Slide whistle

[avanutria]

I like the nonchalant guy in the background, who seems completely unfazed by the musical apocalypse in the foreground.

He may be another Chiffer; sadly I cannot remember his name. Tom might know.

It should be noted that in comparison to the nose flute Tom had been playing earlier, the slide whistle was an improvement, so that might have contributed to the nonchalance displayed.

[Sandy McLeod]

Some years ago Suzuki had a slide harmonica. I never tried it but they still list it on their website (or did a few weeks ago).

Sandy

[Innocent Bystander]

I have a slide harmonica somewhere. It doesn't slide to different notes - it just does a wah-wah effect, or if you're really good, helps you bend notes up or down. I never got far with it.

But I've built my Slide whistle/Calliope flute!

It's in 15mm plumbing tubing, and the length is the same from the airway blade to the end of an A whistle, which is the lowest note I do in this size of whistle. (about 330 mm). The same bore does D, C, B, Bb & A.

What can I say? It's crap! Because the tube is blocked, the notes you get are about two octaves higher than the lowest D on a high D. That is pretty squeaky. I get about three recogniseable notes on the pennywhistle octave on this length of tube. It works, sort of.

If I do this again - and I might, I'm intruiged - I would use a much longer pipe. I'd like to use a larger bore, the 20mm that I use for low whistles.

I'll post a picture if I can steal the camera from my daughter...

[MTGuru]

Some years ago Suzuki had a slide harmonica. I never tried it but they still list it on their website (or did a few weeks ago).

Without looking ... That must be a chromatic harmonica with a chromatic slide, not a piston slide. Or must it?

Added: I crossed posts with IB. Now I've got to take a look.

Because the tube is blocked, the notes you get are about two octaves higher than the lowest D on a high D.

It's interesting ... Stopping the tube actually lowers the fundamental by one octave.* You can hear this is you remove the mouthpiece/fipple, and blow across the open end of the tube like a pan pipe. But because of the way a fipple mouthpiece works, the lowest note you can probably play is the 12th - i.e. the first available overtone of the stopped series.

* This is why the lowest note of a clarinet is nearly 1 octave below a flute, even though the lengths are approximately the same.

[Innocent Bystander]

It's a terrible picture from my mobile phone, because the proper cameras are lost in the children's bedrooms somewhere. I am that blurred in real life - the whistle is not.

The lowest note on this is in fact a G [xoo ooo on the A whistle] but with a very impure tone.
If I did this again I would curve the blade of the airway, like I do on the overtone flutes, to make the most of the harmonics.

[MTGuru]

Added: I crossed posts with IB. Now I've got to take a look.

Is it this thing? ... The PH-20 "Pipe Humming" harmonica? And does that endpiece actually move, or is it just an open tube?

http://www.suzukimusic.co.uk/harmonicas/diatonic.htm

[dwest]

Added: I crossed posts with IB. Now I've got to take a look.

Is it this thing? ... The PH-20 "Pipe Humming" harmonica? And does that endpiece actually move, or is it just an open tube?

http://www.suzukimusic.co.uk/harmonicas/diatonic.htm

Just tubular coverplates with one open end. Wah wah.

[I.D.10-t]

Is it this thing? ... The PH-20 "Pipe Humming" harmonica? And does that endpiece actually move, or is it just an open tube?

Just an open tube.
Suzuki Promaster, Hammond & Pipe Humming third part of the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCchREHrEck

And then there is a Suzuki SCT-128 Tremolo Chromatic Harmonica
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsJ0ZRye ... re=related

[MTGuru]

Thanks, ID (and dwest)!

[I.D.10-t]

I guess at one time the slide saxophone was produced.


and a youtube video

[Sandy McLeod]

Added: I crossed posts with IB. Now I've got to take a look.

Is it this thing? ... The PH-20 "Pipe Humming" harmonica? And does that endpiece actually move, or is it just an open tube?

http://www.suzukimusic.co.uk/harmonicas/diatonic.htm

That's the one I was speaking of.

Sandy

[I.D.10-t]

Unlike a traditional whistle, because this is a tube only open on one end (go ahead, I dare you - argue why a pennywhistle is closed on one end) , the slide whistle has an odd harmonic series, meaning that overblowing should produce not the next octave, but an octave plus a fifth (similar to the clarinet), and the next overtone would be two octaves plus a third. Any possibilities here? Heck, if trombone players can do it ....

Have you tried bugle calls to start with? It should have a minimum number of slide positions (I would think two, fully open and half in). From there you could try playing the same tune a note higher and get a feel for the slide positions.