Making and playing the Blues Whistle.

Having seen Erik The Flutemaker's blues whistle I felt compelled to make one.

First I found that the blues scale is a minor pentatonic with an added minor 5th note.

On a whistle with a tonic D that is D F G Ab A C. This is the same tuning as a 1.8 shakuhachi but with the added Ab

Then I took my Low D Susato mouthpiece and replaced the barrel with a piece of 3/4" CPVC water pipe which fits well.

I cut slices off the end until I got a good D for the tonic.

Then by a bit of good estimation I marked for the holes. I drilled 5 small holes in the pipe and starting from the bottom gradually enlarged them, one by one, until each came in tune to the notes listed above.

I am amazed that now I can improvise blues!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• music
• whistle
• blues
• CPVC
• water
• pipe
• Susato
• LowD

[ubizmo]

Sounds good, and would probably be more comfortable on a G whistle. Actually, it's not really hard to play blues on a standard diatonic whistle, if you just play in the 2nd on whatever whistle it is.

[RicTheGrt]

@ubizmo Thank you, I do not understand what you mean by play "in the 2nd". Could you explain please?

[ubizmo]

@superfebs Yup, the Aeolian is basically the "relative minor," but also handy for blues.

[superfebs]

@ubizmo Ouch, I tought that starting from the E and going up I did get a Aeolian scale. It's the sixth grade which is different?

[ubizmo]

@superfebs See my answer to RicTheGrt!

[ubizmo]

@RicTheGrt I suppose I should have said "supertonic". As you know, the ocarina or whistle is tuned to a fundamental major scale, and the first note of a major scale is called the "tonic." If you start on the 2nd, or supertonic, and play the same notes, you get a Dorian scale, which is very handy for blues. So on a D whistle, that gives you E dorian; on a C ocarina it gives you D dorian, etc.--very similar to the Minor.

[superfebs]

I greatly appreciate your willpower and skill in instrument making. The instrument has an interesting sound too.

And, ubizmo, I'd really love to know what does it means to play in the second. I would bet that does not mean "the 2nd octave" but I can't imagine what then.

Thanks!