Amplification

[tomgoos]

Yeeha!, They Have Arrived. Though the sounds that I squeeze from them are not really worth amplifying yet. It is difficult not to blow to hard in it. Actually a was talking to a friend of mine who plays the clarinet. He says in a clarinet switching octaves is done by changing the way you blow but not necessarily how hard you blow. I told him for the whistle it is only how hard you blow. Am I right? I am not completely sure...

[Theo]

Actually a was talking to a friend of mine who plays the clarinet. He says in a clarinet switching octaves is done by changing the way you blow but not necessarily how hard you blow. I told him for the whistle it is only how hard you blow. Am I right? I am not completely sure...

Well... partially... it also has something to do with your embouchure, but this is something I only understood after trying to play the irish flute

[MTGuru]

Actually a was talking to a friend of mine who plays the clarinet. He says in a clarinet switching octaves is done by changing the way you blow but not necessarily how hard you blow. I told him for the whistle it is only how hard you blow. Am I right? I am not completely sure...

That's more or less right. On a clarinet, your embouchure gets tighter as you go up in pitch and you compress the size of the reed-tip opening with your lower lip. But you also change the way you blow. And the clarinet has a register key operated by the thumb for changing registers (not octaves, because the clarinet overblows a 12th). The whistle has no register key or hole, so the control is all in the breath.

With a whistle, some players will argue about the effect of embouchure, or the tightness of your lips in producing a stream of air. Some whistles are more sensitive to embouchure than others. But with your whistles it should make little difference.

The first important thing is to produce a solid, steady tone. For example, finger a G (xxxooo), take a breath, and blow gently into the whistle. Now play a long, long sustained G in the first octave, trying to keep the pitch and the volume perfectly steady. Try different amounts of breath pressure, and notice the effect on the tone and pitch. Blow harder, and find the point where the tone "breaks" into the second octave. Now play that high G and do the same exercise with a long, steady pitch. Finally, try using your tongue very gently with the syllable "tu", together with your breath pressure, to "kick" the pitch up and down between the 2 different octaves.

Repeat this procedure with each note of the whistle. Before long, you will find that you have much better control of the sound.

[tomgoos]

Thanks MT, that is a nice exercise. I can do the switching between the octaves. However, for me it is easier to blow the second octave than the first one. I think I tend to blow slightly to hard. I do have the impression that when I keep my mouth cavity more "open", the lower octave notes are more stable. But I cant seem to figure out whether it is only my impression or if it is really true.
Also, when I blow a bit more perpendicular to the the fipple, I seem to get into the second octave at lower air pressure. Could this be?

[MTGuru]

I can do the switching between the octaves. However, for me it is easier to blow the second octave than the first one. I think I tend to blow slightly to hard.

Yes, probably. That is a common problem for beginners. In a different thread, Adrian wrote a nice description:

Breath, especially for the first octave, should be quite gentle and like blowing over a spoon of hot soup. Some would say you should think about breathing into the whistle rather than blowing and this too is good advice.

I do have the impression that when I keep my mouth cavity more "open", the lower octave notes are more stable. But I cant seem to figure out whether it is only my impression or if it is really true.

Some whistlers disagree about the mouth cavity, but I think you are right. That is a very good observation. Think "aa" as in Dutch "taal" or "oo" as in Dutch "boom" for the lower notes, and "i" as in "fiets" for the higher notes. I don't know if the phenomenon is because of mouth resonance or the effect on the airstream, but I think many whistle players (and recorder players) do this instincively.

Also, when I blow a bit more perpendicular to the the fipple, I seem to get into the second octave at lower air pressure. Could this be?

Yes, it could be. Also a good observation! When you change the angle with the mouthpiece, you effectively decrease the size of the windway. This lets you maintain the high speed of the breath with less forward pressure (and more "backpressure"), and gives more control, especially in the second octave.

[Note to other chiffers: I don't claim expertise in aerodynamics or resonance, and I'm not trying to resurrect any debates about wind physics. But Tom's observations seem intuitively correct to me.]

So good job! If you ever post a sound clip or video clip of your playing, let us know.

[cavefish]

audix OM2-best MIC around for the money---EON 10 JBL-----Digitech Vocal 300 Vocal Effects Processor

[lalit]

IT'S "SCIENTIFIC" EXPERIMENT TIME!

I do have the impression that when I keep my mouth cavity more "open", the lower octave notes are more stable. But I cant seem to figure out whether it is only my impression or if it is really true.

Some whistlers disagree about the mouth cavity, but I think you are right. That is a very good observation. Think "aa" as in Dutch "taal" or "oo" as in Dutch "boom" for the lower notes, and "i" as in "fiets" for the higher notes. I don't know if the phenomenon is because of mouth resonance or the effect on the airstream, but I think many whistle players (and recorder players) do this instincively.

These are really interesting observations. I'm a trained singer, which I guess makes me an expert in using wacky vowels and stuff, so I did some quick experiments with my whistle (I didn't use an outside observer or a tuner, just a mirror and my good ears).

My hypothesis was that the different vowel sounds MTGuru describes would affect the timbre of the sound. My second hypothesis was that tomgoos might be describing "breath support."


So here's what I did:

I tested a high D whistle on first octave D and G, and second octave G. I also tested a low D whistle on first octave D and G, and second octave G. Keeping my jaw in a steady position (I checked in the mirror), I formed the tongue positions for the "i" vowel (as in "feet" or "sleep"), the "a" vowel (as in "father"), the "o" vowel, and the "u" vowel.

What I found was that on the high whistle first octave D and G, the different vowels had a very slight effect on timbre, meaning that the "i" vowel had a very slightly brighter sound, and the "a" through "u" vowels had a slightly darker sound. This same slight effect was audible on the second octave G, but it shifted the overtones sufficiently that someone might perceive the pitch as slightly sharper when brighter and slightly flatter when darker, even though the fundamental content sounded the same to my ear.

On the low whistle, the vowel shifting had very little to no effect on timbre. Which led me to the second part of the experiment.

On both high and low whistles, I played the same tones as before, listening for stability in the sound, and comparing those to subjective feelings of ease of control. What varied in this part of the experiment was the "openness" of my mouth cavity. Keeping my tongue in a neutral position each time (otherwise known as the "uh" vowel, as in "butter"), I tested the tones with a "closed jaw" maintaining slight muscle tension and an "open jaw" with more flexibility and less muscle tension (the "open jaw" is what I am hypothesizing tomgoos's open mouth cavity was). The open jaw produced a noticeable improvement in steadiness and control on both first and second octave pitches, but it was especially noticeable on the lowest pitches (the first octave Ds on both whistles), where the steadiness of the breath pressure allowed increased volume without the danger of octave flipping or similar problems.


The conclusion: In general, breath pressure (how hard you blow) will have more effect on perceived pitch than "vowel sounds" do, but if you want to use vowel sounds to add subtle flavor, then more power to you. MOST IMPORTANTLY, relaxing your jaw when you play gives you better "breath support" and more control of the overall sound.

YMMV, of course.


FOR THOSE WHO AREN'T BORED SILLY YET:
In extremely simplified terms, here's my theory about why an open, relaxed jaw was so effective: A relaxed jaw means that the diaphragm receives clear signals about exactly how much breath pressure is required to play each note. In other words, with a relaxed jaw, other muscle systems are not changing the size of the airway and complicating the breath pressure picture for the diaphragm. The diaphragm then has an easy time finding an optimal breath pressure for each note. In other words, relaxation is good.

[tomgoos]

Thanks for this contribution! Really very interesting. So it is a good idea not to chew on the fipple while trying to play a tune because it is better not to stress the muscle in your jaw... I will try it this evening, because I have noticed that I tend to keep my teeth to the fipple while playing. Maybe it's nice to start a thread about experiments of whistle blowing technique? Yours could and MTGuru's could be real nice start for it

[Elessar]

To get back to the original topic... amplification.

I must agree with Brian Lee's post 100%. I think that with whistle, the person in charge of the sound board is who you need to be worried about more than what mic you are using. Yes, good mic equipment is important, but I think that is secondary to a good sound person who knows what they are doing.

During December of 2005 I was asked to play "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" at a fairly large (3,000 people or so) "contemporary evangelical" church. I played a verse/chorus through once a capella on my Silkstone Low D, then the church pianist joined me for a "Windham Hill" version of the tune that we arranged for low whistle & piano (which we did in the key of e minor, BTW - GREAT key for this tune on a Low D).

During the soundcheck, the church sound guru handed me a wireless lapel mic & clip on power pack/transmitter that shot the signal straight up to the sound board in the balcony. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical, but I was really amazed at how great it worked out. I placed the lapel mic pretty much even with the whistle window on the lapel of the suit coat I was wearing, and the end result was a very, very nice sound. He threw a bit of reverb on it to give it a tad more "haunitng" effect, and when I got my copy of the service on CD, I was really pleased with how it came out in the house system.

I don't recall the make/model of mic/system I used, but I *think* it was a Shure system. The church was, well, the kind of church where $$$ wasn't an issue, so I think it would be a safe bet to say that whatever it was, it was a pretty high end rig.

The moral of the story: I put my sound in the hands of a sound man I had never met before that day, and he did wonders with making a Low Whistle sound "right" through a sound system in a room big enough to hold 3,000 people.

Elessar

[MTGuru]

It's a breath mint! It's a floor wax! (Sorry, obscure Saturday Night Live reference).

Everybody's right here. A good microphone, sound guy, and mike technique are all important. Or not, depending on the circumstances. Since Tom plays in an amplified ska band already, I'm guessing he probably groks the basic issues, and now has some good whistle-specific advice.

[MTGuru]

IT'S "SCIENTIFIC" EXPERIMENT TIME!

Very interesting!

I did an even simpler experiment. Take your hand, and place the palm directly in front of your lips. Now pucker and blow while making different vowel sound positions with the mouth cavity, ranging from "aaaaa" to "iiiii". You can *feel* the changes in the airstream -- the shape, speed, volume of air. Change the tightness of your pucker and your jaw. Again, you can feel the airstream changing from tight and focused to big and round. Now change the position of your lower lip while puckering, pushing it out or pulling it in toward the teeth. The airstream moves up and down as your lip goes out and in.

All of these variations will have some effect on the airstream as it flows through the windway and hits the fipple blade, and so affect the whistle sound. For flute players, I'd guess that these observations are preaching to the choir.