Chiff & Fipple: Tinwhistle Newsletter & Website
Dale Wisely
Tinwhistle Email Experience. You can subscribe at www.chiffandfipple.com.
It's completely free--no advertisements--no nothing.
1. Greetings.
My cold is better. Thanks to all of you who emailed me your mothers' chicken
soup. Some of you sent the recipes. Some of you actually emailed the
soup. It was a little cold...but tasty just the same.
2. THE NUMBER OF THE CRYSTAL PEOPLE: 620
Interestingly, after months of steady growth, the number of subscribers to
Chiff & Fipple has been holding at about 620. An equilibrium appears to
have been reached between unsubscriptions due to email bounces or to sudden
attacks of good taste..and new subscriptions. This is good. This suggests
a stabilization of C-People Reception Net members at 620...as It Is Written.
Viagra, Vice President of Planetary Acquisitions, sends his congratulations!
3. JONATHAN SINDT
After months of painstaking research by C&F field correspondents, notably
Ben Ford, I have finally been able to add the Jonathan Sindt whistles to the
"Expensive" section of the webpage. Here's the text:
Jonathan Sindt. Cylindrical, tunable, Brass with hand-molded plastic. D and
C, around $60. with more keys coming. CFor some time now I've been hearing
about fine whistles made by Mr. Sindt, who lives in New York State. I have
yet to Thanks to Ben Ford, C&F Subscriber, I have the following
information/opinion about his whistles, which see or hear. "I got my Sindt
whistle after coming back from Irish Week during the Augusta heritage
festival. It's a beautiful thing: a brass generation-style tube, but with a
heavier gauge of brass, and slightly larger finger wholes. The fipple is
made of thick brass, and the part you put your lips on is hand-molded black
plastic. It's very smooth, expertly made. Sound quality is excellent! Very
pure tone, very nice to listen to. Has a nice response and tone in the upper
register, which is fairly easy to get to. He makes them in D and C, but I
think he'll be expanding as time allows. It's every bit as good as a
Copeland, in my humble whistlin' opinion. And for those of you who still
think the Copeland is the Father of all whistles, go ahead, wait in line for
a year, and pay 3 times as much. I'll be a whistlin' away on my Sindt. And
loving it.". I've heard nice reviews on these whistles from more than one
good player. Jon Sindt 19 2nd Ave Nyack, NY 10960
Phone 914-358-4943
4. RALPH COOK ON VIDEO!
I tell my family and friends, proudly, that I "discovered" Ralph Cook. I
still remember with great pleasure when Ralph, with great humility, sent me
his Low D #003 for me to review. Most of you know Ralph as a long-time Low
whistle player who has recently been enjoying a great deal of success in
making and selling his own hand-made Low D (in addition to some other low
keys). Ralph also sells a flute mouthpiece which can be exchanged with the
whistle mouthpiece to make one of his tunable Lows a Low flute!
Now Ralph has made a very helpful instructional video on playing the Low D.
It's a video for beginners and, as far as I know, it is the only one that
has been produced. (If anyone knows of another, let me know!). Ralph sent
me a preview copy which I just finished watching. The video comes
professionally packaged. The technical quality is pretty good for a
home-made production. Ralph, ever the fair-minded fellow, plays other Low
Ds on the tape besides his own. He covers:
Proper hand and finger position
Basic scales (D and G)
Embouchure and Breathing
Ornamentation, including rolls, grace notes, slur/slides and fading.
The tape includes Ralph playing 3 songs. Included in the package is a
well-done flyer that includes the sheet music for the songs.
Ralph is a skilled and patient teacher who has a gift, like all good
teachers, of being aware of what beginners don't know (even though it is
second nature to the teacher). I really like his teaching style. The
section on embouchure was particularly helpful to me. I still very much
regard myself as no better than an intermediate Low player, and the tape
included some useful stuff for me.
It's worth the price of the tape ($35) just to see Ralph in the cool "STOP
MAKING SENSE" t-shirt.
You can reach Ralph at:
831 Cedar lane NW Poulsbo, WA 98370
and
His website is www.pclabs.com/cook
5. WHISTLE HEAD TRANSPLANT ABOMINATION!!!
From: "Ben Daglish" <bdag...@geocities.com>
Dear Dale,
Inspired by Tony Ewen's article in the last C&F, I hunted around for my
crappy plastic Aulos fife, looked through my whistle bag and emerged the
nearest diameter fit I had - my nickel Generation C - the one with the
cracked mouthpiece that I never even admit to owning, never mind playing.
Not wanting to follow Tony's example and slice into the shaft of the thing
(and it wasn't a snug fit anyhow), I found some 1/2" copper pipe, made a 2
inch collar and persuaded it (with only a LITTLE hammering) that it would
fit inside the fife body. The C head was just a little too small to fit
neatly onto the other end, but as it was cracked already, I just jammed it
on there and taped up the whole lot. The result was awful - it took a
good half hour slicing little bits off the collar to try to tune the
thing, and even when it was vaguely there, the tone was pretty nasty, not
very strong, and to cap it all, because the fife's holes are offset slightly
to cater for transverse playing, it made playing thrash-metal riffs
darn-nigh impossible. Whilst contemplating this Frankenstinian creation
though, I realised that I was left with a spare shaft, and being short of a
good C (my
Sweetone's out of tune and my brass Generation is....well......
ordinary....), I pulled out a Walton Mellow D....and it fitted perfectly
onto the C shaft, creating a lovely little hybrid. The lower octave is very
slightly weak, but the top octave-and-a-half (yup - all the way up to the
top 'G' with no problem) is both strong and sweet . What's more - it looks
cool too - the nickel body with the green Walton head is really nice.
After dismantling the 'beast', I put the cracked C head onto the Walton
body, and applied more tape. It's OK - not my favourite D by a long chalk,
but then neither was the Walton, and it's different to both its parents.
Maybe someday I'll superglue the cracks and then try some of that 'filling
the bowl with wax' stuff..................
Cheers,
Ben Daglish
PS - A Haiku
The session has started
Morrison's again
Where are my fingers now?
6. CHIEFTAINS REVIEWS
Historically, the reviews I have received on Chieftain whistles have been
somewhat mixed but generally positive. I received 4 reviews in response to
my last request....three were favorable, and one was negative.
7. SMALL-HANDED DUDE SEEKS LARGE-HANDED PERSON OF EITHER SEX TO SELL A BIG
WHISTLE TO.
From: Dung Doan <d-d...@nwu.edu>
>> Hi Dale, can you do me a favor forward this message to the chiff& Fible
>> group. I just purchased a low D turnable overton whistle (this one is >>
made by chieftain while they had the license to make it for overton). >> I
paid $215 last week.... Turn out that my hand is too >> small to play it.
I don't know if anyone on the list is interested. >> I'll sell it back for
$150. It's a beautiful whistle with the >> beautiful sound. Too bad I
can't play it. My evening phone is >> (773)583-5765, my email is
d-d...@nwu.edu. Thankyou very much, I >> really enjoy your list
>> \\\|///
>> \\ ~ ~ //
>> ( @ @ )
>> _____oOOo_(_)_oOOo____
>> Dung Le Doan
>> Northwestern University
>> (773)583-5765
>> http://trans.civil.nwu.edu/~doan
8. A NICE INTRODUCTION AND A REQUEST.
BILL WRITES (<Willia...@abq.sc.philips.com>)
In keeping with the introduction of new members of the collective I
offer the following background information. I am a wood worker. Have
been all my life. During the recovery from a kidney transplant
my wife bought me a lathe to play on. I have only made 2 pieces of
furniture since then (sep'86 so you can see that the demon attacks at the
most opportune times). I taught wood turning at
Santa Fe Community College in Santa Fe Nm. for 3 years. During my last
semester (Spring '98)
a student named Michael Blackwell ( an excellent flute and whistle player)
took my course with the intention of making his own instruments. Well I
got addicted through him. I would have started making whistles sooner but
my wife was diagnosed with Leukemia the first week of June'98. She spent
the whole summer in the hospital but is out and in remission. Hopefully
for good. Well I made my first whistle in September. A beautiful thing
in Cocobolo and brass. I got a hold of a Korg dt3 and tuned it up. To me
it plays fine. I took it to Michael and he says that it feels stuffy, not
responsive. We have been trying to find some technical information to
understand how to improve its performance. And that is how I come to be
requesting admission into the hallowed halls of the Chiff and Fipple.
I work at Philips Semiconductors here in Albuquerque (for my day job).
Any information
Kindest regards
Bill Zerby
9. That is all!