Do you use your bottom-hand pinky to stabilize your whistle?

[Screeeech!!!]

Same as lambchop.

And i find my fingers work just as well on a flute as they do on a whistle.

[dwinterfield]

Pinkie at 1:30 - half way between top and side.

[chas]

I'm eager to hear what others do, as I'm still having trouble getting the hang of what Grey advises. I wonder if it's better to place the pinky on the side of the whistle (if it won't comfortably reach the top) or just use your bottom-hand third finger to stabilize the whistle (and accept the tonal consequences).

Do whatever's comfortable for you. This is folk music, there aren't any rules. There are loads of people who don't use the pinky.

[FJohnSharp]

sorry, brain f*rt

[waltcamp45]

My pinkies aren't long enough to reach. It's not like they're little stubs, of course, but the rest of my fingers are very long in comparison, so when they're on the holes, the pinkies don't reach.

I refuse to feel guilty about this.

Yeah, my pinkies are on the short side as well. Looking closely at a photo of Grey's hands, I see that his pinkies extend to nearly the first joints on his ring fingers (unless I've been tricked by the angle at which the photo was taken).

My pinkies aren't nearly that long. I'm finding that to place my pinkie atop the whistle, I have to arch my hand in a way that puts uncomfortable pressure on my wrist.

As a compromise, I might try laying my pinkie on the side of the whistle--that would help to stabilize it without requiring I become a contortionist.

Walt

[jkrazy52]

I'm in the same boat as Lambchop and Screeech. If I let my fingernail grow longer than usual, my pinkie will barely graze the side of the whistle. I do change the angle of my hands when attempting to play flute in order to help the balance a bit.

Judy

[Mitch]

It just happened one day when I wasn't looking - my pinkie has found a home, all by itself, on top of the whistle - it's only this poll that made me think about it!

I think it must have happened when I started concentrating on how far my fingers clear to stop affecting the note - as a classical guitarist, I have this least-movement principle ground into me - I know that many players have very wide styles and get along very well thank-you-very-much - so it's just me, but for my hands and residual muscle memory it's good to concentrate on the clearance action so the upper reflex muscles in my forearm get more attention than the flex muscles as, for speed, clearing is more important than flexing (for me the ascending scale is still more difficult than descending).

To do that, the pinkie became a kind of reference ground-point for the rest of the fingers as it can tweak a lift-off if I need the extra velocity when the box-player takes the tune into double-time!

The pinky only gets off the whiste now, when I need to shade a vibrato from A on-down (seems to take a lot of energy for high whistles and the free-pinky helps energy and rhythm).

I expect this might change as the muscles begin to find their own efficiencies.

[NancyF]

Well, no choice here, I have short, crooked pinkies with no hope of reaching the whistle body. I just leave my ring finger down a lot, usually on the hole, mucking up my intonation, what of it there is.

In fact it is thanks to my pinkies that I gave up r******* for whistles!

[waltcamp45]

In fact it is thanks to my pinkies that I gave up r******* for whistles!

Hmm ... rodeo-ing?

[preacher]

I have found that using my pinky for the 4th(F#) hole makes for some interesting cross fingerings.
Seriously, ther's lots of good opinions and insights here. Coming from the flute, I instinctively began using my pinky for balance when needed. I even use it for the low D hole on my Burke Viper on which the low joint can be turned slightly to offset the bottom hole. I can do the regular piper's grip but for me this puts less stress on my hand and it feels more natural to me. I'm thankful ther's no pinky Gestapo checking up on me!
This summer I handed out 200 Clarke Megs in a village in Mexico. some of the kids immediatitely began using their right hand for the top holes and in this situation I didn't make a big issue of it - the ones that started this way either changed after watching a friend do better with left on top or continued with thier right over left and did pretty well for themselves.

[swizzlestick]

Wish I could have been there to see the faces of all those kids. On second thought, I'm not sure my ears could have taken it!

[lenf]

In fact it is thanks to my pinkies that I gave up r******* for whistles!

Hmm ... rodeo-ing?

Oh, don't be silly! Rastling. She just forgot the apostrophe at the first.

[lyrick]

When those prior posts on pinky placement appeared, I started playing around with the position in which I placed my pinky. I went from having it placed on the whistle most of the time to having it floating all the time. For me it gives better control and flexibility of the right ring finger to have the pinky float than to have it anchored to the whistle (try it).

[Wanderer]

my pinkie is down only in a few circumstances
mostly when I play C or C#, or 2nd octave D like this OXXXXX.

[waltcamp45]

For me it gives better control and flexibility of the right ring finger to have the pinky float than to have it anchored to the whistle (try it).

How funny ... I'm now trying to place my pinkie on top of the whistle, and I'm finding that it's quickly becoming pretty comfortable. Doing this not only stabilizes the whistle, it helps to instill discipline in my fingers.

Normally, my fingers fly more than inch off the whistle whenever I lift them. Having that pinkie on the whistle limits how high I can lift the fingers of my bottom hand ... which is a good thing. I'm finding that if I just practice lifting my fingers less, I'll recoup the loss of speed I'm now experiencing.

Finally, anchoring the whistle with my pinkie is making it easier for me to use my pinkie to stabilize my flute, though I can only place it on the side, and not on the top.

As for my low D whistle ... forget it -- there's NO WAY I can anchor it with my pinkie.

Live 'n' learn, I guess.

Walt