Low Tin Whistle - design and construction
Andrew
Over the last few months I have been experimenting with making Low
Whistles (Tin Whistles pitched an octave lower that the
more garden variety type). I have played a couple (Howard & Shaw) of the
commercially available instruments but niether
have been satisfactory. I have managed to design a fipple (mouthpiece)
that is easy to make with simple hand tools and have constructed some
copper and aluminum whistles that play beautifully, and with a better
tone than any commercial whistle I know of (also a PVC one that has a
nice 'woody' tone). The only drawback is the holes are too far apart,
making it very difficult to play the fast cuts and graces required for
Irish music (the slow Airs sound fantastic though).
One idea I have to overcome this problem is to insert a short, narrow
tube into the hole(s) to, effectively, make the holes
deeper and the resonating tube length longer. Will this work? How do I
go about calculating the new position for the hole? The method I used to
calculated the hole spacing I use at the moment was to measure several
different makes and sizes of commercial whistles and proportionally
enlarge the dimensions.
I was wondering if anyone knows of any web sites with information that
may help me out, or perhaps suggest a good Text on the subject. I have
done a fair bit of searching but, so far, have not really come up with
much.
Regards,
Andy Trueman
Joseph S. Wisniewski
>
> Over the last few months I have been experimenting with making Low
> Whistles (Tin Whistles pitched an octave lower that the
> more garden variety type). I have played a couple (Howard & Shaw)
> of the commercially available instruments but niether
> have been satisfactory. I have managed to design a fipple (mouthpiece)
> that is easy to make with simple hand tools and have constructed some
> copper and aluminum whistles that play beautifully, and with a better
> tone than any commercial whistle I know of (also a PVC one that has a
> nice 'woody' tone). The only drawback is the holes are too far apart,
> making it very difficult to play the fast cuts and graces required for
> Irish music (the slow Airs sound fantastic though).
Congratulations, you have just begun your education as a woodwind
designer. There is always a tradeoff on instruments this size. You can
play with hole size and improve the hole spacing, at the cost of tone.
The standard way of doing this is to move the hole for the index (first)
finger towards the middle (second) finger hole, and make it a bit larger
to keep it in tune. At the same time, you move the hole for the ring
(third) finger towards the middle (second) finger and make it smaller to
keep it in tune. You do this the same way for both hands. Problem is
that now the tone is less uniform, especially from the ring (third)
finger hole, which makes your E and A weak (I assume you're making a D
whistle).
> One idea I have to overcome this problem is to insert a short, narrow
> tube into the hole(s) to, effectively, make the holes
> deeper and the resonating tube length longer. Will this work?
Won't work. If you add a tube to lengthen the hole, then the instrument
no longer responds well to partially covered holes, so you cannot half
hole to play in other keys, and the tone becomes weak, and the response
slow. Instruments with such tubes extending the keys died out hundreds
of years ago, for this reason. The most popular was the "racket" or
"sausage bassoon", a really fun little thing to play.
Here's how I build my PVC low instruments (and I go lower than the
typical low flute, with a 34 inch (about 1 meter) PVC flute that's a
blast to play.
1) Don't put all the holes in a straight line. You gain a few mm of
relief on the forst and 3rd fingers of wither hand if you zigzag them a
bit. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about (thanks to Rick Miller)
<http://www.execpc.com/~rdmiller/flutes/flutesteps.html>
2) There's no rule that says a hole has to be round. I make them oval,
matching the orientation of the pads of the fingers, so you can cover a
long hole comfortably and quickly.
3) There's no rule that says the tube has to be straight. Get the PVC
warm and bend a saxaphone kind of shape (or use elbows) and you can make
the reach more comfortable. The fingers work faster on wide hole
spacings when the arms don't have to streatch.
> How do I go about calculating the new position for the hole?
There's a spreadsheet for calculating holes on whistles on the "musical
instrument makers forum" (or something like that) at www.mimf.com just
follow the links to the "woodwinds" discussion groups, or to the library
(I think it's in their archives now).
> The method I used to
> calculated the hole spacing I use at the moment was to measure several
> different makes and sizes of commercial whistles and proportionally
> enlarge the dimensions.
> I was wondering if anyone knows of any web sites with information that
> may help me out,
I already mentioned www.mimf.com (which is the first place you should
try). Here's a few more good web sites. Note, some of these are flute
related (not low whistle) but have much useful information on design and
building of PVC instruments in general.
Monty Levinson <http://www.pacific.net/~shakuhachi/>
Not only does he have useful info about making instruments, but
he sells just about every book known to man on this subject,
including Bart Kopkins and John Edfores.
Roland Shambry <http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/3532/>
Roland's site has links to all sorts of flute and whistle
building info, including a couple of sites with low whistle
plans. It's a "must see".
Rick Miller <http://www.execpc.com/~rdmiller/flutes/>
> or perhaps suggest a good Text on the subject.
Bart Hopkins "Air Columns and Tone Holes"
John Edfores "Woodwind Instruments from PVC"
Lew Paxton-Price "Secrets of the Flute: The Physics, Math and
Design of the Non-Mechanical Folk Flute"
> I have
> done a fair bit of searching but, so far, have not really come up
> with much.
Feel free to write with more questions.
life...@xxvoy.net
>The standard way of doing this is to move the hole for the index
>(first) finger towards the middle (second) finger hole, and make it
>a bit larger to keep it in tune.
Maybe he'll invent a much simpler method of constructing regular
clarinet type keys!
Jim L
To email me remove XX from address.
Posted using MR/2ICE (registered)
Joseph S. Wisniewski
>
> "Joseph S. Wisniewski" <the...@earthlink.net> said:
>
> >The standard way of doing this is to move the hole for the index
> >(first) finger towards the middle (second) finger hole, and make it
> >a bit larger to keep it in tune.
>
> Maybe he'll invent a much simpler method of constructing regular
> clarinet type keys!
Jim, there are some low cost key ideas in the Edfores book. But you
generally do not want keys on a low whistle: there are too many effects
that involve partially covering holes, sliding the fingers on the holes,
or waving the fingers over the holes. You just cannot do with keys.
(Although I do recall a fascinating flute patent where the keys
controlled sliding covers over the holes...) And, even the best keys
cannot control the holes as fast as skilled fingers on a keyless flute.
Take it easy.
Joe