C# on a low d... tips?

Berti66 · Post by **Berti66** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:34 pm

As I am still learning to play the lovely overton low D I got and think doing fine so far there is ONE thing that I have a hard time with.....
Doing a C# (all fingers off) now how to you avoid the whistle drops?
Must be something in how I hold the whistle but it would be particularly helpful if some magic low d player could shed some light on this

berti

OBrien · Post by **OBrien** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:52 pm

You can cover the bottom hole without affecting the pitch of the C sharp.

ninjaaron · Post by **ninjaaron** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:58 pm

O'Brien wrote:You can cover the bottom hole without affecting the pitch of the C sharp.

That's what I do as well. or, since mine's a susato, sometimes I just stick on the thumb rest.

Some people are able to hold the instrument with the pinky of the right hand anchoring it. My pinkys are abnormally shorter than the rest of my fingers, so I cannot do this.

George · Post by **George** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 4:57 am

It is more of an issue with low whistles. For me my thumbs and lips (no teeth) are enough to hold the whistle in place. I dislike using my ring finger as an anchor as I don't want that to become a habit on notes where the pitches can be affected. I also dislike using my pinky because when it's down it limits the function of my ring finger. Trying to avoid bad habits before they start I guess. I imagine the angle of the whistle would affect how much the whistle would want to slip If you're holding it at a 90degree angle to the floor it's gonna wanna drop.

Sincerely,
-George

Berti66 · Post by **Berti66** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 5:07 am

thanks for the tip of the ringfinger I am going to give it a go later today....
it made me wonder also, if you could keep that finger down on more notes than just the C# to make things easier?

as for georges remark on how you hold the whistle that could make it drop, holding mine at a 45 degrees angle I think should not cause any troubles.....

berti

Tyghress · Post by **Tyghress** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 7:33 am

You'd be surprised at how little covering the lowest holes matters on C#. My pinkie doesn't reach the whistle, so I can't do that. I hate thumbrests. I simply keep my lowest finger on the bottom hole.

This holds, BTW, for a soprano D whistle too.

Just picked up my low D and played a scale...my right hand, lowest finger comes down playing G and stays there until I play the high E. Hmmm. Never noticed that it was there that much. Played G, A, B and C# with and without that finger and couldn't hear any differece in the note at all.

EDIT:

I knew I didn't figure this one out myself... here is the link to where I started using this technique pretty exclusively:

http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/b ... fting.html

Unseen122 · Post by **Unseen122** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 9:45 am

I use my pinkie to anchor on most notes actually it really only comes off on the low D in fact my Cheiftian has a spot of patina where my pinkie goes.

Byll · Post by **Byll** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 1:27 pm

To be honest, all 3 of the lowest fingers can be left down and the C# sounds just fine. It makes it much easier to have to place only two more fingers down when moving from C# to D, when one is playing very fast.

Best.
Byll

Tommy · Post by **Tommy** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 5:54 pm

I also have an Overton low D and use my right ring finger to hold it in place. The angle I use varies from 45 to 90 degrees. Oh, and that would be 45 or 90 degrees to me standing or sitting.

BrassBlower · Post by **BrassBlower** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:39 pm

Byll wrote:To be honest, all 3 of the lowest fingers can be left down and the C# sounds just fine. It makes it much easier to have to place only two more fingers down when moving from C# to D, when one is playing very fast.

Best.
Byll

On my Kerry, the C# is actually more in tune with all three right-hand fingers down.