Whistle Selection Advice

toddyboy50 · Post by **toddyboy50** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 10:40 am

Hi .... normally over in the flute forum, but I'm looking for an inexpensive whistle with enough back pressure to practice learning circular breathing - does anyone have suggestions? Thanks for any ideas....

Tod

"A pennywhistle for your thoughts"

toddyboy50 · Post by **toddyboy50** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 10:45 am

oh.... and do you all think it would be better to practice circular breathing in 1st or 2nd octave? Thanks again .....

Tod

Congratulations · Post by **Congratulations** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:36 am

Didgeridoo

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:58 am

Inexpensive plus backpressure says Susato to me. But I don't know squat about how to learn circular breathing.

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:21 pm

I think you'd be better off sticking with the flute for circular breathing since you can control the back pressure with your embouchure.
I can circular breathe with my mouth only, and on a whistle I can do it for a single sustained note, although there's a "blip" when I take the breath. I still can't do it in a tune, but don't really feel the loss-- you can ALWAYS find a note to drop to steal a quick breath. Sometimes, dropping the right note can actually serve as a sort of ornament to vary a tune.

toddyboy50 · Post by **toddyboy50** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:04 pm

Hi Paul.... I agree that circular breathing shouldn't be used instead of melodious breath ornaments, but it would be a great skill to have in the bag when needed. Interesting comment about practicing it on the flute rather than the whistle, because of embouchure control, that seems to make intuitive sense to me as well - however everything I hear, including from Colon, is that the whistle is much easier for doing and learning circular breathing than flute.... Paul, can you do it better (easier) on flute than whistle? Thanks.... Tod

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:06 pm

i'm not going to believe in circular breathing until i get to see someone do it. in person and where i can be inches away from their face to totally check it out.

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:14 pm

I would think an O'Brien might be to your liking.

Fairly high backpressure (higher than Susato), pure sound, lovely bit of chiff coming through between notes, very smooth and easy second octave...my O'Brien is a lovely thing.

--James

Screeeech!!! · Post by **Screeeech!!!** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:29 pm

Buy and oboe, they're traditionally circular breathed.

John Calmont makes 6 hole oboes for Irish music...

http://hometown.aol.co.uk/calmontmusic/irishoboe.html

I've often wondered what came first, the circular breathing of oboes or the bagpipes. Did someone add the bag as an alternative to circular breathing, or did someone start circular breathing the oboe as an alternative to the bag?

Personally i like the breaths on whistle and flute music. It adds a lot of interest to see how players deal with a piece of music and how they breath through it. At least for me anyway.

Didges are another matter. The circular breathing creates specific notes within the range of the instrument's palate and the instrument sounds bland with those notes missing.

Screeeech!!! · Post by **Screeeech!!!** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:31 pm

mutepointe wrote:i'm not going to believe in circular breathing until i get to see someone do it. in person and where i can be inches away from their face to totally check it out.

If you're ever in London let me know.

hannah · Post by **hannah** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:29 pm

Uh...what's back-pressure, circular breathing, and why do some people place the mouth-part towards the right/left of their mouths while playing?

toddyboy50 · Post by **toddyboy50** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:47 pm

Cool idea, Screech.... is the fingering on the Calmont the same as a whistle? Where would I get one of these? I couldn't find anything on the net ... Tod

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:04 pm

hannah wrote:Uh...what's back-pressure, circular breathing, and why do some people place the mouth-part towards the right/left of their mouths while playing?

Ok, back-pressure is the amount of force with which you have to blow to sound the whistle. A related term is resistance, which is the amount of air you have to move to sound the whistle. Usually (but not always) as back-pressure goes up, so does resistance, so that on whistles that require a harder blow, you use less air. This doesn't always hold true, though: a Cronnolly comes to mind as a whistle with high backpressure and low resistance, so that you have to blow hard and use a lot of air, at the same time.

Circular breathing is a technique where you hold air in your mouth, cheeks, and throat, and use those muscles to keep air moving out into the instrument while you snag a quick breath in through your nose. This allows a continuous stream of sound, unbroken by breathing.

Finally, some people play whistle out of the side of their mouth from being used to playing in large or loud sessions. Getting the whistle closer to an ear helps you to hear yourself play.

--James

Screeeech!!! · Post by **Screeeech!!!** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 6:01 pm

toddyboy50 wrote:Cool idea, Screech.... is the fingering on the Calmont the same as a whistle? Where would I get one of these? I couldn't find anything on the net ... Tod

This used to be John's email...

CalmontMusic@aol.com

Goldie · Post by **Goldie** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 7:37 pm

I personally think that circular breathing can come in very handy depending on the tune that you are playing or if you accidentally have forgotten to take a bigger breath and wanting to continue until it is a more appropriate place. Using it on all the way through tunes can sometimes sound pretty bad but now and again can confuse people that are listening

I recently used an E drone on a low D in the middle of an arranged set, just playing one long note as a background layer which worked nicely in a few gigs through a good PA system. Learning on the didgeridoo is much easier than on the whistle but the whistle is much easier than on the flute as you can shift more air. On the flute you can only shift very little air and take a very short snatch of breath without disturbing the embouchure and changing the tone. It will work on quite a lot of the not so expensive whistles and certainly easier when there is resistence to play with.

Colin
(sorry Tod, I wrote my name wrong when I wrote to you )