Ian Corrigan - Deerness (Pipes) Blackwood whistle comparison

[Holmes]

It's all in the title but this is a comparison of wide, medium & small wind way on a body of identical design. Ian Corrigan is based in Durham in the UK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv8r8x0v ... _t1KEunNsg

[emmdee]

Well, allow me to be the first to comment

Firstly - fine playing as always, Norman.
Secondly - I'm a devotee of Ian's whistles and have been for the last 6 years. They are absolutely superb. I've been meaning to phone and see if he's making other keys than D these days.

Would recommend Deerness whistles to anyone!
m.d.

[benhall.1]

Lovely stuff, there, Norman.

I'd be very interested n your own comments on these whistles. I supposed one has to assume that every whistle of each type will sound fairly similar. In other words, one has to discount the possibility that a different "wide windway" whistle would play and sound differently from the one in that clip. Otherwise, it's just a comparison of three individual whistles that just happen to have different width windways.

The reason for my musing above is this: going from the wide windway to the medium windway, I heard things that were different right enough - surprisingly, to me at least, the medium windway whistle sound harsher and more "bassy", at the same time. That was the opposite of what I had expected (with no technical knowledge of the acoustics or engineering of whistles to back up my opinion). Then, listening to the narrower windway model, I thought that maybe it would be harsher still. But it wasn't. The narrower windway model sounded more similar to the wide windway model to my ears at least.

Of the three, I liked the sound of the wide windway model the best. But what were they like to play? Was one easier than the others? How did they feel to the player?

By the way, I hasten to add that all three whistles sounded great in any case.

[Holmes]

Hi, thanks for the comments, I deliberately hold back on saying much on websites these days, there are too many of self appointed experts with few practical examples to support an opinion or belief. My way of dealing with this is that if I have a point to make, I prefer to do it by example.

It is fair to say though that I enjoy playing Ian's whistles, I don't regard myself as a whistle play, more of a flute player that can play a whistle if need be.

I find the wider wind-way version best for me as I have plenty of spare breath (being a flute player). The narrower versions are easier to blow (but then I end up with "spare air") and have a sweeter tone. As I say I prefer to open,more raucous wider wind-way. As a rule the wider wind-way tend be slightly louder getting progressively less so the narrower it gets.

Ian lives close by me and we often swap tools, instruments, tunes etc. I actually recorded these for a prospective customer that couldn't try before buying so just did this as a guide.

Kind regards

H

D Wilkes 8 key circa 1995, Glen Allen & Dowd's Favourite;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L25q5yC1 ... sg&index=2

[Tunborough]

Thank you for an excellent, informative, comparison. To my ear, there is a definite progression from "raucous" to "sweet" as you move between the whistles.

Would you be able to measure the size of the windways, to quantify "wide", "medium", and "narrow"? Does the length of the windway change much from one whistle to the next?

[Holmes]

Same whistle, different player; Enda Seery plays the same (wide) whistle.

http://youtu.be/2f31TiC_43Y






http://youtu.be/L25q5yC1JTw?list=UU9aOn ... _t1KEunNsg (Eight keyed D Wilkes, Blackwood)

[Feadoggie]

Same whistle, different player

Ah, but weren't there three different whistles before? Which (wind)way did he go ?

Feadoggie

[Holmes]

Same whistle, different player

Ah, but weren't there three different whistles before Feadoggie

Sorry for not being clearer. I mention "(wide)" above to indicate the wider windway...

Thanks Feadoggie

H




http://youtu.be/EYFHvUILS0E?list=UU9aOn ... _t1KEunNsg (Wilkes 8 key ABW)