Good low D whistle for beginner?

[Latticino]

I've also tried a couple and prefer the Onyx. Tapered bore for finger spacing not requiring piper's fingering, mellow tone, but not whisper quiet, nice bell note (but admittedly not quite as booming as a Burke Viper), and a tuning slide. Might be a little out of your price range if your preference is for the Dixon.

[pancelticpiper]

I'll have to try a newer Onyx. I've tried a few Sweet low whistles over the years, most recently maybe five years ago, and the tone hasn't been strong enough for my liking.

If I was going to go into the $300+ price range I'd suggest a Reyburn. The big solid machined delrin head is going to be able to take some abuse, and the whistle has great volume, tone, tuning, everything one might want, a high-end Low Whistle that's not delicate. The finger-spread on my delrin-head Reyburn Low D is good, but it's in the typical range of cylindrical big-bore Low D's. It won't have the combination of skinny tube, close-set small holes, and extremely light weight that the Dixon conical-bore Low D has.

[meanswell]

It's horses for courses, and ALL the previous recommendations are good ones.....well, except maybe the price of some.....and this thread is for starting out.....SO...twenty years ago I bought two low whistles.....couldn't hack it....put them away....forgot where they were.....found them....put them away.... forgot where....etc.....twenty years of that......
Then I decided I was going to play Low whistle come hell or the other stuff.....but I didn't know where they were....
SO....I deliberately bought a Phil Hardy Chieftain V4 because the B3 was nearer B2 than any other whistle, and while I was at it I bought Phil's "how to" DVD.....and Cormac Breatnach has nothing to fear from me.....BUT, it's all coming along a treat.....PLUS...I found my twenty year old whistles and get on with them as well....even trying to kid myself that one of them is an Overton, and if so, what was all the fuss about....Luv it !...

[sbfluter]

I've read the criticism/comparison of wanting to know what is a "good car", so I'll try to help you out in describing a bit what I am looking for:

- easy to play

- e.g. relatively easy fingering/not requiring major finger distortions
- relatively low breath requirement, i.e. lower chance I'll run out of breath

- lower price preferred. The whistle has to be "good", but doesn't have to be "best". If I really get into it I can always spring for a more expensive one later, once I've developed more of an appreciation of the nuances of the different brands.

- low weight may be a bonus (to take on overnight backpacking trips)

For example, looking at reviews I saw the Dixon Low D Whistle 1 Piece ($89 http://www.amazon.com/Dixon-Valve-Coupl ... roduct_top).

It sure is relatively inexpensive, and seems to be available in Canada. Plastic would be lighter to carry on backpacking trips, but would it be durable or would I have to worry about it breaking? Do you advise against plastic?

Two reviewers said "holes are a challenge to reach", not sure if that means this particular whistle or low D's in general.

So, in order of priority the most important traits are:

#1: easy to play and learn, though with minimum bar being good sound, though not necessarily the "best"

#2 would be price, but only if requirements of #1 have been met

Any comments on the Dixon or any other brand you may recommend would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
godo

I have a Dixon one piece. I have taken it backpacking. It's pretty light but it's also pretty big. My tiny F whistle is easier to take backpacking. The Dixon easy enough to play. The right hand is a little bit of a stretch for me but I'm a woman and I have small hands. Still, I can play it with piper's grip. It has bendy notes, which I guess is the draw of low whistles for a lot of people. In the hands of a good whistle player it sounds great. Believe me because I let a good whistle player play it and he liked it and made it sound awesome. In my hands, well, it sounds adequate. The bendy notes are hard for me to control. You can't beat the price. It's a durable piece of aluminum pipe with a giant fipple head on it.

[O'Briant]

Another vote for the dixon. I have the one piece and it's very light, has a good reach, good tone, and a solid bell D. Also a fan of the Albas but maybe not for a beginner -- bigger reach and they take a lot more air in the second register.

[astevick]

Add yet another vote for the Dixon.

[pancelticpiper]

I have a Dixon one piece... It's a durable piece of aluminum pipe with a giant fipple head on it.

I think we're talking about two different Dixon models. Dixon makes the cylindrical/straight alloy tubing with plastic head model, and an all-plastic conical-bore model in one-piece and two-piece versions.

Check the Dixon site here

http://tonydixonmusic.co.uk/catalogue/index.html

The Dixon with the alloy tubing body DX102 Tunable Low Whistle Aluminum Body is going to have similar fingerhole sizing and spacing as other Low Ds with tubing bodies... the laws of acoustics and the human hand force a particular hole layout on all makers of good-playing cylindrical-tube Low Ds. This might be the whistle you have.

The Dixon that's all plastic with a conical bore TBO12D Tapered Bore Whistle ABS Slide benefits from its flutelike construction, the constriction of the lower bore allowing the lower-hand fingerholes to be closer together. It has small toneholes like those on Irish flutes. This is the whistle I was recommending as fitting the OP's requirements.

It has bendy notes, which I guess is the draw of low whistles... The bendy notes are hard for me to control.

This puzzles me. What do you mean?

I should add the caveat that the Dixon TBO12D doesn't fit my own preferences as well as MKs and Reyburns do. However the Dixon TBO12D seems to fit the OP's specifications better than any other Low D I can think of.

[Sirchronique]

Yes, tapered dixons are really the only ones I can think of that match all of the things you are looking for. They aren't my favourite, but they should give you what you are after, and get you off to a good start.

However, you might want to just try a few out. When I was starting I found that the things I thought I was looking for in a whistle weren't really what I was looking for when it came to actually playing them. I also found that what I liked was much different from what I thought I would like from reading reviews or advice, or even from what I enjoyed hearing other people play. It really depends on a lot of personal factors.

[O'Briant]

I think we're talking about two different Dixon models. Dixon makes the cylindrical/straight alloy tubing with plastic head model, and an all-plastic conical-bore model in one-piece and two-piece versions.

Right -- I'm talking about the conical-bore one-piece dixon that was the subject of a few of the posts in the thread (and not the aluminum model referenced by sbfluter). The dixon tapered bore is really an ideal whistle for a beginner on low d and a nice-sounding whistle for anyone (although the abs gives the impression that if you were to drop it the thing would shatter). And the price is right.

Briant

[sbfluter]

Oh sorry for the confusion.

The bendy notes: On my low whistle the notes seem to bend with air pressure changes, even slight ones. Plus it takes a lot more air than my flute. And then the holes are rather large for my fingers so if I don't close them perfectly, there is also a lot of unpleasant variation in pitch. For this reason I find the notes rather bendy. When you listen to low whistle players that are any good at it, this actually seems to be why the low whistle sounds so good, what makes it special. In the wrong hands (my hands) this is what makes the low whistle sound so awful.

[BigDavy]

Hi sbfluter

The tone holes in the TB012D Dixon whistle are smaller than the one you have - it might suit you better than the aluminium one. You can bend the notes on it as well (intentionally or otherwise).

The funny thing is, having too small holes in a whistle can give you hassle as well. I have been playing my Bleazey low D a lot and it has tiny holes (smaller than the holes in an average high D) and I have problems hitting the top and bottom holes cleanly at times.

David

[pancelticpiper]

The bendy notes: On my low whistle the notes seem to bend with air pressure changes, even slight ones. Plus it takes a lot more air than my flute.

In my own experience I've not noticed that Low Whistles, as a species, are any more unstable than high whistles or flutes.

Seems to me that any wind instrument, be it a flute or whistle or trumpet or whatever, is going to change pitch when you change the strength of the airstream, unless of course you compensate for the change in airstream by altering your embouchure, which is possible on flute and trumpet, but not possible on whistle and recorder due to their fixed tone-production mechanism.

People do tend to overblow whistles when they come from other wind instruments (especially brasses and reeds) because whistles take much less pressure to sound properly than other wind instruments do. Learning to get just the right strength of airstream, and keep it steady, comes with practice.

One can't really generalise about how much air a flute takes because it's controlled by the player. Yes some flutes are more efficient that others and some take more air to fill than others but on any flute a player can put a tiny amount of air through the instrument or a huge amount of air through the instrument, according to the type of embouchure that's used.

On a whistle all these things are pre-ordained by the whistle maker and there's only one way of blowing that makes the whole thing play in tune.

About how much air whistles take, discussing it is made more difficult because two different things are actually under discussion, and people often don't make clear which they mean, that is

1) the pressure required to overcome the backpressure/resistance of the instrument

2) the volume of air which passes through the whistle

About the first thing, compared to other wind instruments all whistles have negligible backpressure (well, all the whistles I've tried, who knows what might be out there).

About the second thing, some Low Whistles, such as the MK, are very efficient, with around the same amount of air passing through as on a typical flute played within common parameters, while with other Low Whistles air passes through at twice that rate forcing one to play shorter phrases.

[GodoStoyke]

Thank you so much everyone for your advice!!! I put all the advice into a spreadsheet (because I'm definitely a geek!), and the Dixon had the most endorsements from 9 posters, followed by MK and Impempe with 3 each. Not that the majority is necessarily always right, of course. At any rate, the Dixon I had looked at (http://tonydixonmusic.co.uk/products/tb003/d) was a good price, seemed lightweight, and nobody had said that it was a really bad idea, so that is the one I ordered (though the Dixon TB012D ABS Slide or MK may perhaps have fit my criteria a little better, except the price being about twice as much).

I finally got my Low D in September. I have played penny whistles before, and at first I was shocked at how much apart the fingers are, and how difficult it is to close all the holes at the same time. On my first day, my fingers hurt terribly within minutes (seconds?). I've been practicing about 5 minutes per day for the last three months, and it is going pretty well now. After 10 or 20 minutes of playing, my fingers are still a little stiff, but it is getting a lot better. Certainly enjoy the sound.

Thanks again everyone for so generously sharing of your expertise, it is much appreciated!

[pancelticpiper]

...got my Low D... I was shocked at how much apart the fingers are, and how difficult it is to close all the holes at the same time. On my first day, my fingers hurt terribly within minutes (seconds?).

I hope you're not using your fingertips? Or the end-pads of each finger? Because this puts great strain on the fingers.

Musicians have known since time immemorial that relaxed semi-flat fingers can splay out much further and more comfortably than strongly arched fingers.

It's easy to demonstrate: put one hand palm down against a table-top. Curl in your fingers so that the fingernails are also touching the table (your hand like a cat's paw) and see how far apart you can spread them. Now push out the fingertips a bit so that the tip of each finger is in contact with the table, the end-joint of each finger being perpendicular with the table surface. You should be able to splay your fingers a bit more than before. Lastly, straighten the fingers so that your palm and the entire length of the underside of each finger is in contact with the table, and now see how much further apart you can splay the fingers. It's human anatomy.

With relaxed semi-flat fingers a Low D like a Dixon should be very comfortable to play, with the fingers not unnaturally stretched apart.

Sometimes people say "I can't play because I have short fingers". Even more an argument for using the so-called "piper's grip". Here's a piper well known to me (I've played in bands with him). He's a short guy with short fingers. His hands are the very model of relaxation when playing, not held stiff, but at a utterly relaxed gentle curve. This enables him to easily seal the big holes of a Highland pipe chanter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppy7ITAS_fY

BTW since this thread started I got a Goldie Low D and though it has the more widely-spaced holes that all cylindrical Low Ds must, the finger-holes are closer together than on most. That, combined with the exceptional air-efficiency, makes it a very user-friendly Low D.

[Feadoggie]

I finally got my Low D in September.

Thanks for updating us. It is rare that we hear about how things went with our suggestions. I think you've made a good choice to start with.

I have played penny whistles before, and at first I was shocked at how much apart the fingers are, and how difficult it is to close all the holes at the same time.

If you read back on the original posts in this thread you will see that we also cautioned you on the stretch required to play a low D and we recommended the time-tested solution to get you past that issue. Just as Pancelticpiper has mentioned, what is called the "Super Duper EZ grip" around here and also called the "Piper's Grip" elsewhere is the answer. Almost everyone that plays the low D has to resort to using this grip.

You can do a search throughout this forum's archives and read a lot on the technique and how it works. This might be a good thread to start with: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=68003

Or you can browse through videos on YouTube to see just how it works. Start with something like this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nca0OT5e6yI
or maybe this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUF4Z8a1lbc

It may feel awkward at first but you'll become familiar with it in no time at all - have patience. DOn't be surprised if the fingering on a high D will feel cramped by comparison.

Then watch some videos of the pros playing low whistles. Pay attention to their hands. You'll see quick enough that "the grip" is the way to go.

Enjoy your whistle and the music.

Feadoggie