Chiff and Fipple Forums

This is probably heresy but I am looking for a set of small whistles each of which plays only one note in a scale. They should be washable. Any ideas as to how I could make such whistles? I guess they are like very limited traditional pitchpipes.

how I could make such whistles?

If you start with a set of existing whistles, tape over the holes above the note you want the whistle to play.

Alternatively, make a set of whistles each of the length appropriate for it to play the note you're looking for.

You say you want 'small whistles'. Realise you'll probably end up with very high pitched ones when a small size is your first requirement.

Essentially you're looking to make a set of small organ pipes. It may be worth taking that angle and see what the organ people do.

Or you could buy a set of slide whistles, and set the slide on each one to the note you want. Or, for a more permanent finished product, buy a set of slide whistles, remove each slide, and carefully trim each whistle down to the pitch you want. If you do that, keep in mind that slide whistles are meant to be played with the far end of the tube closed, and the tone and tuning of the note depend a lot on whether the end is closed.

Occasionally, you also see a set of fipple panpipes, which would probably serve your purpose (what is your purpose?)--but I didn't find any likely-looking ones after a quick internet search.

Also, hello! Welcome to the Chiffboards.

Heresy? And on your first post here too. Welcome ... I think.

What are you making, caliope, pipe organ, pan pipes? How small? What pitches are you looking for? How will they be organized? What is your target outcome? In other words, tell us more.

Single note whistles are pretty simple to make. CPVC/PVC is the place to start and finish in my book if you are looking for washable.

It is fairly easy to make a whistle. You can look at the Low Tech Whistles site for one "how to". You can stop after you get the bell note right, no holes to drill.

If that is too complex then you can purchase a bunch of Sweetone, Walton's, Feadog , Oak whistle heads or the like and make your own tone bodies.

Or are you looking for something like a vessel flute with a closed tone chamber and the pitch based on volume of the chamber?

If you are going beyond just making a one note tooter, let us know. We don't burn heretics at the stake here.

Feadoggie

Welcome to the whistle forum.

I love puzzles... imagining all of the possibilities of a one note whistle. What are you really looking for? Hmm...

Let's play quess a lot game... first guess, something along the tabor pipe instrument?
http://www.sweetheartflute.com/pipes.html

my second guess, a bird call of some kind?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Q_WN-mPJ8

Oops times up!

What a great site! So much interest in such a short time. I guess I should explain a little more of why I want one-note whistles.

At Christmas, I was given a set of eight party crackers - the thing you pull apart to make them pop. They each contained a paper crown with a number between 1 and 8 and a small plastic whistle, similarly numbered. There was a master sheet of popular Christmas carols and other common tunes written as the numbers from 1 to 8. The "conductor" would point at the person wearing the next number on the master sheet and they would blow their whistle. It was pretty ragged at first but it got much better and we had lots of fun doing it.

As you can imagine, the whistles were very cheap and not all well-tuned so it was sometimes difficult to recognize the song we were playing. We had so much fun, we washed them to try to save them for a future "event". That destroyed most of them.

Having spent the better part of today looking for ideas, I have more or less concluded that they were actually segments of a pitch pipe, producing their sound by vibrating a thin strip of metal. That's the only way I can figure out how they covered an octave in bodies of similar size - say two inches.

While Wikipedia tells me how such a device works, I haven't found any site that shows how an individual can make a matched set of them.

Any ideas?

A single note whistle...why didn't I ever think of that?

Would make learning to play them infinitely easier.

JD

Perhaps a limited repertoire:

- the One Note Samba
- Johnny One Note

Collective noun for the set would be a Kist o' Whistles (derogatory Scottish name for a church organ. Some Protestant churches in Scotland eschewed music in Kirk)

Am I right in guessing that the application is for use by children with disabilities?

The answer is perhaps to make them from plastic tubing. There will be many here who could advise.

Terry

stuartonenote wrote:Any ideas?

Yes, I do have some ideas. I like the concept a lot. It is actually fairly simple to do. Inexpensive. Requires few tools (until you get to custom plug sizes). And could be thrown in the dishwasher after the party.

While working at several churches I always took note of the Bell Choirs they had. Big, disruptive things they can be. I was also struck buy the $$$$$ cost of mounting such a choir. (OK. In all fairness there is a bell manufacturing company a short drive away and the expenditure for the bells does stay within the community.) Anyway, the concept of a whistle choir did occur to me. Each person could have a couple whistles before them in different pitches and they could play the same arrangements as the bell choir - within reason.

A similar simple idea is behind Boomwhackers. These are tuned hollow tubes that can be played in groups - blue men are not required either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd2UQoJ_9-0 But these things always end up being used as weapons.

CPVC and PVC is still the material I would recommend starting with. It is cheap and easy to work with. Work safe.

I would first of all advise that you think about the range of pitches that you would need. This will determine the pipe diameters and lengths you need. Pipes from about 6 inches to about two feet will give you a couple octaves to work with. But there is no reason not to go higher or lower since you do not have to deal with finger holes to cover. You will have to select pipe that comes in different bore sizes to insure the best shot at generating the particular pitch for each whistle. I am in the USA so I know I have pipe available here from 3/8" i.d. and up to design around.

You can use the link I gave above for the Low Tech whistle for a simple head design but there are others you could try. Google is your friend in this regard.

The design of a simple willow whistle head could suffice and it would be easy to fashion from a plastic pipe. There are several PVC whistle designs you could look at that use the simple willow whistle noise maker. Might be all you need. Here's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l-sLVdjCfI Plug the end and you have what you need. I would not advise using wood for the plugs. I would personally use PVC for the plugs to keep the washable characteristic intact. Cork could work too but I'd stick to hand washing then - easier to work with if you don't have a lathe handy.

You can also search through several pvc pipe organ design pages out there but they will be more complex to make from what I have seen. They might help with the pipe size selection for each pitch. A large example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJyN78dqWEI and a more modest one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0d_ynApcJo

Color code each pitch so the players can recognize their notes in the musical arrangement.

Here's what I imagined you might be getting into. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Iq_ak1M5Eg But I do get carried away with these ideas at times.

Feadoggie

What about disassembling a ready made pan-flute or some instrument like that? Just thinking... its snowing here.
Snow in winter amazing.

ytliek wrote:What about disassembling a ready made pan-flute or some instrument like that? Just thinking... its snowing here.

The fipple head would be easier to play in a party scenario perhaps. Not thinking much .... it is snowing here too.

Do you think they could handle transverse flutes? They're harder to learn how to blow, but they're a lot easier to make in quantity. Cut a hunk of CPVC, PVC, or PEX, stick a cap on one end, and cut a hole (preferably rectangular or thereabouts) near that end, and trim the other end to tune it.

Tunborough wrote:Do you think they could handle transverse flutes? They're harder to learn how to blow,

Based on my experience with people (in a party mood and mildly intoxicated) having trouble blowing into a standard "police whistle" mouthpiece when cued to do so, I think they couldn't blow across the mouth of a tube within the short time needed.

How about something like this :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=8 ... kbZlautuUc

A "Choir" of whistles.
They are Whitecaps before the Whitecap was announced. I couldn't go to Tom's Christmas party so I sent these. Each is on a tube that is one note of the chromatic C scale. They were passed out and played like a bell choir directed by Tom Wilson who teaches music. Every one got one or two to take with them to put on their own 1/2" whistle barrels.