second octave. With practice you can recognize this sound and correct your breath as you play.

Now try it with other notes -- E, G, etc. You'll find that you need slightly different breath pressure to get the correct octave for each notes. With practice you'll learn to do this as you play, but for a new whistler it can be useful to try the notes one at a time to get a feel for the sound you get when your breath isn't quite right.

[AngeloMeola]

Make sure that you aren't starting out in the second octave. This is common with beginners. It takes much less pressure than you would guess to play the lower octave. Start by breathing out into the whistle until a sound starts. Increase your breath slowly until the note sounds right. Once you recognize how much air is right for the lower octave, blow a little harder until the whistle jumps to the second octave.

I find it easier to control if I keep my cheeks in. If the muscles relax, the speed of the airstream changes.
Angelo

[Jack]

Make sure that you aren't starting out in the second octave. This is common with beginners. It takes much less pressure than you would guess to play the lower octave. Start by breathing out into the whistle until a sound starts. Increase your breath slowly until the note sounds right.

That is really good advice.

[brewerpaul]

(not to be too graphic)... to carry on the kissing analogy, sometimes a bit of tongue helps. Instead of just sliding from one note to another (legato), try separating those high notes by "saying" the letter "t" into the whistle at the beginning of the note. The resulting little burst of air will often get a note to speak a little easier. Keep it subtle though.

[markbell]

A mental trick that helps me with upper register is to think about the air going faster for the upper octave, rather than blowing harder.

Mark