Playing an F natural

kintailpipes · Post by **kintailpipes** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 10:39 am

How do your finger an F natural as in "Give me your Hand"?

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 10:46 am

You have to half-hole it.

--James

Ballyshannon · Post by **Ballyshannon** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 10:56 am

If you're referring to a D whistle, by half-holing the E hole with your middle finger:

XXXX)0 where the ) represents placing your middle finger over the top half of that hole. It takes a lot of practice to get the feel of where to place your finger to get a true F natural.

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 11:05 am

placing your middle finger over the top half of that hole.

Top half is not the only or necessarily best option there. You can approach this in different ways.

MandoMark · Post by **MandoMark** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 11:23 am

Peter Laban wrote:
placing your middle finger over the top half of that hole.
Top half is not the only or necessarily best option there. You can approach this in different ways.

Do tell...

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 11:44 am

MandoMark wrote:
Do tell...

For one it makes quite the difference how you place your fingers on the whistle i.e. play with straight fingers or not, essentially whether you cover the hole(s) with the tip of the finger or somewhere further up. That determines what the most efficient movement for (un-)covering the half hole is.

Ballyshannon · Post by **Ballyshannon** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 11:46 am

Peter Laban wrote:
placing your middle finger over the top half of that hole.
Top half is not the only or necessarily best option there. You can approach this in different ways.

Peter is correct. You can cover either the top or bottom half and I'd meant to say bottom half which is easier for me (a case of thinking one thing and typing another

). But either will produce an F nat.

Peter, in saying "You can approach this in different ways," did you mean there are other ways besides half-holing the E, or are you referring to simply a choice of top or bottom when half-holing? If there are other ways to produce a consistent, true F natural, I'd like to know what they'd be.

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 11:56 am

Sure there are other ways of half holing. I play with my first knuckle over that hole, and just straightening the finger a touch lifts my finger away from the far side of the hole, making a perfect F natural.

ahogrelius · Post by **ahogrelius** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 12:42 pm

On three of my whistles crossfingering to get an Fnat (or the equivalent on a F or Bb whistle) also works. All of them are either Chieftains or Overtons but it doesn't work on all Chieftain or Overton whistles...

XXXXOX

I should point out that even though crossfingering _might_ work, it's very useful to know how to half-hole a note.

Cheers,
Anders

MTGuru · Post by **MTGuru** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 1:30 pm

I normally play with straight fingers, as Peter says. And the specific movement depends on the melody. For EFE I'd use either colomon's angle-lift, or I'd roll or slide the fingers down for the half-hole. I say fingers, because I'm moving both the B1 and B2 fingers together, though it's mostly the B2 hole that's being uncovered. For GFG I'd come down directly on the half hole with B2 covering the bottom half. This is also the easiest position for playing a ~F-nat roll.

If there are a lot of F-nats in the tune, I might switch to playing with fingertips on the bottom hand, and half-hole with the fingertip covering the right side (hand side) of the B2 hole. I think gives better control over intonation. For FE it's easy to slide the fingertip forward. But for EF it's still easier to slide/roll the fingertip down.

Another possibility is to cross-finger. Some whistles will give an 2nd register F-nat with xxxoxx, though it's usually sharp. Whether it's usable or not depends on the whistle and the melodic context.

Re. the OP question of Give Me Your Hand, I'd execute DF by simultaneously lifting B3 and rolling B2 down, and either slide up to the F or gently articulate it.

ahogrelius · Post by **ahogrelius** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 3:41 pm

MTGuru wrote:IAnother possibility is to cross-finger. Some whistles will give an 2nd register F-nat with xxxoxx, though it's usually sharp. Whether it's usable or not depends on the whistle and the melodic context.

I tried it with the whistles where xxxxox works in the 2'nd register and I wasn't surprised that it didn't work on them. It seems the cross fingering works either in the 2'nd or the 3'rd register but not both. On those whistles I have where xxxxox works in the 2'nd register xxxoxx is WAY too sharp in the 3'rd. There is probably an explanation in the physics behind cross fingering...

Cheers,
Anders

JordanII · Post by **JordanII** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 9:43 pm

Ballyshannon wrote:
Peter Laban wrote:
placing your middle finger over the top half of that hole.
Top half is not the only or necessarily best option there. You can approach this in different ways.
Peter is correct. You can cover either the top or bottom half and I'd meant to say bottom half which is easier for me (a case of thinking one thing and typing another ). But either will produce an F nat.

Peter, in saying "You can approach this in different ways," did you mean there are other ways besides half-holing the E, or are you referring to simply a choice of top or bottom when half-holing? If there are other ways to produce a consistent, true F natural, I'd like to know what they'd be.

So that's how you're supposed to do it! I half-hole by covering one side (the right side) of the hole... it works fine, but it's a little tricky to do sometimes... especially when I'm playing outdoors in subzero temperatures.

FJohnSharp · Post by **FJohnSharp** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 8:20 am

MTGuru wrote:
Re. the OP question of Give Me Your Hand, I'd execute DF by simultaneously lifting B3 and rolling B2 down, and either slide up to the F

this is how I do it. FWIW.