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Personally I'd never tell a beginning pennywhistle player to get a Generation, because the variability in manufacturing means that they might get a dud and have a lot of trouble playing in the right octave. Susatos are a little pricier, but they're much more consistent, sound great, and you can pick up additional bodies for the same head if you want to try other keys.
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May 30, 2011 20:08
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In It For The Tank posted:Please tell me what I can do with my Melodica. Play it ironically in a hipster band?
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May 31, 2011 00:48
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Xiahou Dun posted:Slight derail, but someone should make a trad-thread in one of the music forums. I'd do it, but I'm not that good of a musician, nor an expert. There should be somewhere we can talk about Child ballads, right? You can technically play a chromatic scale on any pennywhistle, as long as you get really good at half-holing - covering only part of a hole with your finger to get an in-between pitch. You probably wouldn't want to play something that required it constantly, but for occasional notes it becomes pretty natural. Otherwise, many whistles have some cross-fingerings that let you get notes out of the scale. The most common is usually 0XX000 (middle and ringfinger down on the left hand, everything up on the right) which would give you a C-natural on D whistles. Some brands need 0XXX00, some just plain don't like cross-fingerings and really should always be half-holed. Honestly, G and D are also 90% of the whistles out there. And since a C-natural on a D whistle is probably the easiest half-hole/cross-finger to play, you don't even really need a G most of the time. I'd just buy a D, and get as comfortable with it as possible before trying other whistles. Other keys can be nice for different styles of music though.
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Jun 3, 2011 20:27
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Exploding Barrel posted:Well, I picked up a Feadog whistle in D and a Hohner harmonica today. Really need to work on my breath control for the whistle or all I'm going to do is scare my cats at this rate. Those Feadogs (and the Guinness whistle, which is the same thing with different branding) are definitely a soft touch, but they sound great. Especially for slow stuff, although I like them a lot for the bouncier fast stuff too.
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Jun 11, 2011 20:14
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:If you don't hear a difference, or it doesn't matter much to you, get a cyindrical because they can take more abuse. It's possible to dent them if you try hard enough (or on the very light aluminum whistles), or crack the mouthpiece, but I often chuck a cheap cylindrical into my backpack, car glovebox, etc. and don't sweat it, while a conical can be crushed if you slam it in a door or something. Don't let that stop you from getting a conical, just don't do crazy negligent/abusive stuff with a conical, like hitting someone over the head with it. I like cylindricals better for beginners, especially because they can take a lot more wind. If you're really shy about learning the whistle (say, because you have roommates or neighbors who might not want to listen to you play) a Clarke is quieter, but it takes a lot more breath control to keep from jumping octaves. No one likes a shrieky whistle player, and most people overblow when first start playing; that's pretty easy to do with a Clarke. The Feadog is a nice starter whistle, as well as the Guinness branded one, the Walton "Little Black Whistle", the Acorn, the Oak; they're all basically the same whistle, although some are aluminum bodies and some are brass. That doesn't matter much really, brass ones are tougher but aluminum will warm up faster from your breath (and therefore become "in tune" faster, although since they're not tunable that's not really that big of a deal). The best thing about whistles is that unless you have that "collect them all" mentality, it's very difficult to blow a lot of money on them. They just don't get that expensive, the super-fancy handcrafted ones max out at a few hundred dollars. Get a $10 whistle to start off with, and then if you're getting serious about it get something tunable like a Susato Kildare, that's a great entry-level pro whistle. Here's my baby, a Tully solid silver high D:  I picked it up from a guy on Craigslist for $100, he'd bought it a couple of years ago but never really got into it. The guy who made them hasn't made any since 2007, but there are some more in that price range that are fantastic instruments. I bought a Excalibur Silver narrow-bore for my dad as a present, it's basically a classier looking, smoother sounding Susato. Not a good practice whistle though, that thing is a screamer. Also, if you're worried about annoying other people when you practice your whistle, I used to take a little scotch tape and partially cover the fipple hole so that it still made a tiny amount of breathy sound, but was almost totally quiet. The pitch is completely wrong and it won't help you practice your embouchure or breath control, but you can work on fingerings.
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Jun 13, 2011 05:05
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Econosaurus posted:If I want to play Kwela as well as Irish stuff, is D still the best key to get it in? I haven't played any Kwela myself, but after a quick glance at some sites it looks like the standard for that style is actually Bb; a lot of the songs are written in the key of D but intended to be played on a Bb whistle without transposing. You can probably practice them on a D by yourself, but if you want to play with a recording or a band you'll need a Bb. Normally I'd say get a Susato head and the two bodies you want, but Bb bodies are low enough that they use a different head in the Susato line, so you're stuck buying two whistles. Kwela looks like it gets pretty advanced, as far as whistle tunes go. To play something like this, you'll need to be comfortable with half-holing as well as overblowing to get into the third octave, both of which are more advanced techniques. My recommendation is to learn on the Irish stuff, and pick up a new whistle when you're ready for Kwela.
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Jun 13, 2011 19:12
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Since Mradyfist is the house expert, I'll defer here, though personally I just am not warm-fuzzy about Susato. No real problem with them, I just find the tone too "clean". Agree though that a D is all-around just the easiest way to start, and that's what 95% of online instruction is recorded in. Though if you have a spare $10, it wouldn't hurt to buy a Bb at the same time. Down the road, if you want a nicer, tunable Kwela Bb, take a look at South African whistlesmith Ian Turnbull of iMpepe Whistles. I'm thinking to order a Bb and a soprano F from him, both because his whistles are described as being great for the price ($60ish) and because it's be cool to have a Souf Effriken 'whistle. I hear you on Susatos being too clean, the sound can get a little bland after a while. I like recommending them to people who are new to whistles because a chiffy whistle requires you to have a better idea of when and how to tongue, and sometimes sounds really weird if you're not tonguing/tonguing in the wrong spots. Of course, once you get tonguing down you have much more flexibility with a chiffy whistle than with something like a Susato. Those iMpepes look sweet, a lot like the Excalibur stuff except I like the all-aluminum look of the iMpepes better. The price is a steal too, even after adding shipping they're still cheap.
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Jun 14, 2011 04:00
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Econosaurus posted:Any recommendations on websites I can use to start learning the basics? Chiff and Fipple is your first stop, read through the tutorials on fingering and posture (but don't worry too much, bad habits are pretty easy to correct later). Whistle This is a great place to get started on Irish trad stuff, they have a good set of guides on common techniques. Don't get too wrapped up with things like cuts and taps just yet though, I'd take a glance through the tunes that they've learned as a group, listen to some of the examples people have posted and then see what you can do. Sadly they've stopped putting up new tunes, but there's enough already posted to give you plenty to do. Finally, if you really want to go crazy you can start checking out some tunes on The Session, but be warned that it's filled with very rough transcriptions that, if site-read, will sound like poo poo. You're kind of expected to know how to add your own ornamentation.
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Jun 15, 2011 19:45
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Econosaurus posted:Hm, it looks like the whistle university part of Whistle This had all its videos taken down Have you done any site-reading on other instruments before? If you've played any type of sax before, the whistle is fingered almost identically (minus the accidentals). If not, the stuff on Whistle This might be kind of difficult for learning fingerings. I might have some sheet music floating around on my computer that's a better option, I'll post it if I find it. Here's some links to some of the easier stuff on Whistle This: Si Bheag, Si Mhor - This one is nice and slow, plus it's a pretty song. No tricky parts if you're playing it on a D. The Road To Lisdoonvarna - A decent, easy example of the standard Em-D jig that you will hear all the time. I don't know why they notated it in 12/8, just pretend there's another bar line in each measure. Cooley's Reel - This one's a little trickier, but they didn't have much in the way of easy reels. Cooley's sounds great when you get sloppy with it though, so it's a fun one to learn. The Butterfly - Ever seen The Secret of Roan Innish? This is the song from it, the one everybody wants to hear on the whistle. It's a slip jig, so it can be a little tricky; I usually count a slip jig as if there are three beats in a measure, and eighth notes are even triplets.
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Jun 15, 2011 20:22
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. Any particular first songs you can link to? All the previous songs on that site seem to be a little tricky for someone new, and Chiff and Fipple doesn't have any notation as far as I can tell.
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Econosaurus posted:Haven't played sax in years, I can read guitar music though. I'll give these a look when I get home, the tricky part will be learning the fingerings... If you remember anything from the sax, you'll have it in no time. It's identical except simpler: there's no thumb, palm, or pinky keys. The fingering for an F on sax is an F# on a D whistle, but since almost everything you'll be playing is written in D, G, or the dorian of either, you can just ignore that altogether.
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Jun 15, 2011 22:12
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Mradyfist: would you care to guess how many tinwhistles you forced me to buy this week? Just think of how many different whistle keys you don't have yet!
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Jun 16, 2011 18:46
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Super Fly posted:Jugs To go along with that jug, you could make yourself a washtub bass. I can't tell people all that much about them myself, but I do remember playing one my dad had built a long time ago and really liking the sound of it.
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Jun 29, 2011 04:37
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:For whatever reason, hating recorders with a passion is a running joke among tinwhistlers. I kinda feel that too; never really warmed to recorder, love tinwhistle. I guess it's that I associate recorder with elementary school kids honking away, or guys in poet shirts sitting in front of music stands at a Renaissance Faire. While tinwhistle I'm used to seeing in a crowded Irish pub watching some buzzed dude blurring through jigs and reels, so easy preference there. A big part of this is that people often mistake pennywhistles for recorders. Also, recorders tend to have poor intonation with cheaper models since it's much harder to tune a chromatic whistle accurately; pennywhistles are like the single-speed bike of whistles, they're not as flexible but they're really good at what they do. Although I ride a 21-speed and play pennywhistle, so I don't know what that makes me.
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Jul 1, 2011 06:58
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Chin Strap posted:This thread will be the death of me but you have made autoharps very interesting sounding too. I'm a singer firstly and foremost so having some sort of strummed instrument to back me up would be nice. I have arthritis though so any time I've tried to learn guitar my hands have hated me. Do the buttons on the auto harp mean that gripping isn't as much of an action with it? How often can you really find them this cheap? You're not really gripping, just pushing on one button at a time. On the autoharp I've played it still takes a decent amount of hand strength to properly fret though.
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Jul 1, 2011 19:16
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Xiahou Dun posted:Cheap dulcimers are the only thing that make me happier than your avatar. I think Chin Strap's issue is more the arthritis than needing to strengthen hand muscles. Like TTFA said, there's a still a decent amount of force required to play autoharp, but you can get away with pressing using a particular finger or thumb, or just keep your hand rigid and apply all the force using your arm. I don't know that much about arthritis so I don't know if that helps.
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Jul 2, 2011 07:09
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Sorry I wasn't around to jump in on the whistle discussion, I just got back from the Winnipeg Folk Festival today. And on that note, if anybody wants to be inspired to practice banjo, fiddle, or mando, watch this video from Trampled by Turtles. They're even better live, here's a shot of the fiddle player going at it like he's racing to saw down a tree: TTFA's covered pretty much all the basics for whistle. Cardiovorax, if you're having trouble getting the upper register to come out clean, part of the problem could be embouchure instead of over breath pressure. Higher pitches on a fipple instrument need a higher velocity of wind traveling across the fipple, and while forcing more air will have that effect in the lower octave, you generally need to tighten up the inside of your mouth to increase the velocity further than what you can produce with your lungs. Also, it can be difficult to cleanly start a high note from scratch, because your lungs can't instantly force air out at the speed you need. This isn't a problem when you're scaling up from lower notes like TTFA described, and that's definitely the best way to start practicing those top notes, but eventually if you want to be able to play them independently you'll have to practice tonguing, which is when you block your airflow with your tongue (usually by pressing it to the top of your mouth for whistle) and release it in a quick burst. This is also the only way to reach into third octave on a whistle, although that's not something you should worry about for a long time. And it's perfectly normal for your whistle to sound bad with all holes open, that's generally the worst-sounding (and least in tune) note on a whistle. The tuning you can improve by adjusting your embouchure, but the tone is more due to the type of whistle. My understanding (and I could be wrong on this) is that conical whistles improve the balance in volume between notes and allow for smaller finger-holes (read: easier to learn, harder to half-hole) but in doing so they sacrifice the tonal quality of the open note. You can usually get away with this in whistles because not a lot of trad songs will spend a long time on the 7th of a scale. Cylindrical whistles will have bigger finger-holes, and sometimes the bell note (all fingers on) will be noticeably louder depending on the manufacturer, but the sound is more consistent. One thing you can also try is checking the fipple itself to make sure there aren't any defects or burrs anywhere on it, as that part of the whistle is very sensitive to minute imperfections. Every once in a while I'll be playing my whistle, and realize I'm having trouble hitting the upper octave cleanly; I take a cloth and rub out the fipple area (or clean it thoroughly with dish soap and water, if it's been a while) and it plays much easier. I haven't bought a cheap whistle in a while, but on ones with plastic mouthpieces it can be helpful sometimes to take some fine sandpaper or a file and ensure that the fipple is as sharp as it can be - just don't take off a lot of material.
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Jul 11, 2011 21:42
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Well, you're missing the C# in that scale, which is all fingers off. You can also usually do it with one finger on your right hand down, just for stability. And generally you notate in the opposite direction, so your scale should go like this: XXXXXX XXXXXO XXXXOO XXXOOO XXOOOO XOOOOO OOOOOO (or OOOXOO) XXXXXX (overblowing for the next octave) Each finger off is the next interval in a major scale, so whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half.
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Jul 15, 2011 00:58
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Exploding Barrel posted:If I manage to land the job I'm interviewing for soon I'm going to see about making a diddley bow with a bass string, I'm curious as to how it would sound. This sounds pretty tempting, I have piles of old bass strings that I can't quite bring myself to throw out, because they "might be useful as an emergency replacement someday".
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Jul 20, 2011 06:43
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Bolkovr posted:Yeah, I think that's the tack I'm going to have to take: just get to where I can blow a C reliably. Right now it's 50% steady C, 50% agitated goose. I will say that I find the sensation of having my top teeth directly on the mouthpiece to uncomfortable. I need to get over that. On the plus side, I went ahead and bought a second Xaphoon so I can keep one in the car. You want a mouthpiece cushion, they will make you so much happier.
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Jul 30, 2011 01:15
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Vomax posted:This thread got me to buy a Feadog tin whistle from a nearby music store and now I can nearly play 3 or 4 Irish folk songs I've always liked the sounds of. Thanks for the fun cheap hobby. I don't have a Feadog, but my Walton's Little Black Whistle is basically the same thing but aluminum. You're talking about the E in your third octave right? The lowest E (second lowest note on the whistle) and your E2 (an octave up from that) should be easy to play. You can produce a pretty clean E in the 3rd octave, but it will take you a lot of practice to get it to come out on cue. I find it's much easier to learn the amount of force and proper tongue technique if you start an octave below, and tongue each note on the way up; one tricky thing with that is your third-octave D should be fingered 0XXXXX, so just the top finger on your left hand off. The E above that is fingered the same as lower octaves though, so XXXXX0 - the only thing that makes it an E3 is precise tonguing and breath control.
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Aug 4, 2011 00:55
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Yiggy posted:Those high note fingerings sound similar to the flute's. For an alternate fingering for E3 you may try XX00X0. If that works, then use X0XX0X for F3 and X0X000 for G3. Huh. I just tried XX00X0, and it does sound a little more in tune for an E3 than XXXXX0, which is flat but serviceable for a quick note. I generally don't bother with F3 and G3 on a D whistle because they're so unbelievably loud that they're not useful, but your fingerings seem to give relatively accurate pitches for them as well.
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Aug 5, 2011 01:01
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Behold! A Elk! posted:My main problem is overblowing I think. I haven't attempted to learn anything specific I mostly want to learn the notes and such so I can use it to add layers to my recordings. One of my big problems is that I can't really read music and it seems like tabs for recorder probably isn't a thing. Would Jethro Tull be translatable? or would I need a flute. Of course that would require a lot of skill. Tull is going to be tough to play on a recorder, a lot of Ian Anderson's signature sound is his tonguing technique and the vocalization stuff he does on top of the flute, both of which would be difficult to reproduce on a fipple instrument (and especially recorder, where the lack of backpressure makes your dynamic control much less precise).
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Sep 23, 2011 22:07
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I was reading through the Lonely Planet book on Iceland a while back with plans to take a trip there this summer, and I came across this entertaining passage about the langspil:Lonely Planet posted:CONVERSATION ABOUT AN OLD ICELANDIC INSTRUMENT
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Mar 23, 2012 05:04
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I'm teaching myself keyboard right now. If you're doing classical, you probably should just get lessons first to avoid learning all the bad habits that will hold you back. If you want to do pop piano or accompany yourself or others, it's super easy. Probably the easiest instrument I've ever learned, you can't really squeak/overblow/club a note on piano. I don't know where you're starting off from, I learned the basics (like which key is what note, simple triad chords, etc) years ago while learning other instruments and theory so I've been focusing on stuff like rhythmic patterns between the right and left hand, and simple voice leading that's appropriate for pop. Check out billhiltonbiz's channel on YouTube, he has a ton of really useful, practical lessons on piano that are nicely broken up into exercises you can play and apply to any music you're working on.
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May 4, 2012 07:10
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I'm kind of imagining the cow bagpipe as producing differently pitched moos, I hope it does.
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May 5, 2012 18:26
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Hiro Protagonist posted:I have a fairly good instrument store near my house; do you think they would have (good)ocarinas and tin whistles? I don't know which I want to play yet, or even if I do want to play one, but it seems like an interesting skill to learn. Pretty much every store has those little Feadog/Guinness whistle + tutorial book packs, which are honestly a decent way to get into the instrument. You can make some great music and learn all the basics on one of those, personally I'd pick them over a Clarke or a Generation (the other two likely candidates at a local music store).
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Aug 5, 2012 23:04
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