Definition of terms associated with tin whistle

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:07 am

straycat82 wrote:I'm fine with anyone using this, I created it for teaching purposes so all are welcome to use it as such. It would be nice to be given credit for the rendering (Johnny Kerr) but I'm not likely to check up on it and make a fuss if I'm not. We're on the honor system here folks

Wanderer, I would be willing to do the same for an Abell but I would need some good clear picture references as I've never owned an Abell. I'm also very busy normally so I couldn't guarantee I'd have it done right away.

Cheers,
Johnny

Cool

I'll see what I can get for you..no hurry on my end either. I've been slowly putting together a FAQ for a couple years now

I definitely apprecaite it, and would give credit, and a link to your website if you want..

shadeclan · Post by **shadeclan** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:53 am

Hi, everyone! Just popped in to see how all my "virtual" friends were doing during my hiatus and I just couldn't resist. So here, now, for your viewing pleasure, is an only slightly tongue-in-cheek picture of a plastic fipple, annotated as only an idiot with access to MS Powerpoint can annotate! Many thanks to straycat82:

PhilO · Post by **PhilO** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:56 am

I've always thought of the two main pieces of a tuneable whistle as headjoint and body or tube; the headjoint would then have a plug or fipple. In one-piece tuneables (black diamond, Humphrey), I think of the entire headpiece as the mouthpiece or fipple interchangeably. In one piece non-tuneables (Overton, e.g.), the fipple or plug seems like its one piece construction with the body but is actually a separate (as told by the seams) plug of the same material.

James - did you have all that stuff ready or did you run and compile it?

Nice job, but I don't like the equation of "pure" and "hollow." To me, tonaly, hollow is a negative - not as to personal preference but as an objective negative. I guess I equate hollow with "tinny" - a bad thing.

A whistle can sound pure and still have chiff (defined as that lovely popping upon striking notes) and be full or round and have a resonance (almost a vibrating or depth of timbre).

See - I just confused heck out of myself!

Philo

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:33 am

PhilO, I agree.

I didn't like using the word "hollow" but couldn't find a good word that I thought would work better to put across the idea of a sound made up almost entirely of the fundamental with little overtone content and not having any "extra" (i.e. non-musical) sounds in the mix.

If you know enough about music to understand what I just wrote, then you're not going to be needing a definition of "pure," anyway.

If you don't know what a "pure" sounding whistle sounds like, then chances are you don't have the background for that explanation to help much.

It's always a challenge trying to define a concept like that in such a way that you get the thought across without having a common frame of reference.

Anyhow, I do know what you mean, and I do agree.

--James

P.S.

# export DEST=chiffboard.mati.ca
# export ID=jpeepl
# cat terms.txt | while read TERM
# do
# @call(@post --board=$DEST --uid=$ID $TERM)
# done

Screeeech!!! · Post by **Screeeech!!!** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:12 pm

I think i'd use the term "clean" to describe a pure sound. My burke is pure in that it has a nice clean sound. It still has plenty of harmonics in it, but those harmonics work cleanly and therefore subtlely with the fundamental as apposed to uncleanly and therefore more forcefully with it like they do in the scratchy whistles.

Tommy · Post by **Tommy** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:32 pm

shadeclan wrote:Hi, everyone! Just popped in to see how all my "virtual" friends were doing during my hiatus and I just couldn't resist. So here, now, for your viewing pleasure, is an only slightly tongue-in-cheek picture of a plastic fipple, annotated as only an idiot with access to MS Powerpoint can annotate! Many thanks to straycat82:

Looks real nice. However, I don't think they are going to let anyone carry on a plane, blue tac stowage, and if they see condensation

they will take it for that too.

Tweeto · Post by **Tweeto** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:50 pm

"Labium", really?

Loren, what's the term you hold as the gold standard for the windway - "urethra"?

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:12 pm

Tweeto wrote:I consider "fipple" to mean the combination of the windway and soundblade, since there are no fipple-flutes that don't have both. A "block" can be used to make up part of a windway (example: Clarke Original, etc), but not all windways use one (example: Generation, Soodlums, Feadog, etc).

Perfect. Yes, "fipple" qualifies the type of headjoint it is in terms that you have set out.

Coffee · Post by **Coffee** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:25 pm

Here's another term I've seen pop up in a few reviews. Wondered if anyone could clarify: "pure drop."

Loren · Post by **Loren** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 5:30 am

Tweeto wrote:"Labium", really?

Loren, what's the term you hold as the gold standard for the windway - "urethra"?

Yes, Labium, really. Took me a while to get used to using the term, but you will find it is the standard terminology among Recorder makers.

Loren

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 6:50 am

Wanderer wrote:James,

It's my understanding that "block" and "fipple" are the same thing. The fipple is the plug stuck in the tube help shape the windway. On one-piece mouthpieces, some people call the entire mouthpiece the fipple, but I prefer to think of those whistles as not having an actual "fipple".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fipple

'The term fipple properly refers to the block, typically of wood, that forms the floor of the windway.' Wikipedia

I believe this is right in that it expresses the precise or technical
meaning of the term. However 'fipple' is also
used more loosely to denote the entire mouthpiece.

I believe 'chiff' denotes the breathy sound of
organ pipes, which is especially evident on the
attack of a note. As a whistle is essentially
an organ pipe, the term applies here too. Chiff
has no definite pitch (I suppose one could say it's
percussive), but it can make the instrument's sound
more interesting.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:02 pm

Cofaidh wrote:Here's another term I've seen pop up in a few reviews. Wondered if anyone could clarify: "pure drop."

Depends on who's talking. For me, ultimately it means one unaccompanied trad instrument - maybe two - playing in a traditional ITM style. But that's me.

Try this thread for a taste of how emotionally charged the subject can get:

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=40987

Wear flameproof jammies, my friend.

Dave Parkhurst · Post by **Dave Parkhurst** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 4:41 pm

hmmm..... noone bothered to post a definition for McChud....
Dave

Ted · Post by **Ted** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 5:25 pm

Chiff is an organ makers term. Baroque organ's flue pipes have a lot of chiff while romantic organ's flue pipes have little or no chiff. Reducing chiff is accomplished by putting nicks at the pipe's edge, where the air exits the windway. Organologists refer to nicked and un-nicked pipes.
The term, "whind" is another one used in organ circles. It refers to the sound of the air rushing through the organ chests as the pipes speak, and, along with chiff, were sounds added in the mix of electronic organs trying to reproduce the sound of air driven pipe organs, in order to sound more like them.