Category Archives: Music

My 3 non-wooden tenor recorders

I have recorded another video, this time introducing my three tenor recorders that aren’t made of wood. As always, I have put the subtitles of said video here, so you can read them without watching the video or translate them into any language you want. I’ve made a German translation so you don’t have to. 😉

In the video, I’m playing my Thomann tenor recorder which is the cheapest in the collection, around 30 euros. It was the first ever tenor recorder I bought. I wanted to see whether I liked it and how my fingers would cope with the wider distance. It worked quite well and after a while, a wooden Mollenhauer tenor moved it (but that’s another story). Then I read that the Aulos Robin is quite comfortable to play, so I ordered one. It’s around 80 euros and doesn’t have a double key for hole no. 7 like the Thomann, but double holes throughout. I find it fairly easy to play and so it has become my „go to“ tenor since it also fits in the bag I have for my Low Whistles.

And then the Sigo by Kunath was announced and of course I had to order one and after a long wait, it arrived and there’s a video and a short blog post with the subtitles, too.

The Sigo is the most expensive of the three, currently at 139 euros, but the fingers don’t have to stretch wider than with a standard alto, so playing is really relaxed and I also like the sound. It looks a bit less than a tenor recorder which can be a good thing depending on your audience and the context you’re using it it.

Believe it or not, I don’t have a clear favourite. I played the Thomann tenor at my mother’s funeral so it will always have a place in my heart; the Aulos is a nice budget instrument, too and the sound is a lot better than most people expect it to be; and the Sigo is a class of its own.

Video subtitles:

Hello and welcome to today’s video where I’m going to introduce my three non-wooden tenor recorders.

I have here my tenor by Thomann and my Aulos Robin.

And the Thomann is slightly longer than the Aulos.

Weight-wise they are about the same, 365, 370 gram roundabout.

And the Aulos has double holes for number six and number seven and the Thomann has a double hole and a double key.

[Playing „Greensleeves“ on the Thomann tenor.]

[Playing „Greensleeves“ on the Aulos tenor.]

Right.

Aulos.

Thomann.

And, yes, I said I have a third one.

Here it is!

It is a tenor recorder although it doesn’t quite look like one.

It’s the Kunath Sigo and it weighs about 100g less than the others.

Let’s hear what this one sounds like.

[Playing „Greensleeves“ on the Sigo tenor.]

So. Again, all together.

Three tenor recorders.

Which one do you like best?

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My new Sigo tenor recorder – meine neue Sigo Tenorblockflöte

I’ve made a video of my new Sigo tenor recorder and as always, you can read the subtitles here, and a German translation, too. (Hier klicken für die deutsche Übersetzung.)

Hello!

It has finally arrived.

I ordered this instrument in December and apparently I wasn’t the only one who ordered one, so it took quite a while for it to arrive, but here it is.

My new Sigo tenor recorder made by Kunath.

So! Here is one part of it.

Black, and seven holes like a recorder does, double holes for number six and seven, a thumb hole on the back, slightly bent, and another hole here, but no hole down here. Because the hole that’s usually here moved here.

And for the head, you were able to choose between black or black and green. I wanted the black and green.

And here it is.

Now, it’s a tenor recorder. It’s hard to believe when you see it right next to a tenor. This is an Aulos Robin, by the way. Because it’s more, at least from the outside, the size of an alto. And also when you look at the finger holes, they resemble more an alto than they do a tenor. But that’s part of the secret of the Sigo.

I have another tenor here, that’s a Mollenhauer. And has a bent head as well. And you can see, the Mollenhauer is longer.

Now for the purists among you, you will notice that this Mollenhauer has German fingering. Yes. There’s a story why that is, and why I have a tenor with German fingering. I might tell it one day, but not today.

I just wanted to compare a wooden tenor with the Sigo.

[Playing „Little harvest rose“ on the Mollenhauer]

[Playing „Little harvest rose“ on the Sigo]

To be honest, I’m still not fully used to the fact that my brain hears a tenor, but my fingers are expected to play like an alto. It’s getting better, I just need to do it every once in a while, but actually directly switching from this to this or back always leads to confusion.

It has a warm sound and it is fairly easy to play although you don’t need less air than you do with a normal tenor. After all, it is a tenor.

But it is quite comfortable for the fingers and the interesting thing is with that hole on the back, you can actually put your thumb on it to cover it so you can play those few notes where with another instrument you would have to cover the bell hole with your leg – you don’t have to do this with this one.

It might look a bit alien in a classic ensemble, but the sound is definitely worth it. And I’m so glad it’s now here and I’m going to play and enjoy it and I hope you enjoyed the video.

Thanks for watching and see you soon! Bye-bye!

Hallo!

Es ist endlich angekommen.

Ich habe dieses Instrument im Dezember bestellt und ich war wohl nicht die Einzige. Es dauerte lange, bis es kam, aber hier ist es nun.

Meine neue Sigo Tenorblockflöte von Kunath.

Hier das Unterteil.

Schwarz, sieben Fingerlöcher, wie eine Blockflöte, Doppellöcher für Loch Nummer sechs und sieben, ein Daumenloch auf der Rückseite, leicht gekröpft, und hier noch ein weiteres Loch, aber keines ganz unten. Denn dieses Loch ist hier hin gewandert.

Beim Kopfteil konnte man zwischen schwarz oder schwarz und grün wählen. Ich wollte schwarz und grün.

Und hier ist es.

Eine Tenorblockflöte. Kaum zu glauben, wenn man sie neben einer anderen Tenorblockflöte sieht. Hier ein Aulos Robin. Die Sigo ist von außen so groß wie eine Altblockflöte. Auch die Löcher für die Finger sind mehr wie bei der Alt- als bei der Tenorblockflöte. Das ist ein Teil der Besonderheiten der Sigo.

Ich habe hier noch eine Tenorblockflöte von Mollenhauer, ebenfalls geknickt, und man sieht, die Mollenhauer Flöte ist länger.

Für die Purist*innen unter euch, ihr seht, dass diese Mollenhauer in deutscher Griffweise ist. Es gibt eine Geschichte dazu, und vielleicht erzähle ich sie eines Tages, aber nicht heute.

Ich wollte einfach eine Holzflöte mit der Sigo vergleichen.

[Ich spiele „Little harvest rose“ auf der Mollenhauer]

[Ich spiele „Little harvest rose“ auf der Sigo]

Um ehrlich zu sein habe ich mich noch nicht ganz daran gewöhnt, dass mein Hirn einen Tenor hört, aber meine Finger wie bei der Altflöte greifen müssen. Es wird besser! Ich muss einfach nur regelmäßig spielen, aber ein direkter Wechsel zwischen diesen Flöten führt immer noch zu Verwirrung.

Die Sigo hat einen warmen Klang und ist ziemlich leicht zu spielen, aber man braucht nicht wesentlich weniger Luft als bei einer normalen Tenorblockflöte. Es ist ja auch eine Tenorblockflöte.

Aber sie ist für die Finger recht bequem und interessant mit dem Schallloch auf der Rückseite ist, dass man es mit dem Daumen verschließen kann und so die Töne spielen, für die man bei normalen Flöten das Schallloch mit dem Knie verschließen muss. Das ist hier nicht nötig.

Sie sieht in einem klassischen Flötenensemble vielleicht ein wenig fremd aus, aber der Klang macht das wett. Ich freue mich so, dass ich sie nun habe und werde sie spielen und genießen.

Ich hoffe, Euch hat das Video gefallen.

Vielen Dank fürs Zuschauen und bis bald! Bye-bye!

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TeleTunes Quiet Tune – 3D printed instrument

I made a video of my new 3D printed flute/whistle by TeleTunes: the „Quiet Tune„.

As always, you can find the subtitles here. Und wie immer für die deutsche Version bitte hier klicken.

One thing beforehand: you will hear quite a few squeaks in the video. I decided to keep them since I’m not a robot – at first I thought the squeaks were mainly caused by air pressure and this certainly plays a role here. But also: finger holes not closed properly! So, the more I get to know the instrument, the less it will make additional noises. 🙂

[Playing „Scarborough Fair“]

Hello and welcome to today’s video.

A new 3D printed TeleTunes instrument designed by Mauri in Finland.

It’s called „quiet tune“ and it is in f# minor.

Now, why is it called quiet tune? It has a rather soft sound and it is softer than other whistles or flutes or recorders, so I guess you can play it without annoying your neighbours too much.

It is 3D printed and you can actually take the headjoint, head piece off for easier cleaning and, f# minor, it overblows into the second octave, so we get one octave and a bit.

[Playing a scale upwards and downwards]

And by the little squeaks you can hear that it does react rather sensitive to changes in air pressure and the instrument and I are still getting used to each other.

Now, what kind of music could you play on this? Anything that takes your fancy. It certainly helps if the melody you want to play is in a minor key.

For example, this one.

[Playing a slow melody from the 15th century.]

Or, a bit livelier, a dance.

[Playing „Ridée six temps“]

Right. So, there’s not a lot more to say about it right now.

It is as nice as I expect Mauri’s instruments to be and it has a nice colour with two shades of lilac.

And, yes, as a good-bye I’m going to play another melody for you that, a few years ago, everybody seemed to be singing or playing and I’m sure you’ll recognise the tune.

[Playing „The Wellerman“]


Ich habe ein Video meiner neuen „Quiet Tune“ Flöte von TeleTunes gemacht. Und wie immer gibt es hier im Blog die Übersetzung der englischen Untertitel.

Im Video sind kleine Quietscher und andere Zusatzgeräusche der Flöte zu hören. Diese haben nicht nur mit dem Atem und dem Anblasdruck zu tun, sondern auch damit, ob die Löcher für die Finger ordentlich geschlossen sind! Je besser ich die Flöte kennen lerne, desto besser klingt sie 🙂 Aber ich habe beschlossen, das Video so zu lassen, denn ich bin bekanntlich kein Roboter und kleine Fehlerchen dürfen auch mal sein.

[Ich spiele „Scarborough Fair“]

Hallo und willkommen zum heutigen Video.

Ein neues 3D gedrucktes TeleTunes Instrument, designed von Mauri in Finnland.

Es heißt „quiet tune“ (quiet = leise) und ist in fis Moll gestimmt.

Warum „quiet tune“? Es hat einen eher weichen Klang und ist leiser als andere Whistles oder Flöten oder Blockflöten, und ich vermute, eins kann es spielen, ohne die Nachbarn zu sehr zu stören.

Die Flöte ist 3D gedruckt und das Kopfstück lässt sich abnehmen zur leichteren Reinigung. Sie steht wie gesagt in fis Moll und überbläst in die zweite Oktave; der Tonumfang ist also eine Oktave plus etwas mehr.

[Ich spiele eine Tonleiter hinauf und wieder hinunter.]

Die kleinen Quietscher zeigen, dass das Instrument sehr sensibel auf Änderungen des Blasdrucks reagiert und wir beide müssen uns noch einander gewöhnen.

Nun, welche Art von Musik kann eins darauf spielen? Alles, worauf eins Lust hat. Es hilft natürlich, wenn die Melodie, die du spielen möchtest, in Moll ist.

Zum Beispiel diese hier.

[Ich spiele eine ruhige Melodie aus dem 15. Jahrhundert.]

Oder, etwas lebhafter: ein Tanz.

[Ich spiele „Ridée six temps“]

Also, es gibt eigentlich im Moment nicht viel mehr zu sagen. Das Instrument ist so schön wie ich es von Mauris Instrumenten erwarte und hat auch eine tolle Farbe mit den beiden Lila-Tönen.

Zum Abschied spiele ich noch eine Melodie, die vor ein paar Jahren irgendwie alle gesungen oder gespielt haben und ich bin sicher, Ihr erkennt das Stück.

[Ich spiele „The Wellerman“]

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TeleTunes Double Flutes – Doppelflöten aus Finnland

Für die deutsche Version hier klicken.

I’ve made a video showing my three double flutes made by Mauri in Finland – all of them 3D printed, two are telescopic and one’s not, but still a very compact instrument.

Here are the subtitles:

Hello!

Today I would like to show you my 3D printed TeleTunes double flutes made by Mauri in Finland.

The first one is this black beauty.

You can see it has two labiums here and two blow holes here and a cap down here – says „TeleTunes“.

And when I remove that and open it, I have a double flute.

It is in c minor.

[Playing a scale upwards and downwards. The drone tone of c sounds with all the notes of the scale.]

You can also play just the melody side.

[Playing a scale upwards and downwards.]

It doesn’t overblow, so you don’t get a full octave, but that doesn’t really matter.

[Playing „Double dance“, a piece I wrote for this instrument.]

Right.

The next one is this here.

It has two labiums here, and only one hole to blow into, and it has two caps on each side.

Yes, I could use it just like this if I wanted to.

[Playing a scale upwards and downwards.]

D major.

But of course it’s a double flute.

So, here we go.

[Playing „Alle Vögel sind schon da“, a traditional song about all the birds being back in spring time. You can hear the drone tone of d sounding with all the melody notes.]

And the last one I have is this.

It is, erm, not a telescopic flute and you would need really large bags in your trousers to fit it in there, but it’s still quite compact.

It’s in C major.

[Playing a scale upwards and downwards. Different intervals can be heard.]

[Playing „Der Kuckuck und der Esel“, a traditional song about the cuckoo and the donkey and how they’re arguing about who’s the better singer.]

Right. So, these are my three TeleTunes double flutes.

Let’s see if I can… ah, I’m sure I can hold them all together somehow.

Here we go!

Now, as always, thanks for watching and, yeah,

leave a comment if you would like to or contact me on any other channel.

And watch this space! There will be more videos soon.

Bye-bye!


Ich habe ein Video gemacht, in dem ich meine drei Doppelflöten von Mauri aus Finnland zeige. Wie immer spreche ich Englisch im Video und stelle hier die deutsche Übersetzung dessen bereit, was ich erzähle.

Alle Doppelflöten sind mittels 3D Druck hergestellt; zwei sind Teleskopflöten und eine hat ein anderes Format und ist ebenfalls ziemlich kompakt.

Hier nun die Übersetzung der Untertitel aus dem Video:

Hallo!

Heute möchte ich Euch meine 3D Druck TeleTunes Doppelflöten zeigen, hergestellt von Mauri in Finnland.

Die erste ist diese schwarze Schönheit.

Ihr könnt die beiden Labien hier sehen und zwei Anblaslöcher und hier unten ein Deckel, auf dem TeleTunes steht.

Wenn ich den Deckel wegnehme und die Flöte öffne, habe ich eine Doppelflöte. Sie steht in c-Moll.

[Ich spiele eine Tonleiter hinauf und hinunter. Der Dauerton c klingt mit allen Tönen der Skala.]

Es ist möglich, auch ohne den Dauterton zu spielen, nur die Melodie-Pfeife.

[Ich spiele eine Tonleiter hinauf und hinunter.]

Die Flöte überbläst nicht; wir bekommen also keine volle Oktave, aber das macht überhaupt nichts.

[Ich spiele „Double dance“, ein Stück, das ich für dieses Instrument geschrieben habe.]

Nun. Die nächste Flöte ist diese hier. Sie hat hier zwei Labien, und nur ein Einblasloch, und Deckel auf jeder Seite.

Ich könnte sie einfach so benutzen.

[Ich spiele eine Tonleiter hinauf und hinunter.]

D-Dur.

Aber natürlich ist es auch eine Doppelflöte. Also, los geht’s.

[Ich spiele „Alle Vögel sind schon da“. Der Dauerton d klingt mit allen Melodietönen mit.]

Und die letzte, die ich habe, ist diese hier. Sie ist, ähm, keine Teleskopflöte und man würde wirklich große Hosentaschen benötigen, um sie hineinzustecken, aber sie ist dennoch recht kompakt. Sie steht in C-Dur.

[Ich spiele eine Tonleiter hinauf und hinunter. Verschiedene Intervalle sind zu hören.]

[Ich spiele „Der Kuckuck und der Esel“.]

So, das sind also meine drei TeleTunes Doppelflöten. Mal sehen… ja, doch, ich kann sie bestimmt alle zusammen festhalten und zeigen. Hier sind sie!

Nun, wie immer sage ich Danke fürs Zuschauen und ja, hinterlasst einen Kommentar, wenn Ihr mögt oder kontaktiert mich auf einem anderen Kanal.

Und schaut wieder vorbei! Es wird bald neue Videos geben.

Bye-bye!

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Neu in der Sammlung: die Kindergartenflöte

Ich habe ein kleines Video gemacht, in dem ich meine neue „Kindergartenflöte“ von Schneider vorstelle.

Wie immer spreche ich Englisch, aber hier bekommt Ihr zusätzlich die deutsche Übersetzung dessen, was ich sage.

And of course I’m also providing the English subtitle texts – click here to get there directly.

(Das Video beginnt damit, das ich das Lied „Himmelsau, licht und blau“ spiele.)

Sagt Hallo zu meiner neuen Schneider Kindergartenflöte.

Dieses Instrument ist eines der vielen, die ich eigentlich gar nicht brauche, aber aus reiner Neugier einfach haben wollte.

Hergestellt vom deutschen Flötenbauer Schneider, aus Ahornholz und in G-Dur.

Die Flöte hat fünf Löcher hier und außerdem eine kleine Vertiefung, in die du deinen linken Zeigefinger legen kannst und wenn ich sie umdrehe, sieht man, dass sie kein Daumenloch hat. Also im Grunde wie eine Whistle. Und es gibt zwei weitere Vertiefungen für die Daumen.

Die Flöte ist wie gesagt in G-Dur, man kann die ersten sechs Töne der Tonleiter spielen.

(Ich spiele diese Töne.)

Und es gibt noch mehr. Dieses nette Faltblatt, das ich mit dem Instrument bekommen habe, sagt mir, dass ich außerdem den Ton „b“ habe und somit auch g-Moll spielen kann.

Und ich muss mir merken, welche Finger wohin gehören.

(Ich spiele die ersten fünf Töne der g-Moll-Tonleiter.)

Es gibt auch den Ton „es“, so dass wir Lieder und Melodien spielen können, die aus den ersten sechs Tönen der g-Moll-Tonleiter bestehen.

(Ich spiele diese sechs Töne.)

Ich habe mir immer noch nicht gemerkt, wo meine Finger hingehören, aber sei’s drum.

Wir können auch A-Dur spielen. Die ersten fünf Töne der A-Dur-Tonleiter und natürlich auch der a-Moll-Tonleiter.

(Ich spiele die ersten fünf Töne der a-Moll-Tonleiter)

Oder eben A-Dur.

(Ich spiele, mit einigen Fehlversuchen, die ersten fünf Töne der A-Dur-Tonleiter.)

Ich sitze hier und denke, ach herrjemine, ich meine, es ist ja nicht so, dass ich nicht eine ganze Reihe verschiedener Instrumente spielen würde, Whistles, meine Sopilka, Blockflöten ind C und in F und ich habe sogar noch einigen Blockflöten in deutscher Griffweise und natürlich die Flöten in barocker Griffweise und nun sitze ich hier und muss immer noch auf die Grifftabelle gucken, um ein cis zu spielen. Aber es ist da, das cis.

Wie Ihr wisst, liebe ich Größenvergleiche, also lasst uns mal gucken.

Hier ist eine Sopranino-Blockflöte, fast gleich groß, aber die Kindergartenflöte ist um einiges schwerer. Sie ist ziemlich stabil und besteht nur aus einem Stück. Sie klingt wärmer und sanfter als die Sopranino – übrigens auch Schneider, und Ahorn.

Hier nun der Vergleich.

(Ich spiele fünf Töne auf- und wieder abwärts auf der Kindergartenflöte und dann die gleichen Töne auf der Sopranino.)

Die Kindergartenflöte wiegt fast so viel wie eine normale Sopranblockflöte. Ich habe hier meine Mollenhauer Fipple, die gerade mal zehn Gramm mehr wiegt.

(Ich spiele fünf Töne auf- und wieder abwärts auf der Fipple und dann die gleichen Töne auf der Kindergartenflöte.)

Ich war ehrlich verblüfft, wie gut die Kindergartenflöte klingt und es macht sehr viel Spaß, damit herumzuspielen. Gerade für Improvisationen, wenn du mit begrenztem Tonvorrat kreativ sein möchtest. Ich denke, ich werde die Flöte immer mal spielen und vielleicht merke ich mir eines Tages auch die Griffe für das b und das es und das cis und vielleicht gibt es ja noch mehr Töne, die man ihr entlocken kann.

Danke fürs Zuschauen und wenn Ihr Fragen habt, zögert nicht, mich zu kontaktieren. Und bleibt dran für das nächste Flöten/Blockflöten/Whistle Vorstellungsvideo.

Bye-bye!

[Playing „Himmelsau, licht und blau“]

Say hello to my new Schneider Kindergartenflöte.

This instrument, a recorder for pre-schoolers, is one of the many instruments that I actually don’t need but wanted to have out of curiousity.

It’s made by Schneider, a German manufacturer and it’s made of maple wood and in G major.

It has five holes here and it has a little dent here where you can put your left index finger and when I turn it around, it doesn’t have a thumb hole, so, just like a whistle basically, but it has two more dents here where you can place your thumbs.

And it’s in G major, but it basically only has the first six notes of the G major scale.

[Playing these notes]

It does have a few more notes.

This is in the lovely leaflet that comes with the instrument.

It tells me that we also have a b flat so we can play g minor as well. And I have to remember which finger goes where.

[Playing the first five notes of the g minor scale]

And we even have the e flat so we can play songs in g minor comprising of the first six notes of the g minor scale.

[Playing these six notes]

I still haven’t remembered where to put my fingers, but anyway.

And we can play A major. The first five notes of the A major and the a minor scale, of course.

[Playing the first five notes of the a minor scale]

Or we have A major.

[Playing or at least trying to play the first five notes of the A major scale]

I’m sitting here and just thinking, oh my gosh, I mean, it’s not that I don’t play a number of different instruments, whistles, my sopilka, recorders in C and in F, and even, I still have a few recorders with German fingering, I have ones with baroque fingering and I’m sitting here now and still have to look at this sheet of paper to play the c sharp note on this instrument. But anyway, it is there.

So, as you know, I love size comparisons, so let’s have one.

Here is a sopranino recorder and they’re basically almost the same size, although obviously this one [the kindergarten instrument] is a lot heavier. It is quite sturdy and is just one piece. It sounds warmer and mellower than the sopranino. This is a Schneider in maple as well. So, let’s compare the two.

[Playing five notes upwards and downwards again, and the same notes on the sopranino]

The Kindergartenflöte weights almost as much as your standard soprano recorder. I brought my Mollenhauer Fipple here which is just ten grams more.

G major.

[Playing five notes upwards and downwards again, and the same notes on the Kindergartenflöte]

So, erm, I was truly amazed how good this one [the kindergarten instrument] sounds and it’s a lot of fun to play around with it. Especially for improvisations if you just want to get really creative and improvise with the few notes that you have available on this recorder.

I guess I’m going to use it from time to time and maybe one day I shall manage to remember where to put my fingers for the b flat and the e flat and the c sharp and maybe I’ll find out that there are even more notes that I can find on this instrument.

Thanks for watching and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to be in touch.

And, yes, stay tuned for the next flute/recorder/whistle introduction video.

Bye-bye!

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Whistles in the jar

A while ago, I posted a photo on one of my fediverse accounts which got some attention. The photo showed the jar in which I keep my tin whistles – currently 12 whistles of various keys and makes. And then I said I would make a video to introduce all of them.

This video has now been recorded and since I didn’t want to talk too much but still give some additional information on the instruments, I decided to write a blog post.

The first tin whistle (also known as penny whistle or Irish [high] whistle) I ever bought was a brass one by Feadóg in the mid 1990s at Dublin airport. It came with an instruction booklet and song book and I still have that song book somewhere and I also still have the whistle. It’s in D major, the most common key for this kind of instrument.

While you can, in theory (and depending on your skill level), play a chromatic scale on the whistle, it is actually a diatonic instrument which means that you will need more than one whistle if you want to play in other keys than, for example, D.

Which is a wonderful reason to add more instruments to the jar 🙂

At the moment, I have five whistles in D. The already mentioned Feadóg.

Two Clarkes: one Clarke Sweetone with plastic head/mouthpiece and one Clarke „Original“ with a very warm and rather breathy sound. Both Clarkes have a conical bore which is different to the cylindrical bore of the other whistles in my collection.

Then there’s my tunable TWZ Folk tin whistle, a very fine instrument. A lot more expensive than the Clarkes or the Feadóg, but you also get a lot of sound for your money.

And I have a McNeela AerFlo which is rather easy to play and has a nice sound, too.

I have two whistles in C: one by Clarke and the other is an Oak whistle (you can get these at McNeela’s and at other music stores). Both a tad different in sound since the Clarke has the conical bore and the Oak is cylindric, and the Oak is also a bit more pervasive in volume, but not piercing at all.

Then I have several Generation whistles: one brass in G (my highest whistle), one nickel in F, one nickel in E flat and one in B flat – and with this one we leave the „high whistle“ family and go to the altos or mezzos. The B flat has a very pleasant sound but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to absolute beginners due to the length of the instrument and the position of the finger holes. If you’re already playing alto recorder, a B flat whistle will be a good start nonetheless.

Last one in the collection and also the latest addition is my alto in A major, a Mac Nic in brass. The sound is warm and it’s quite a versatile instrument.

I said to myself that I wouldn’t get any more whistles for the jar, but I think my low whistle in D might need more friends, and who knows, I might come across other whistles that I find interesting and want to add to the collection, so stay tuned – it’s not impossible that this blog post gets a sequel 😉

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Subtitles to my low whistle introduction video

Hello!

Welcome to today’s video, another one that I’m recording here in my office next to my old piano and you can guess from the closed lid of the piano that I’m not going to talk about any „key things“ today. But I’m going to talk about a new addition to my ever-growing collection of recorders, whistles and other types of flutes.

You might already have seen the video of me playing my new James Dominic low whistle in D. I’m going to put the link to this video in the description of this one.

Here it is!

My new and first ever low whistle in D.

I own quite a few high D tin whistles, this instrument is actually the very first one I ever bought, but I’m going to talk about this one and its story in another video. Just wanted to show it to you to compare the size.

High D – low D.

And, yeah, one thing that you as a recorder player have to get used to when playing whistles: not only – you don’t have a thumb hole, and you get into the next octave by overblowing,

but especially for the larger whistles like the low one in D you have to learn the so-called piper’s grip, which means that only your ring fingers close the holes as you know from the recorder,

and the other fingers, you just put them flat on the holes and close them like this.

And here is what this black beauty sounds like.

[Playing the scale upwards]

And the second octave

[Playing the high notes, and then downwards again]

It is not made of metal, it’s made from some kind of polymer, plastic, I can’t remember, honestly, what the material is called, so, sorry, James Dominic, if I’m saying something wrong now,

but anyway, it’s a very light instrument. That makes it easy to handle.

And the other good thing and why I wanted it is that it actually comes in two parts. You can move the upper and the lower part away from each other or bring them back together again to tune the instrument. So, if it’s too high, you can make it a bit lower and if it’s too low, you can make it a bit higher.

And with this warm and breathy sound it is really, really nice for slow airs and ballads and romantic songs, whatever. For example!

[Playing „Drink to me only“]

But of course you can also play lively, fast music, reels, jigs, marches, whatever – you can play them if you „can“.

Here’s another example.

[Playing „Portsmouth“]

So, this was a more or less short introduction to this low whistle in D.

Oh, yeah, I mustn’t forget!

Because I love size comparisons, obviously I brought a tenor recorder so that you can see they’re almost the same size.

The recorder has more holes and has one hole on the back and basically it looks different, it sounds different, it’s a different instrument. If you want to hear what this one sounds like, you can have a look at my other videos.

Thank you very much for watching today and thanks for your patience, because it has been a while since that instrument moved in and I just haven’t had time for a proper introduction, but here it is.

As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks for watching, and see you soon.

Bye-bye!

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Subtitles to the video about the small 3D printed flute

Hello!

Here I am again, sitting at my piano with my handbag full of flutes.

You might have seen this handbag before – I have already introduced several 3d printed instruments that live in that handbag and I have a new one!

So, say hello to this new instrument here.

It is not a telescopic flute like the others, but it’s still quite compact and small and you can put it in any handbag or put it in the bag of your trousers.

This one is tuned in F major.

(Playing „Oats, peas, beans and barley grow“)

Like all the other flutes from my handbag collection it doesn’t have a thumbhole and it has six holes on the front and you use three fingers of your right hand and three fingers of your left hand to play.

(Playing a scale upwards and downwards)

It overblows into the next octave, so it’s a pretty versatile instrument and if you would like to play more than just the F major scale or from time to time play B (flat) major or whatever, you can do a bit of half-holing here as well. So, you can play sort of a chromatic scale.

I’m trying to show it to you. Not sure whether the instrument will want it right now, but let’s see.

(Playing a chromatic scale upwards)

For the purists among you, yes, it’s not perfect, but it works and it just takes a bit of practice.

Speaking of practice, one thing that was really, really doing my head in when I started playing this instrument was that due to the design – going from here, then we bend and go there, bend again and go here – the position of the left ring finger and left index finger are switched.

Swapped around, if you like.

It takes a bit of getting used to this.

(Playing four notes)

Next note is not played by your ring finger but by your index finger.

(Playing the scale upwards and downwards)

Just for comparison, I’m going to show you a tin whistle in D major and the scale is played like this.

(Playing a D major scale upwards and downwards)

Position number 4 is your left ring finger, 5 is your middle finger and 6 is your index finger.

(Playing a few notes)

And it’s the opposite here.

(Playing a few notes)

But I think it’s worth practicing this. I guess it’s good for your brain. I mean, music making is always good for your brain, and good for your heart and soul.

I’ve quite grown to like this instrument and I’m going to play you another tune that

[short moment of not knowing what I was going to say about the tune]

I like.

(Playing „Cockles and Mussles“, better known as „Molly Malone“)

Thank you for watching! And stay tuned. I’m not sure what I’m going to show you next time, but there are definitely more instruments that will appear on this channel.

Bye bye!

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Subtitles to the D-major-3D-flutes introduction video

Hello!

Here I am again with my bag full of flutes.

3D printed flutes made by Mauri in Finland.

I already introduced this instrument here a while ago. It is a hexagon shaped flute in D major.

Just like whistles it doesn’t have a thumb hole.

Unlike whistles this one does not overblow into the upper octave. You can play any melody on it as long as you stay within one octave.

(Playing a D major scale upwards and downwards.)

(Improvising a short dance-like tune.)

And just to confuse everybody, this was a tune in G major. Because that’s another scale that you can play (partly) on this instrument.

Now. The instrument I wanted to concentrate on in this video is not this one.

[But I love it, so I’m talking about it so much.]

It is this one.

Looks pretty similar. The colour is the same, it has this wonderful pinkish golden orange colour that looks really, really interesting.

It has one round hole here. It has two caps, one on each side and it also has two labiums. Now, why is that?

Taking off one cap, open it. We have six holes here and no hole on the other side, just like the other one. And it’s in D major as well.

(Playing a D major scale upwards and downwards.)

So, what’s behind that other cap?

Don’t worry! You don’t need a second pair of hands, because the other side doesn’t have holes – it’s a drone pipe.

It’s a drone in D major.

(Playing the traditional German melody „Weißt du wieviel Sternlein stehen“ – „Can you count the stars“)

And then you take it and put it back together, put the caps back on (you gotta choose the right side), put it in the bag of your trousers and go off and make music!

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Subtitles to the sopilka introduction video

(Playing a folk song in d minor.)

Hello! And welcome to today’s video where I’m going to introduce the latest addition to my ever-growing collection of recorders, whistles and flutes.

This is an instrument from the Ukraine and it’s called sopilka.

It is a soprano sopilka; they come in different sizes, basically just like your recorders and it’s made of maple wood.

I like the sound. It’s a bit airy and very rich in overtones and it’s a really nice instrument.

There are a few differences to recorders and whistles and I’m going to talk about these differences as I have experienced them so far.

First of all, we have 8 holes on the front of the instrument, so there’s an additional hole here for the little finger of the left hand which we don’t have on the recorder and also not on whistles. On whistles you have 6 holes on the front so your little fingers don’t have anything to do but here, they do.

The next difference is the head. It’s flat. Recorders have the head in the shape of a beak more or less. And on recorders and whistles the labium would be on the front whereas the sopilka has it on the back.

And also on the back we have not one, but two thumb holes. So the sopilka has 10 holes, one for each finger and this makes it possible to play a full chromatic scale on the instrument.

The first few notes sound like this. (Playing a chromatic scale from c to g)

and so on

The good thing is: when I bought this instrument, it came together with a fingering chart which is very, very helpful and I have to look at this chart still quite often.

To play up into the next octave, you overblow, just like you would do with a whistle.

(Playing c and c one octave higher, d and d, e and e.)

It takes a bit of practice. It’s an instrument that looks pretty simple, but, just like the recorder, there’s a lot more to it than you would think at a first glance.

I already said that you can basically play any kind of music with it and I especially like it for folk songs and I’m going to play another folk song for you. It is one of my favourite melodies.

(Playing the German song „Wahre Freundschaft“ – true friendship)

So, this is the sopilka – soprano sopilka. It’s about the same size as a soprano recorder. Just to show you.

This soprano is made of cherrywood and on the back of the instrument, one thumb hole on the recorder and two thumb holes on the sopilka.

Another difference is the bore of the instrument, so the size of the cylindrical hole down here. It’s rather wide compared to the recorder for the sopilka.

But there are recorders with a wide bore as well. For example this soprano recorder here is made by Mollenhauer from the Adri Traumflöte, dream recorder, range. And the bore here is rather wide as well.

But I’m going to talk about the soprano recorders another time.

Today I wanted to show you the sopilka.

Thank you for watching. And, as always, if you either have any questions or if you are an expert sopilka player and you found that something I said isn’t quite right, I would be happy to hear from you. I’m always eager to learn.

You can get those instruments in various shops online. I bought this one from Etsy but I guess there are other possibilities, too. And there are lots of videos out there of people playing really, really nice tunes on the sopilka, so, do a bit of research, if you like and check them out.

Thanks for watching today and see you soon. Bye-bye!

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