Chiff and Fipple Forums

I have a Harper D/C which I acquired in London (the one in England, U.K.) around 20 years ago and I would recommend them to anyone. The tuning is perfect, the tone is bright and "silvery" and the whistle is an all-round fine product. I have never played another whistle which sounds quite l...

Couldn't resist this one. You're right, in that movie scores are recorded in large expensive studios, where an expensive engineer knows exactly where to place his (or her) expensive microphones and which expensive effects units to process the entire thing through. Driving your wife nuts is NOT RECOM...

Yes, but do we know anything aboout consistency of manufacture? Or will they be luck of the draw? Very good point. I tried three of these the other day (I believe you see can this on the Kerrywhistles site although I haven't checked it yet) and I thought the best of the bunch was the ordinary one, ...

Those are great prices Tony. This is the kind of thing we need more of. I also enjoy the reviews even if I don't agree with you on the Feadog. :D Ron Thanks for your reply, Ron, and I don't expect anyone to agree with any views I have on whistles - I simply give my initial impressions, whatever the...

My New Year's resolution has been to drop the price of all MP3 downloads on my site to 25 of your English pence (per track). I know it's not all whistle stuff but some of it is, and a lot of it is played on things similar in shape to whistles. I'm now off for a long lie down in a darkened room.

A. Whistle or any other playing on movies or anything else is not a "closed shop".
B. Mike Taylor played whistle on the first two "LOTR" scores and Jimmy Galway did the third.
C. End of story.

Tony Hinnigan

AKA Chief Wanganui.

As someone who plays Phil's whistles a lot in studio situations where tuning is everything(!), and also having stood in his workshop watching him make and tune them, I would say that they are pretty much bang in tune (after a minute's blowing down them to warm them up). I have tuneable and non-tunea...

Hi Whistlers! I work the evening shift and often whistle at home after midnight. I live in a townhouse, so disturbing the neighbors is a concern. My new Sweetheart Low D is quiet enough, but my little Oak High D is just too loud and shrill for the wee hours of the night. I originally wanted to get ...

I bought a whistle in China and it has an extra hole for the rice paper buzz. How does that work? How do I attach the paper? :-? :-? Traditionally, you would rub a clove of garlic around the hole which allows you to move the ricepaper around to the right tension then holds it in position. Chinese f...

If you go to www.tonyhinnigan.com and scroll down on the whistle page to #11, he plays a Kerry pro low A and you are able to watch also. Notice that he doesn't use his ring fingers at all! Well spotted! As a cello player, an instrument which can involve wide stretches, I always eschewed tension-ind...

The fingering for Chinese flutes is identical to the whistle. Whenever I am asked for something that "doesn't sound too Celtic" I often pull out a Chinese flute (especially the non-ricepaper ones). You find yourself playing them in a non-Celtic way simply because they're not Celtic (Duh?!)...

As I played it, I can confirm that the instrument playing the theme in the sample clip was a set of Romanian panpipes and, no, they weren't electronically enhanced (appart from a bit of reverb).

Tony Hinnigan,

aka Chief Wanganui.

To clear up the "Lord of the Rings" question, my old mate Mike Taylor played whistle on the first two films and he plays an Abell.

I can confirm this. I played 'em.