Parks Whistles Blog

Feedback Word Cloud

2012-02-10T15:38:00.000-05:00

Looking thru some e-mails I saw a mention of this Wordly.net site that will create word clouds from straight text. What would anyone want to do with that? Well, after a few moments I though about tossing in the 20 or so feedback e-mails that I've received from customers which are scrolling on my home page. And here's the result:

(Click image to enlarge)

I like it! I think it needs to go on my home page for a while.

Caloosahatchee Celtic Festival

2012-02-03T11:13:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday the Caloosahatchee Celtic Festival was held in downtown Fort Myers. The usual Celtic goods and good food were present as was a mix of local and imported talent. Here is a long shot from the pavilion near he river:

The weather was perfect, the beer cold, and the entertainment very entertaining. Jaime, the instructor at a local Irish dance school took on one of the fiddlers in an impromptu speed contest. The applause-o-meter said Jaime won by a wide margin:

Jaime and her troop often dance for us (The Boys Of County Lee) at various events and when Wednesday is not a school day, the whole class will stop in at the pub where we have our Tuesday evening seisún and dance among the diners. Good fun! They do well in the national competitions too.

All the acts were great, but I especially enjoyed the Celtic roots rockers Rathkeltair. They did a few covers and a lot of original stuff.

So Saturday was consumed at the festival, Sunday played a brunch gig at The Bay House in North Naples from 11-2 with a group of friends (some of which were on stage at the festival but I didn't get a pic) then I beat it up US 41 to North Fort Myers to catch what I can of the seisún at T P Hoolihan's pub. Monday was a birding excursion to Circle-B-Bar Reserve. Tuesday was catch up on e-mails and play the Tuesday seisún at Ballyourney, followed by a Wednesday seisún at The Dublin Ale House.

Whew. I hope you are having as much fun as I am.

New Profile Pic From Savannah Visit

2012-01-27T11:18:00.000-05:00

I finally got tired of my profile photo. It's been so long they've painted the pub yellow and removed that bench. The current photo, which is posted in this post so after I change it again folks will know what I'm talking about, was taken in May 2011 when we stopped in Savannah on our way to McGee Marsh in Ohio for the spring warbler migration. I'm playing one of my Bb whistles.

This is what www.historic-savannah.com has to say about this monument:

Historical Marker
Savannah's Irish and Robert Emmet Park

Once known as the Strand and later as Irish Green because of its proximity to the Irish residents of Savannah's Old Fort neighborhood, this park was renamed in 1902 for the Irish patriot Robert Emmet (1778-1803) to commemorate the centennial of his death. Emmet, who led an unsuccessful Dublin uprising for Irish independence and was executed for treason, was a hero to Savannah's Irish community. Emmet is best known for the speech in which he asked that his epitaph not be written until "my country takes her place among the nations of the earth.” Emmet Park remains an important center of ceremonial congregation for Savannahians of Irish descent.

Erected by the Georgia Historical Society and the St. Patrick's Day Parade Committee.

You can click the image to view it larger, when you can read

To Americans of Irish descent

Past - Present - Future

Erin Go Bragh

Here's what the whole monument looks like:

There was a lot more Irish going on in Savannah than I expected. Their St Patrick's Day Committee has a permanent brick-and-mortar office with a really cool sign.

2012-01-20T11:02:00.001-05:00

Well, it's been another period of no posts. I seem to go in spurts like that, sharing what's going on and then focusing on actually doing things, and not communicating about it. But I'm like that I suppose. My wife says when I get interested in something I focus on it.

I have not made any real progress on the black whistles because while the mandrel approach does work, it is somewhat unpredictable. Maybe it's lack of practice on my part, but sometimes I get a nice looking mouthpiece and sometimes I wrinkle it as I'm trying to get it to slip over the mandrel. I think it's due in part to the mandrel not being heated and cooling the part before it's fully expanded, causing it to bind. I may try making a mandrel with passages for the hot air so I can keep the mandrel warm from the inside and possibly improve the repeatability of the forming.

But, then how to get the parts off and allow them to cool? The seem to do best when allowed to cool on the mandrel, but this will mean each mouthpiece will take a LONG time to make compared to turning and parting on the lathe. The temperature of the shop compared to the temperature of the mandrel causes varying amounts of shrinking while the part cools off the mandrel.

So this is the main technical hurdle at the moment. The other reason for a lack of progress on the black whistles is the need to make white whistles for customer and dealer orders for the holidays. At one point I had a backlog of over 100 whistles, not counting multiple bodies for most of those. I'm not complaining! But I believe existing orders come before R&D, so not much R&D has been done.

But with the holidays past I'm about to catch up - in fact I hope to ship all outstanding orders today, or at least have them ready to ship tomorrow. And then I'll get back on the black whistle project, and hopefully let you know how it's going from time to time. Maybe I'll set a reminder in my things to do to prompt me to post....

Mouthpiece Methods

2011-10-10T12:11:00.002-04:00

For a couple days I've been trying different approaches to making the mouthpiece for the black Every Whistle. It's not a case of how to make one, but rather how to make them in production mode. The more uniform the better, and the quicker the better.

I had made one whistle by simply splitting a section of pipe and slipping it over the head. This worked, but the pipe didn't really want to stay round when spread that much. It would go a little oval, and impact the windway height.

I was thinking of trying some heat to relax the plastic after splitting it to see if it came into a round section easily. Jem mentioned that the plastic can be expanded enough to fit over it's original OD with heat on a mandrel. So I bought a heat gun and had a go at several approaches.

Two mandrels

The first mandrel was made from aluminum bar and looked really nice all polished up to eliminate extra friction. The problem was, aluminum conducts heat really well, and the mouthpiece would cool as it was pushed over the mandrel, requiring heating one or two more times. The good news is the aluminum doesn't have a high specific heat, so it warmed up quickly and things worked pretty well once the mandrel was warm. I considered, and am still keeping on the back burner, fitting the mandrel to a heat source such as a soldering iron. It could be threaded on in place of the soldering tips. But that might be more work than it's worth.

I thought a Delrin mandrel might work better, leaving more heat in the mouthpiece. So I made one out of Delrin, and it did work a better. Good enough that it shouldn't be too hateful to make a couple dozen at a time. But it also worked nicely to split the mouthpiece and heat it on a mandrel to shape it for the whistle.

While I was trying different techniques to make the mouthpiece, I was trying different ways of finishing the whistles.

Here are three whistles with different treatment of the logo. The left one is painted with cream paint that matches the color of the CPVC I have locally. The middle one is simulating a gray paint. It is really polishing compound left in the engraved logo. The right one is as it comes from the engraver with no treatment by me at all.

Here is a more distant view of the whistles. The one in the middle was treated with sandpaper and steel wool while on the lathe to make a brushed finish going around the whistle. It reminds me of uni-directional carbon fiber or fiber glass. Not bad looking. Lighter than the native black color. The one on the right is a white color, and no logo in on that whistle because it is the original prototype.

Here's a long view of the various color and mouthpiece options.

Here you can see the second from the left has the split mouthpiece treatment.

They all play alike, so it's down to how it looks and how easy is it to make over and over again.

I think I'll take some time out from the mouthpiece R&D to lay out the finger holes and make playable whistles out of the ones made so far.

More R than D

2011-10-05T23:45:00.000-04:00

I'm somewhat stymied at the moment. Not that I can't make a whistle, but that I can't find material the color and size of material I would like to use.

All I really have that I can put to use directly, using the approach in the white Every Whistle, is white. The cream fitting (far right) that I hoped to use is of course the size of the pipe OD, and to achieve the wind way height that I want I need to reduce the OD of the pipe a few thousandths of an inch. Which makes the fitting too big to fit properly.

I also thought that I could use a section of the black pipe split in the back and fit over the head to make the mouthpiece. Not so easy. This pipe is not as stiff as the CPVC, but it is more so than the clear pipe I use for the Ghost whistle. The result being the mouthpiece doesn't stay round, but goes oval, with the sharper ends on the sides and the flatter spot opposite the split in the back. This makes the wind way too thin and might make the attachment of the mouthpiece tenuous. It stays on OK for the moment, but if the whistle is dropped I worry that it might come adrift because it doesn't have enough contact area to cement it in place.

So, the only color combination I can confidently produce at the moment is the pure(ish) white on black. Which was my least favorite option. But I might have to start liking it.

I'm going to try working the section of black pipe so it conforms to the shape of the whistle head a little better. That might be the best option. The logo on the dubh-dubh whistle above is as it comes from the engraver. I might like to fill it with something, even if it's a different kind of dubh. For example, if the whistle is finished in gloss black, paint with flay black, or the other way round.

Regardless, for a name I'm now considering "Every Dubh" (Pronounced sorta like: Duv) so the Every family will have the "Every" and the "Every Dubh" available in the same keys and sets. Yes, I plan to do an "Every Dubh Walkabout" in C and D. What order these will all come about in I can't say. I am thinking about making some of the keys or color combinations made to order.

2011-10-03T15:04:00.002-04:00

Yesterday on the way home from the session I picked up the dubh whistles I dropped at the engravers the week before.

Here's the batch on the workbench - a dozen D whistles, and a dozen each of C and Eb bodies with which to make sets as needed. My approach is to do as little work as possible before engraving so if anything goes awry during engraving I have lost a minimum of work.

Below is a close-up of the logo. I asked for the engraving to be done rather deep so I could fill it with a lot of paint and it wouldn't rub off.

Before they are whistles, I need to turn the ID and OD of the top of the whistles to accept the fipple and mouthpiece, cut the wind ways, file the labium ramps, assemble the heads, drill the finger holes and voice the whistles. So don't get impatient, most of the work is yet to be done.

Which Is Heavier?

2011-09-26T20:13:00.000-04:00

I made a comment in response to a post on Chiff & Fipple which suggested the black whistles would be lighter than the white whistles. Jem, who has handled both thought the opposite. So I thought I'd find out. I trimmed a length of both pipes to the length of a C body and went looking for my gram balance to weigh them on.

Oh darn, that's right, I sold that a year ago. Hmm.... how to fairly compare them? They seem so close, a subjective bounce-in-the-hand approach isn't going to work. Maybe I could float them and see which floats higher? The OD is so very similar. But the black pipe is just enough smaller that a pair of calipers clamped on the pair holds the black pipe and lets the white slide thru. Just.

Obviously I need a constant OD thing to float to compare the two. Well, lookie there, a section of PVC pipe. Imagine me having a section of PVC pipe lying around. I taped the bottom closed and floated each test piece in water.

Darn near the same. The black line, submerged in the photo above, is where the water level of the black pipe fell, and the blue line is the white pipe. For practical purposes they are the same weight. I am going to use the same machining dimensions for the two pipes, so aside from the very minor differences in the weight of the material I will remove, the weight of the two whistles will end up the same for practical purposes.

So now we know.

Which brings up a related story. I once owned a kayak that was yellow deck over a yellow hull. When I weighted it, it was four pounds heavier than the factory spec. So I called them and asked if that could possibly mean the boat was holding water in the fiberglass or something. "Hmmm... is the boat yellow by any chance?" "Well, yes, it is." "That explains it. Yellow boats are heavier than other colors." "What?" "The yellow gel coat is more translucent than the other colors, and we have to put on a thicker layer to keep the fiberglass from showing through."

So now you know.

First Dozen To The Engraver

2011-09-26T14:05:00.002-04:00

Just a quick note to report the contents were intact and there is enough pipe to make 104 D whistles plus a lesser number of C and Eb bodies. I made up a dozen D whistle blanks, C and Eb bodies and dropped them off at the engraver yesterday. I should have them back next Sunday.

I didn't want to commit any more pipe at this stage, since I may find I want to adjust the length of this part or that before making more.

I took some photos but they are stuck in the camera. I can't find the cable with which to let them out.

But I do have a sound sample of the prototype which uses all the notes below 2nd octave C: Carey playing three jigs.

Take care,

Carey

Arrival

2011-09-24T10:41:00.000-04:00

The package from Phil arrived yesterday, which was quite good time to cross the Atlantic. Here's the courier punching up the document for me to sign to accept the shipment. Out man here used to be a musician in the Cleveland area where I lived until going of to university. Small world. Perhaps he will come catch a session sometime.

The pipe sections can roll over one another in the box, so the ends have no internal support. The result being a landing on the edge opened up the box a bit. I don't think anything went missing, but I have not opened it up yet, knowing after I do so it will consume all of my time. And the grass is getting really tall and I have an errand to run today. But after my grass cutting and errand I will open the box and dive in to the project.

Is mise,

Carey

Prototype Progress

2011-09-23T18:07:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I decided to get a jump on the Parks Black/Ninja/Shadow/Stealth whistle project before the box of material from Phil arrived. I had one section of pipe of sufficient length to make another body for Prototype #1. So, since I had not yet tried to place the tone holes in locations appropriate for this pipe, I decided to get as many tries out of the existing body as I could.

Above is the prototype as it was.

I cut a piece of all-thread (I'm not even going to ask what it's called in England) and made some square Delrin nuts to use as stops for the hole template. I put the nuts on the rod in positions matching the holes in the prototype, then played the prototype into Flutini, chewed on the exported data with Polygraph, and got the RTTA plot I expected, inclined from one end to another since the ID of this pipe is different from that which the template was created for.

So I cranked the nuts around on the rod into positions that I thought would be better and drilled a set of holes opposite the exiting holes. Did I mention I engraved "Set 1" on the side with the original holes? Gotta keep track of who's who here. It's easy to get confused when they all look the same.

After de-burring/undercutting the new tone holes I taped over the old set of holes and played the whistle for the computer. Better, but still a way to go.

Above is the hole template and Prototype 1, Body 1 with three sets of holes.

Repeat with "Set 3" see above with two lengths of tape covering sets 1 and 2. Not too shabby sounding, and the plot confirms it.

So I make a final adjustment to the hole template and went for the new section of pipe. I could have done another set in the old pipe, but frankly I was running out of time if I wanted to take this whistle to the session that I was about to attend. That, and the "spare" holes, even tho taped over, are perturbations in the air flow so if you get close, one needs to go with a fresh section of pipe.

The last hole arraingement going into the drilling jig.

Locking the template in the jig. The sliding car which holds the whistle body for drilling is see on the right here. It slides in the grooves of the aluminium extrusion under my bench-top drill press (pillar drill.)

Here's the last hole, with the clamping mechanism of the sliding car on the left, and the brass pin (like the knurls?) that locates against those Delrin nuts.

Not perfect, but not too bad either. Good enough for folk music as the saying goes.

People who played the prototype like the sound, but said they needed some time with the whistle to see how they really liked it.

I also would like to make the mouthpiece and markings the same cream color I'm using on the Bb whistle. That may be a challenge given the dims the CPVC is available in. But I'll have a go and see if I can manage it.

Little Pieces From Big Pieces

2011-09-22T11:06:00.000-04:00

Phil sent these photos yesterday, which is when he got the package off. As you can see in the photos, Phil is a man all about music. Tools? Yeah, he can probably handle those as well, but he's having a little fun with us. Catch Phil on BBC Lancashire on Fridays.

(click any photo to enlarge)

I notice his tape measure (do the call it that in England?) is in centimeters only. Mine is in inches only. However most of the smaller rulers and things have both imperial and metric units. Is that the case in England too, or is it only here where we're too darn lobbied to make sensible decisions?

Careful Phil, the mechanical dinosaur looks like it's winning!

Not a bad sized parcel. If I understand Phil's e-mails, he's done two rounds of cutting 30 meters each time following the schedule I gave him. So there is 60 meters of pipe in that box.

Cutting Schedule
Pipe Cut
1 8x375
2 8x375
3 8x375
4 8x375
5 8x375
6 8x375
7 10x300
8 10x300
9 10x250, 1x375
10 3x375, 5x300, 1x250

I planned it out so we could get the most whistles out the ten three meter pipes, going for a balanced mix of D whistles and C and Eb bodies. We are not going for any Walkabout models in this iteration. the are similar, but require an additional cm or two to cut the joint between hands.

A man after my own heart. Riding his bike to send off the pipe sections. I also deliver most of my shipments to the local post office via my bicycle as well. Maybe I'll get a photo of that sometime too.

Black High Whistle Development

2011-09-14T10:28:00.000-04:00

I have been wanting to make some high whistles in black, but try as I may, I could not find a source of suitable pipe in America. I found one possible source a couple years ago, but they just sold the last of their black stock and were not ordering more. A few months ago I found a source for 1/2" PVC in black, but the smallest they had was schedule 40, so I made some alto whistles in black. (Which you can see on my web site at http://parkswhistles.com/AltoWhistles.html
Recently I found a web site that will make "any size, any color" PVC shapes. OK, this should be it. And it would be, if I wanted to purchase 20,000 feet of the stuff. Yes, you did the math right - almost four miles. I'd have to put it in my will.

Quite a while ago, I did a swap with a "web pen-pal" Jem, a wooden flute player, restorer and pvc piccolo maker in Wales, UK.Jem sent me a few lengths of the pipe to experiment with. It would make a nice whistle. But I couldn't find anything like it over here, and I didn't feel right asking Jem to get involved, as I didn't want to put the burden of a regular commitment on him.

One of my dealers, Phil Brown at Big Whistle Music in the UK, called a couple weeks ago and while we chatted he mentioned that he thought he could sell more of my whistles in black than white in Europe.

"Maybe the white color doesn't cross the Atlantic well" he suggested.

"No, I think people would like a black whistle here too" I replied, "But I can't find the stuff over here."I told Phil about the pipe from Jem, which is sold as electrical conduit in the UK. I had the brand, size and everything, and they sold it all through Europe and Asia from the looks of the web site, but nothing in North America.

So began Phil's quest for the pipe, and after only a single day I see the following in an e-mail from Phil: "I found where I can get it, but they have to order it in special. If I waited a day to place the order, it would come in a week later. So I placed the order before speaking with you. They only sell it in ninety meter lots. I hope that's OK, because it's too late if not."

HA! My man Phill seems as excited about this project as I am.

Suspecting it might make an interesting tale to follow in real time, I plan to report on the progress as the material arrives, comes across the Atlantic and is turned into the first batch of black Parks high whistles. So as milestones are reached I'll post some photos and reports to this blog.

From what I can tell having played around with a short section of the material I got from Jem, the whistle will sound enough different from the white Every that I don't want to use the same name. Plus the material will be more costly with the shipping over etc. so it will be a different price. So it will need a new name. The first name to come to mind is "Ninja", because of the blackness. Not sure that's Celtic enough.

Thoughts?

Here's Phill taking delivery of the first ninety meters.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Another shot of what ninety meters of 17 mm conduit looks like.

That should keep me busy for a while.

Letter To A Beginner

2011-09-10T11:17:00.000-04:00

From time to time I get questions about my whistles, and I'm happy to tell people about them. Considering that for every person who asks there are several others who wonder, I thought I'd just put my reply to Mike on my blog where everyone can read it.

Thanks for asking Mike!

Hello Mike,

Yes, while an advanced player will find a lot to like in the Every Whistle, it is also quite suitable for a beginner. In fact, I was a beginner myself when I designed it, and thus I wanted it to be easy to play. Air requirements are low for the volume. The only way to use less air is to make a smaller wind way, which would make the whistle quiet to the point where it would not be useful in a session.

That said, by closing the "Parks Tone Ring" down, not only do you make the whistle quieter, but you also reduce the air requirements.

My whistles are appropriately loud and shrill at the top of the second octave when the Parks Tone Ring is fully open. Not as loud and shrill as some however. In time, when you learn to finesse the whistle you will come to control and appreciate this character as appropriate to the music and the instrument. But by closing down the "Parks Tone Ring", the upper octave is the first to be tamed, giving you a nice somewhat airy sound without reducing the volume very much.

At the other extreme, if you close the Parks Tone Ring until it is open only a crack you can play at a whisper. I've had one customer who wrote to thank me for the tone ring because it allowed him to practice on a cross-country flight without disturbing the passengers nearby. But my favorite was a fellow who wrote to tell me he could play in bed while his wife was asleep!

So yes, by all means, try one of my Every Whistles. If you find it not to your liking you may return it.

Here is one of my customers, Tiffany, playing "An Feochán" (Gentle Breeze) on an Every D whistle. [Click to play]

You can't rush the training of your muscles. You just have to play, play and play some more, and the skill and ability will accumulate within you. Only play when you enjoy it, and put the whistle down when it is no longer fun. You need to do this to allow your body to assimilate what it has learned during the session. I find several shorter sessions per day are better than one long one.

In the early stages you are teaching your body how to make the sound you want, so the notes of a tune or song are not as important as just making the sounds. Play things you know by heart. Don't struggle with dots on a page and try to learn to map them to finger positions. This will only be a liability in the future, involving way more of your brain than is helpful. Learn the tune so you can hum or whistle it with your lips before you try to play it, then play without looking at the dots, unless you just can't figure out what that one note is - then identify the note and put the paper away again.

A friend at our session recently related a story. He was at a music seminar and one of the students asked another "So can you read music?" The second replied "Oh yes, I went to Juilliard. How about you?" "I can read music some, but not so much that it gets in the way of my playing."

Good luck, and enjoy the journey.

Carey

Alto Bb Whistle In Production, A and G soon to follow

2011-08-14T21:30:00.000-04:00

So I've made the Bb, and I have an A and G length body on the workbench waiting for me to get around to figuring out where the best place to put the holes is.

I've been side-tracked by interesting technical questions pertaining to how to check the intonation of the whistle in my mid-90F shop when it is to be played in a upper 70's environment, and how best to adjust the holes by micro amounts. It's not as simple as moving the tuning slide, because the whistle is exactly in tune with itself AND other instruments only at one ambient temperature. Move the slide in or out and you move the high finger holes more (proportionally) than the lower ones, and mess up the intonation. Not so much that you notice on a casual playing, but enough that I can measure it, and I want the whistles to be as good as possible in actual use.

Another challenge is the variation of the ID of the tubing as it comes from the factory. Is it less work/cost to try and "fix" the ID so I can use the same hole jig or is it better to leave the ID alone, and ooch the holes around to suit the ID on every whistle?

I think the answer is ooching the holes for the ID of the whistle, but that requires a good way to measure the effective ID and calculate and accurately set the hole locations.

Maybe it would be easier to use metal tubing with a constant ID. But I sooo like the black and cream colors of the Bb whistle....

Happy St Patrick's Month

2011-03-02T17:58:00.000-05:00

Here it is St Patrick's Month. I wish I were five people given the number of calls the band is getting for gigs. Too bad we can't take them all, or rather too bad they all want to be on the same day. I'll post some photos of the gigs after I have some. Looks to be fun though. www.theboysofcountylee.com

The surgery went well. That was my first un-natural opening in my epidermis, and it was kinda fun being the center of all that attention at the hospital. Then three hours after the doc closed me up they told my wife to go get the car and take him home. Which was good too, being home that is. But getting home, my poor wife couldn't drive carefully enough to suit me. Every wiggle of the car put a strain on my new incision. Owch!

Sitting around was pretty boring, but I read a lot and did get the new web site done. Do you like it?

I'm in the final stages of developing some alto whistles. They will be G, A and Bb. Stay tuned for more on the alto whistles.

That's it for now, I have to get back to finishing up some orders for dealers in England and Canada.

Slan,

Carey

Time Out From The Shop

2010-12-29T15:04:00.002-05:00

Hello, it's been half a year since I posted to the blog. Good grief! I think that happens because I'm posting smaller posts on Facebook, and even some smaller posts on Twitter. I'm trying to figure out what content customers and potential customers might find interesting, and how best to share it.

I don't think it matters that I've taken a liking to "McCann's Irish Steel Cut Oatmeal (Ready in Five Minutes)" or that I learned a new set of reels that I really like. But if it has to do with changes in my shop or my whistle making which impacts the quality, price or availability of my products, I guess that's worth a few words. Or even a picture or video. So if you are a Twitter or Facebook user, here's where you can find me:

http://www.facebook.com/carey.parks
http://twitter.com/LuthierCarey

To bring you up to date here, I've had a pretty busy year filling orders to individuals and dealers. I think I've got enough dealers now and am not currently taking on more thanks to the internet which allows me to interact directly with my customers. (Like this.)

I did get pretty far along on the new G/A/Bb alto whistles in November. I have recruited a dozen or so players to give me feedback on some prototype, or in software lingo "beta," whistles, and was preparing the whistles for the testing.

Then in addition to the up-tick in direct orders, several large dealer orders came in so I put the final work on the new whistles aside until those orders went out.

During that effort I started having trouble standing in the shop for long periods and found I had developed a hernia. Doc says "Just lucky I guess." With the holidays, the surgeon's schedule, and the games we need to play with our health insurance, I decided to try to make it to 2011 before having it repaired. He said I risk permanent damage if I don't take it easy until it's fixed, so I'm avoiding anything that hurts, doing a lot of computer work like improving my internal database for tracking orders, customers and product serial numbers as well as WIP stock levels.

I am also working on a new website which will be done in the simplest way possible - just typing the html into a text editor - to allow (encourage?) me to make more frequent updates to the site and hopefully avoid some compatibility issues. I do the current website with Microsoft Visual Studio which is the normal Microsoft overkill for what I need. Hopefully I'll have the new site up in the next week or so.

Since I just have a few more operations on the prototypes before they can be tested, I'm going to try and complete them in the next couple days so the trials can proceed while I'm following doctor orders to "do nothing" while the repair takes root.

But I'm pretty pleased with how the alto whistles turned out, and am curious to see what others think of them.

Oh, one fun bit of news that has only indirect impact on my products. I have been wondering and looking to some degree for a link to the Parks who came over from Europe. I really enjoy listening and playing ITM, so I've been thinking there's got to be some Celt in there somewhere, but I couldn't prove it.

One tale my father told was that our name used to be spelled Parkes, but an ancestor got mad a the family, took the "e" out an moved to the Pittsburgh area. Well, that appears to be a red herring, no doubt created when "Irish need not apply." As well as the single census in 1850 when the person who came over claimed to be from Scotland. Or maybe that's the truth, and the biographer in 1905 who wrote the following didn't chase up the name change:

"WILLIAM B. PARKS, a prosperous business man of Greensburg, was born September 13, 1838, in the vicinity of Courtney Station, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, a son of James and Mary (Woods) Parks. James Parks (father) was born in Tyrone, Ireland, where he was reared and educated, attending the common schools adjacent to his home. When twenty-five years of age he determined to seek a new home for himself amid new surroundings and accordingly emigrated to the United States, settling in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, where he spent the remainder of his days. At the early age of fifteen years he married, and the death of his wife occurred nine months later. He married a second time, this wife dying one year later, survived by one child, and at the age of twenty-five year? he married his third wife, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Woods, in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, and they had eight children: Alexander, deceased; Martha, Nancy, Alice, deceased; Ann Jane, William B., mentioned hereafter; Thomas, and James, deceased." from "History of Westmoreland Co" by John N. Boucher

If that turns out to be true, and I expect it will, that means the two fellows in the photo at the top of this blog - my good fiddler friend Ian Barksdale and I - both came from the same county in Ireland several generations ago.

So if anyone reading this has any more information on the Parks family in Co Tyrone, or in Westmoreland Co, Pa, I'd be happy to hear it.

Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Duit!
(Happy New Year! )

Carey

Parks Whistles Goes to the Moon

2010-12-15T09:40:00.000-05:00

Well, sort of. The clever folks at Google have been having some fun it seems. I have been advertising beside people's search results for a year or so. Perhaps you've seen one of my ads. Regardless, here's a look at Google's "Thank You" to their AdWords customers. And of course they are hoping we'll pass it along, like I'm doing. But only because I think it's sorta cute. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/adwords10?hl=en-us&forcelang=false&x=25162a57fd1f4dde9052f50c12fa4db5

What Effect Does Ambient Temp Have On Intonation?

2010-10-01T14:47:00.002-04:00

I have been rigorously testing the intonation of my whistles while playing tuns for almost two years now. It just dawned on me that I can improve my measurement, and thus the family of whistles, by changing how I measure their intonation.

Basically, I should test the whistles in a way that will show me if my whistles are changing regardless of changes in the temperature of my shop. Of course it would be best to control the temperature of my shop, but lacking that solution, what is the next best improvement I can make.

For the moment, my question is simplified in order to make a specific decision:

Is it preferable, when measuring intonation as measured with RTTA to

A) set the whistle to the same length regardless of ambient conditions

B) tune a note to it's desired frequency ?

I think I can answer this with some spreadsheet work regarding speed of sound vs. temp in the spreadsheet.

First I developed a metric that ignored absolute pitch but would be a good representation of relative pitch of the note of my whistle. That being the Sigma of cents off target for each note. Cents is used because the ear detects pitch differences linearly if expressed in cents. 10 cents being noticable to an untrained ear, and 5 to a trained ear. And Sigma is used because it is based on the difference from the average error of all the tones, thus ignoring average pitch change due to ambient conditions or tuning slide movement.

The crux of the question is the linear movement of all tone holes (moving the slide) vs. the proportional movement of the pitch with temperature (not moving the slide.) Since absolute tone is not a factor in my metric, I'm looking for the best way to measure the intonation of the whistle regardless of temperature. My intuition says leave the tuning slide alone.

Starting with a calculated D whistle at 80F (typical A/C session conditions plus a little warm breath) I thought I'd calculate the cents off for temps to from 90F to 40F in ten degree increments if I left the tuning slide alone and then again if I adjusted the slide to bring one note into tune.

Here are the plots:

So, if I've done the spreadsheet properly, (I calculated a cent as 1/200th of true D to true E) I'm going to have a larger sigma for my intonation if I tune the whistle to some specific note than if I set it at a fixed length. But without other calculations I won't really have a number that represents the intonation of the whistle at 80F, chief among these is the tempering effect of the breath on the air that is vibrating vs. the ambient air. But because of the that tempering effect, I should see less error in measured intonation than indicated by the charts above.

So then I wondered, if I found the Sigma due to temperature effects, could I subtract that from my calculated value and be left with the error from the whistle? (Using variance when subtracing of course)

Hmm... I could, but I need to include other effects such the temperature of the mixed ambient air and breath air, CO2 and water vapor in the mix. Since I believe my current calculated sigma from the spreadsheets is overstated due to ignoring these effects, I would be blaming too much of the error on the temperature.

But for now I think I've convinced myself that I should set the whistle up for play in a comfortable air conditioned space and use that same length for each RTTA test I do out in the shop.

Thanks to Terry McGee and Grame Roxbury for the RTTA technology.

Carey

Using the "Parks Tone Ring"

2010-09-21T10:09:00.000-04:00

Using the "Parks Tone Ring" is pretty straightforward, but I have received questions from potential customers while they were considering their purchase. So here's a quick overview of the use of my tone ring.

In the photo below you see three whistles, and the tone ring goes from fully open but in place against the mouthpiece to nearly completely closed.

The effect of the tone ring in these three positions is as follows:

Fully open: In this position the ends of the tone ring and the lower end of the mouthpiece form "walls" around the sound window of the whistle. This has the effect of organizing the air a little bit for the low notes. The whistle speaks it's loudest, and is pretty clear, with a hint of chiff, and a nice fruity finish. (No, wait, that last fruity bit is for wines.)

Partially closed: A little breathy sound is introduced, and the volume is slightly reduced.

Mostly closed: The whistle is quite breathy, almost whispering it's notes. A little more open than this and it sounds somewhat like an original Clarke.

Removed from the windway: This position is not shown, but the tone ring is simply slid down the body an inch or so from the mouthpiece. This takes the tone ring completely out of the sound producing process. When this is done, the upper notes of the second register are a little easier to sound, and the overall sound of the whistle is a little cleaner, or less chiffy than with the tone ring in place. The trade-off is a weaker low end, requiring a little more care to sound the bell note.

Regardless of the position of the tone ring, my whistles play easily in both the first and second registers, and the octave jump is easy to control. No whistle plays itself however, and a complete beginner - that is one that has no experience with breath control - will still have to learn to make the whistle do what they want with respect to octave jumps and accurate tones for the various notes.

A little more about this last point. If you can whistle with your lips, you will notice your mouth cavity changes shape and/or volume (size) when you whistle from low notes to high notes. A similar thing must be learned to play the whistle. Your head is actually playing a part in the production of the sound. You can't put it all on the whistle. But this is good news, as you have the ability to be expressive with your playing using this to your advantage.

G, A and Bb in the works

2010-07-23T12:39:00.000-04:00

It's been a long while since I posted a blog entry. Been busy making whistles for customers and working on some new whistles. I had a low A prototype whistle, but wasn't happy with the upper end of the second register. After showing in around locally for a while I scrapped that design and started over with a different size pipe. Much better, I have a prototype Bb at the moment that I really like.

I used some new (for me) tricks to try to simulate the effects of a tapered bore, and they seem to have worked pretty good. I'm not sure if I will be able to make a whistle set this way however, as the head is pretty involved in the tuning of the whistle. I may just be offering individual whistles. We'll see how it comes out in the end.

Well, I better get out to the shop before tropical storm Bonnie kicks up storms and makes me turn off the lathe for fear of a power outage while I'm making a cut. We're looking at sustained winds of 40 with higher gusts, thunderstorms and the possibility of tornadoes. At the moment it's raining lightly under a solid gray overcast.

10:10

2010-05-14T10:29:00.000-04:00

10:10 stands for reducing one's carbon emissions 10% in 2010. It has become an international movement since Sep 2009 when the movie "The Age of Stupid" was released. 10% - pretty easy really, and it will save you money too. What's not to like? Check out some info and how-to's at:

The 10:10 web site

Poke around in the web site and see what it's all about and how fast people, businesses etc are getting on board.

Even the new UK government...

New UK coalition govt commits the country to 10:10

Best,

Carey

My Flute As A Tap

2010-03-21T21:42:00.000-04:00

I don't remember what I was doing, but earlier today something made me think of playing my flute not as "making" music, but as letting it out. The music is in there, and it just needs to be let out. Much like a tap lets the beer out of a keg. It can be a flute, or a fiddle, a banjo or a bodhran, but it's still just letting the music out.

True, my fingers and other muscles need to know how to move to make the sounds that the music requires, so practice is important. Sometimes I am just teaching my body how to make the sounds that will become music.

I often hear people say that they are a "piano player" or a "guitar player" or something. I suppose that if someone were to hand you a sheet with music on it and you would play your piano or whatever and make the sounds on that paper you would be a piano player. Like a player piano, but without the roll mechanism.

It's not the paper that makes the difference either. Either from memory or from paper it is possible to make the sounds as they were put down by another and you will be playing the piano. But if the music has gotten in you, and you are letting it out again, then you are making music. Letting the music out.

Er..Hang On, New Sheriff In Town

2010-03-14T22:30:00.000-04:00

Not a week after our first gig the pub changes hands and there's a new Sheriff in town. Lots of things are changing, not the least of which is the music. The session will move to Monday evening, out of town bands will be playing Wed-Sun during season. More Celtic rock than trad. So our first gig was also our last for the time being. Oh well, it was fun.

The Boys Of County Lee -> We're the house band!

2010-02-06T09:57:00.000-05:00

This past Wednesday "The Boys Of County Lee" debuted as the Celtic Ray's house band. It was fun, but I thought it a little odd to be standing on stage with a mic and all in the same place we hold our weekly session. But that didn't last long. At the moment we're a four-piece with bouzuki, fiddle, guitar, banjo, vocals, whistles and flute. Who plays what varies some, so I didn't put names on it all.

The place was pretty empty when we started at 7 PM, but very soon people started showing up, and for most of the evening the tables were all full and there were a number of people at the bar. Everyone seemed to have a good time. The tip jar did fair business, and management behind the bar was pleased and told us so.

We recorded the whole thing on a Zoom 8-channel studio and it's taken a while to get the music out, never mind pick out some good sets. I'll work on that, and post something when I have it. Also, our friend Steve took some photos and when I get those I'll post some.

It's Never Good Enough, But It's As Good As It Can Be

2010-01-25T10:46:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I think maybe I shouldn't post about when I make improvements to my process or my whistles, because I worry some people might feel bad about not having the latest and greatest. But then I remember what W. Edwards Deming said once when challenged about some changes he had made "I refuse to apologize for improvement." He was a crusty old sod when I met him as the 80's were turning into the 90's. But he was always dead on when he got in somebody's face about something.

I learned from Dr. Deming that if things appear to be all the same, you are not measuring closely enough. There's always variation at some level. It's foolish to pretend there isn't. Nothing is ever perfect. So don't set specs within which a product is considered "good" and outside of which it is considered "bad" because it just ain't so. Maybe a customer says they will only buy product within certain specs, but even that is foolish because they probably could be getting better, or at least more uniform product, if they just specified a target and took what you made, as long as both you and they know how much variation exists in the product and there's confidence you are working to get better and better.

Enough of the quality improvement theory for now, here's what's new in the shop...

In this case the intonation of the whistles was the subject of my scrutiny, and while my then-current whistles were better than those of the recent past due to the adoption of a solid whistle hole template (rather than a set of six stops sliding in a groove on my jig which were difficult to position accurately) I was frustrated by the effort involved in making a new template when I wanted to move a hole a little bit.

So, just before drilling the holes in the last batch of whistles it dawned on me that I could make an adjustable hole template that was very easy to adjust accurately and once the hole positions were known I could then make a new fixed template as easily as I could drill holes in a whistle.

Below you see the results of my work. The black rod with the six holes is one of the permanent hole templates. The screw on the end lets me adjust the collection of holes in case there is a need to. The new R&D template is in the foreground. With it, I set the holes to match the whistle I want to change, then budge the stops to the new hole positions and make trial whistles. Once I arrive at the new improved hole locations I simply put a piece of the black rod in my jig and drill the stop holes.

After using the jig to refine my C whistle template, the best whistles in a batch didn't get any better, but the variation in intonation from whistle to whistle has been reduced. Which is a good thing. Are they noticeably better? I wonder. Are they are more alike. No doubt.

I know, "Just send me the whistles, and don't tell me how the shop works!" HA!

Stay "tuned!"

Carey

Mobile Phone Post

2009-11-21T21:33:00.002-05:00

I'm trying out blogging from my new "phone." It probably has more computing power than the Apollo lander had. Pretty sweet what they are doing these days.
Anyway, I have been working on tooling for the shop. I'm not convinced I can put the drill press back in shape if I had to take it apart so I'm devising ways to ensure the drill ends up in the same position relative to the hole jig.
Oh, and I did a little work on the 1860's Meyer flute too.
Session tomorrow and Rob Gandara of The Pipe Makers Union is going to stop by the shop. He's in the area for a Celtic fest.
Yeah, this phone is sweet. I'm lying on a couch next to the pool in the Lanai. The weather is turning nice. We've finally got the A/C off and the doors open. Great. Time of year here.

Busy day

2009-11-16T16:59:00.003-05:00

Friday an editor from the regional newspaper the News-Press called to see if she and a photographer could come by sometime early this week. Heck yeah! We set up for today. The editor was unable to come but the photographer spent over an hour taking shots of me making whistles, playing whistles, and whistles in racks and on tables etc. I wonder how good I was at modeling?
Following his departure, I set about filling in my web presence by finally getting on Twitter, and trying to link all the various social networks together. In case you found you way to this post and are not a friend/follower/whatever on your favorite social net, here's where I can be found currently:

www.parkswhistles.com
http://www.facebook.com/carey.parks
www.linkedin.com/in/careyparks
www.reverbnation.com/careyparks
www.myspace.com/careyparks

and the band at
www.myspace.com/theboysofcountylee

For you news feed junkies:
http://feeds.artistdata.com/rss.newfeeds/artist/AR-9H1I9281A64I4QBJ/rss

So, stay in touch eh?

Blog to Blog

2009-11-12T11:57:00.000-05:00

There's some interesting stuff going on in Boston these days, and my customer Susan Gedutis Lindsay seems to be in the middle of a lot of it. Check out her blog. This link will drop you in on her post where she comments on her new Walkabout Every Whistle.

http://sueandstevelindsay.blogspot.com/2009/11/100-days-of-practice-round-2-day-24.html

On that post is a link to the Boston College photo collection which is a lot of fun to browse.

Enjoy!

How quiet can it get?

2009-10-20T09:32:00.002-04:00

I just had to pass along this e-mail from Ben in Japan. No further comment needed.

Hi Carey,

It arrived a few days ago, and I'm loving it. Excellent whistle, great sound, very portable. The best part, of course, is the tuning ring, or silencer, or whatever. I'm living in a Japanese apartment with pathetically thin walls, and I can play without my neighbours hating me. Thanks!

Ben

When Life Hands You Lemons...

2009-10-18T10:30:00.002-04:00

Actually it wasn't that bad. My alternate local session takes place on Saturday about an hour away. I got there twenty minutes early to find the doors locked. No note.The calendar in the window said there was some group performing later in the day. Everything looked as it should except the doors were locked. Hmm... I sat and waited for the session hostess to arrive and see what she would have to say. It was news to her too. Then a third player arrived. We had a fiddle, a flute and a concertina. Sounds like a session to me. After one set the fiddler said "Hey, let's put a note on the door and go to your house (the host's) and have some fun. I'll stop and buy some beer on the way."
So we did that. The three of us spent the rest of the afternoon discovering tunes that we had in common. I only see the fiddler once or twice a year, and the concertina player maybe five times a year, so it was great fun. The fiddler didn't even know I was playing the flute now, and he was really pleased. When we parted he said "That flute sounds great. Have you noticed I haven't stopped smiling since you played the first couple notes?"
It was a good day.

Play the Music

2009-10-13T12:01:00.000-04:00

Sometime in the past year I read a quote from an oboist for a famous orchestra. (I would credit him if I could remember who said it so let me know if you know who it was.) They said "I play music for the (famous name here) orchestra on the oboe." That simple sentence is quite profound. He didn't say "I play oboe" he said "I play music." Playing the music is key. Not playing notes, not playing the whistle, but playing the music.

Many people start playing music on a penny whistle because it is not very complicated to make notes with. This is a good thing because you can more quickly forget about the mechanics of the notes and get to the music. Once you get to where you are playing the music, you will find that music is what comes out, not just notes. It will come out of your mouth when you hum it, it will come out of your lips when you whistle it, and it will come out of your penny whistle when you play it.

It will take a little time before your body will automatically make the sound you want on any chosen instrument, and until you reach that point you will be aware of the mechanics of playing each note. This is a place we must all pass through, but we don't want to stay there and learn to play each note faster and more precisely. We want to be able to forget all about the act of making the notes and just make the music. Speed and accuracy will take care of themselves since the music will sound better and that will reinforce the learning.

There is no short-cut. You have to train your body. The younger you are when you start, the quicker it will learn, but there's not such thing as too old to learn. Maybe too old to learn quickly, but since learning is fun, it doesn't really matter how fast you learn does it?

Once you can play the music, you will gradually be able to think other thoughts while you play. Most say when they started they were aware of playing the notes, hoping the result sounded like music. It took a lot of concentration. Personally I couldn't even look at anything moving or I'd get thrown off. Then people say they listen to the music they are playing and in effect play along with themselves thinking the music. The next level is being able to think about things other than what you are playing. Things like "What tune should I follow this with?" which isn't real hard to manage when you are ready, but also "How does it go?" which was a little trickier as you are playing one tune while thinking up another.

So focus on the music. If you can't hum or whistle a tune, what makes you think you can play it on an instrument? The music has to be in you before it can come out again. So listen to your chosen music a lot, and make sure it's really in you. Really in you. All the little details that make it sound like what it is. Then it will be a lot easier to share it with others through your playing. Because that's what you are doing. You are not "performing" you are sharing the music that is in you.

What Have I Been Doing?

2009-10-06T19:46:00.002-04:00

Wow the time has gone by quick. It's been a month and a half since I told you about moving the lathe, and I've made some good use of it. Initially I had to make some tooling for the lathe and adapt some store-bought stuff to work with it.

I learned some limitations by breaking a mill or two, but I improved my whistle manufacturing process and shaved a little time off each whistle as well. I'm still not back to where I was before I added the step of doing RTTA graphs of each whistle body (that's three tests for a C, D, Eb set) but it's good to do the testing. I know the whistles are better because of it.

I have been a bit backed up on orders because of the lathe adventure, and that was compounded by a problem or three at the engravers where the logo and key are put on. As the saying goes, "what don't kill you makes you stronger." That applies here as well, as we now have a better process between myself and the engraver, and I am upping my stock levels of finished whistles so the larger dealer orders don't cause a bump in the system. Everything is sorted out now, and I have all whistle orders filled, with whistles on the shelf waiting for you (hint, hint.) There's only two gig bags I still owe people, and that's because they shipped them nearly a month ago but they never arrived here. The company promised me I'll have my replacement order by the start of next week. My fingers are crossed.

That's it for now. It's out to the shop to turn the tuning slides on the next 25 whistles.

Stay "tuned,"

Carey

Moving the Lathe

2009-08-19T10:48:00.005-04:00

OK, I finally got around to a blog entry about moving the new (to me) lathe. As luck would have it, my wife's uncle bought this lathe in 1984 and took very good care of it. It came to us as part of his estate. All I had to do was go get it. No small task, but not a huge one either.

Here's the lathe sitting in the basement where it's been since it was new. It's a 5x25 lathe with a mill attached so the cross slide can be used for both. Lucky for me it runs on 110 single phase current.

The main challenge was going to be getting the lathe off it's stand as even stripped the main part weighted over 300 pounds and you can't go lifting it by just any old piece of metal that's sticking out lest you bend it.

We drilled a hole in the floor joist above it and used my old climbing gear webbing to make a point to attache the comealong to. Another piece of webbing thru the casting between the ways and up we go.

We set it down on a dolly and using a strap under the low end so two of us could get a better lift on it bumped it up the stairs one step at a time. "1-2-3-Heave!" is how it got to the top of the stairs.

Into the rented truck with the lathe parts and all it's tooling. It took the rest of that day and the whole next day (8-8:30) to arrive in Cape Coral.

No basement here, so an engine hoist was just the ticket. I unloaded the smaller bits, including the stand by hand or with a dolly. Then the hoist lifted the lathe right out of the truck and we pushed it over to the stand and placed it carefully over the bolt holes.

And here it is, in place in it's new home.

It is a bit of a challenge to find oil and parts for it way down here in vacation land. Maybe in Tampa it would be easier. Web shopping is the greatest!

I've Got Too Many Fiddles To Not Try One

2009-05-15T09:37:00.002-04:00

Here's the short story - I played clarinet in grade school, made a penny whistle a few years ago to take kayaking and while learning to play it discovered ITM.

Then my grandfather's tenor banjo (and cello banjo!) that my father passed down to me started to make sense so I learned to play the tenor (strung Irish) a little.

Then I dug out the fiddles that also came from my grandfather. One was complete and one was nothing but neck, fingerboard and body. No pegs, no tailpiece nothing else. Ian my fiddler friend played Grandpap's fiddle some until the body started to crack.

So I thought maybe I'd fix up the one in parts and see if I could play that a little too. I wanted to fix up the second one because I would need it to be left-handed and preferred not to mess with the good one.

Since I didn't have a bow with which to play either one, I put a request on freecycle.org (a place where you can give away stuff you don't want anymore so it can be used rather than go to a landfill.) A lady came back offering a violin that was "broken" and we don't know anything about it so you can have it and maybe it will be of some use to you."

It turned out to be a 1/2 violin, for a very young child. The bridge was glued in place, and the tailpiece was missing the wire to the button at the end so it too was glued to the top of the violin. I didn't notice that and as soon as I put some pressure on the strings it popped off and smashed into the bridge taking that off as well. I wondered how best to break that loose.

I took it to RJ at Darkwood, a luthier in the area to see if it had any value. He said it wasn't anything special, but he put a wire on the tailpiece for me and sold me the one string that was missing for a dollar. I'm going to find a kid who might want to play it who might not otherwise have a chance for a fiddle.

So now I have a quite functional 1/2 violin, a pretty good fiddle from 1925 and one in pieces from somewhat later in the century, between the 20's and early 60's. I'm guessing 40's maybe.

How can I not at least explore the fiddle? So I turned the strings and bridge around on the good fiddle for now, just to see how it feels to fiddle. If I like it I might move the bass bar over on the one in pieces before I put it back together, and make it a proper lefty fiddle. Right now the jury is out. It's really strange to rock the bow as much as is needed to play the different strings. But the fingering isnt' too bad.

While I visited my grandfather a lot, sadly I never heard him play anything, in fact I never even knew he played. And my father - as much as he enjoyed music - never could learn to play. But he kept the instruments and now I'm very glad he did. I'm just sorry he passed while I was just learning to play them. I hope he is watching now when I stand on stage playing his father's instruments.

Two Irish Players

2009-04-15T12:05:00.001-04:00

Yesterday afternoon I got an e-mail from Ian the fiddler saying a couple of brothers from Ireland looked him up on thesession.org and asked if they might have some tunes while they were here on vacation. Heck yes! We had our Tuesday kitchen session scheduled for Ian's that very day. Whoo hoo! It's always good fun to play with new folks.

When the evening approached the clouds were gathering and by the time we all headed over to Ian's the sky was dark and stormy. "It was a dark and stormy night..." Well on the outside at least. At Ian's we were nice and cozy and having some tunes. The streets of Cape Coral threw John and Louie off the trail once, but they made it and we had a great time playing tunes until well past when we should have stopped.

John played flute and when he sang he would accompany himself on guitar. Louie did a great job in the bodhran. What fun it was to have them visit. I hope they come back in the future, or better still, I can meet them in Ireland.

Last Friday's Fun

2009-03-21T14:26:00.008-04:00

or "Going Walkabout In Southwest Florida"

I saw a nach Meyer flute on ebay and it was offered by a shop in Port Charlotte, about 45 minutes away, so I went up yesterday to have a look at it and try it out. The shop fixed it up for a guy and he didn't want to pay to get it back so they are auctioning it off to recover expenses. I don't really need another one until I fix up the ivory headed one I've got and sell one of the two I currently own. So I just went mainly to have a go on the flute and learn something about a different maker's nach Meyer. I've been wanting to stop in at Darkwood too, so it was a good chance to combine both missions.

The Music Stand is a comfortable place with five practice/lesson rooms and a ton of instruments. Dave, the owner has been in the business for many years and plays in the Charlotte County symphony. I didn't ask what he plays, but he could make sounds on the flutes. I'm guessing he plays some sort of woodwind as he's got a string guy working for him.

Anyway I called before I went and got the guitar tech and he said come on up. When I got there he had the flute out behind the counter for me. I checked it out and gave it a couple toots, and tried a tune or two. Dave appeared at that point and asked would I like to step into one of the rooms. I'm thinking "Am I that bad?" Anyway the takes me back to a room and I mess with the flute some more, get it lined up as I like it and played an actual tune. Gotta warm these things up you know. Dave appears again and says it seems I know the music. He then goes and gets a whole arm load of old wooden flutes and piccolos. And a silver Eb Boehm flute that he is quite proud of.

I went to the car and brought in both of my flutes and the banjo. We had fun passing smelly flutes around and trying to play them. The one he repaired had cracked thru the embouchure and the crack wasn't very visible at all. Nice job. Tthe embouchure was a little larger than I though it would have been for that period. It played pretty clearly in the second octave. The low octave was a little more airy.

He had another flute that appeared to be by the same maker. Same keys and rings. He had not worked over the corks and pads on this one and the joins wobbled a little but it held air and could be played. The tone of this one was much better. I didn't think to put the head from the wobbly on the ebay one. He had one with an ivory head that wasn't in shape to even try. I tried a piccolo or two and don't have the focus for that. He could make sounds on them but a few notes would take his whole lung full of air. I've read they are harder to play than a flute.

I told him about the whistles I make and showed him the one I had in my pocket. He asked the price and said he would like to buy one. I didn't have a good Walkabout with me so I promised to bring one up to him. Which also gives me another chance to hang with them and check out more stuff. He said he'd come to the Ray in a couple weeks once the symphony season is over and he is free on Sundays. His guitar tech was into the banjo and wants me to bring the cello banjo up. He said he's got a bunch of loose strings in the back and he'll see if he can find some that would be good on the CB. He might come to the Ray. He's off at 4 on Sundays.

So I take my leave and head to Darkwood, and when I walk in Chris (a session mate) is there, having just finished giving a hammered dulcimer lesson. She introduced me to her student and took me around the place. It's interesting. A mishmash of cafe, music store, pottery studio and luthier cave. I had "Grandpap's fiddle" under my arm as I was wondering what it might cost to fix it up. RJ, the luthier and main dude had a look at it. "And oh, take it out of this case. I smell mold. Mold eats glue, which is really just horses ass." Chris told him I was the whistle maker and it was sort of "Oh". And as he putters on the workbench a bit he goes to a shelf and hands me two keyless flutes/fifes. "These are from the Civil War, made of oak from the Atlanta area we think." I have a go and it's a real struggle to play because they are so blasted small. Almost like playing a high G whistle sideways. I manage part of tune before the wheels come completely off my playing. I remark that it's hard to play, and my fingers have not learned where the holes are. He said "That's more consecutive notes than anyone else has got out of them" and he wanders off. Guess he's not the chatty type.

Steve (a string playing session mate) appears, and the three of us chat about St Patrick's day gigs, MG A's, MG B's and MG Midgets for at least an hour. I had them rolling holding their sides with the story about driving along under a semi to dodge on-comming traffic on a rolling two-lane state highway in Ohio. Chris allows as how she'd like to buy one of my whistles to practice her whistlin' in the self-consious learning phase. She's got an aluminum one she likes pretty well but doesn't practice it cuz it's so loud. After a while I put the fiddle under my arm and start drifting towards the door, pausing at the banjo mute sitting on the workbench top. (It's a claw hammer) RJ happens in and asks "Are you going to leave the fiddle?" "Not today, I just wanted to know how much budget I needed to work up." "Are you a friend of hers?" "I don't know if she'll admit it." "Gimme it. I'll glue it up for you." WhooHoo! "Come to the Ray some Sunday and I'll buy you a pint." He smiled "I drink Guiness." Chris says "So do most of them." So maybe we'll see RJ sometime. Chris says he's got an Irish song or two.

So, In pay it forward fashion, I gave Chris a whistle as payment for the fiddle repair that she unwittingly facilitated. Maybe she'll learn to play it and fit in a smaller space on the little stage than her hammered dulcemer. Maybe she's looking for a way out of that corner under the A/C vent.

Whatever the result it was an afternoon well spent. A whistle sold, a fiddle repaired (both just promises at this point) and some tunes played on some strange flutes. Oh, and the best part is that's the first time I noticed I didn't feel like an interloper in a music store. I used to feel like all the instruments were taunting me. Now just some of them are, especially the right-handed ones. . Music shops feel as comfortable to me now as car parts or wood working stores.

Boy, that's a whole chapter in a book! Sorry about that. That's why I don't twitter. Maybe I should save these ramblings and publish my own "Last Nights Fun"

Cherish The Ladies St Patrick's Day Concert and Parks Whislte Walkabout

2009-03-17T23:30:00.003-04:00

herish The Ladies came to Fort Myers, Florida for St Patrick's Day 2009 and I wasn't going to pass up that concert just for a gig or two. I sent Joanie Madden an e-mail ahead of time offering our sessions or general local knowledge if they were going to be in town for a while. Joanie said she was quite busy but would like to check out my whistles while she was here, and I should find her in the lobby after the concert.

The concert was quite good of course, and afterwards I let the folks finish the meet-and-greet with Joanie. As she was returning to the hall I introduced myself and we had a chat with a few other people for a while.

During a lull in the conversation, Joanie looks at me and says

"Well, did you bring a whistle?"

Of course I did. My sport coat was a virtual wearable whistle roll at the moment, with whistles in every pocket. I took out an Every Walkabout in it's pouch and handed it to Joanie.

"That's a whistle?" she said with raised eyebrows.

"Yep."

Joanie liberated the whistle parts from their case and assembled the whistle, still looking at it with an interested but wondering look on her face. She played a riff on the whistle and her eye's widened.

"That's good!" she said, and went back to more playing.

"That's very good!!" was the declaration after a minute or two of playing.

I'm sure I was absolutely beaming. Joanie said she really liked the whistle and would be happy to give me a recomendation. I asked her "How about a picture?" and she said OK. Of course I didn't bring a camera, so Kathleen Boyle the acordian/piano player in the group snapped a photo while Joanie and I played a couple tunes on my whistles.

From Whistle Promos

Carey and Joanie playing a few tunes on Parks Walkabout whistles. (click for larger image.)

Later Joanie invited me up on stage to peruse her whistle roll while she packed up her gear. She had a great big Sassafrass Grove 25 whistle roll, with two complete sets of whistles, each one's key clearly marked. She mentioned she had the marked whistle roll made for her after grabbing the wrong key whistle from the formidable stack one time on stage. Nice job on the whistle roll Sarah!

When she was about all packed up she put the Walkabout back in it's pouch and said "I'm not going to put this in my roll, I'm going to keep it in my wallet." Yea, it doesn't get any better than that, eh?

So next time you see Joanie, don't be surprised if she pulls a whistle out of nowhere and composes a tune on the spot.

Improved Quality - Silver Linings and Other Truths

2009-03-11T10:22:00.001-04:00

Every cloud has a silver lining, right? Sometimes it's not so easy to see it when it is raining on your parade, but I've found the silver lining to be mostly true. You just have to step back and take a look.

In the current case, I got a "bad" batch of pipe from which I made a number of whistles. It wasn't really that bad, not as far as water pipe goes. But it was bad as far as my whistle making was concerned. I had been making the Every family of whistles the same way for quite a while with no problems and had relaxed my inspection from 100% to only several per batch, following the tried and true QA US Govt Mil Spec sampling plans. All was going along fine.

After sending whistles to a few really experienced whistle players with good ears, I got a phone call from two, and an e-mail from the other saying the intonation of the whistle was off. And not just a little bit. Hmm... what could it be? Could you send me a clip of yourself playing the whistle, and then return the whistle to me for evaluation? I wanted to see how the whistles checked out in my hands compared to theirs. And it looks like I'm back to 100% inspection againg.

Could it just be due to different playing styles? None of the whistles I put thru the stringent testing showed a problem here in my hands. These folks have all played a number of different whistles so probably not. I'm expecting a problem with the whistles.

I had recently begun using the RTTA intonation analysis software from Terry McGee and Graeme Roxbury and had been testing some whistles with it, especially if I was changing the location of finger holes or something. I took the clips and ran them through the RTTA software. I now had a pretty good picture of the "live" intonation of the whistles in the customer's hands. When I got them back and did a plot myself, my plots showed intonation problems as well. So I reported that fact to the folks who were kind enough to tell me about it and set to work on finding out why these whistles were so different from the others I have made.

From Whistle Promos

Poor intonation whistle example. Only a handful of the whistles were this bad due to the thickness of the pipe from the maker. But it gives a good idea of how much a little extra material in the wrong place can change things. (click to enlarge)

My first reaction was to think that there must be something I did wrong. Maybe I got the calipers calibrated to something other that zero for a while. Something. But everything thing I normally measure checked out fine.

So I had to start checking things I didn't usually measure. The problem turned out to be a narrower body ID for the whistles. It wasn't much when measured, less than one-half of a millimeter, but in relation to the other dimensions that's quite a lot, as it applied for the whole length of the whistle.

The pipe, when used as hot water pipe, has to hold a minimum pressure, which requires a minimum wall thickness. The pipe must also fit properly into fittings, so the OD of the pipe is the most critical dimension for the plumbers. So if the pipe comes out a little heavy, it still makes good pipe, it just costs the maker some extra material. So the maker wants to use the minimum material, which causes the ID to be pretty darn consistent.

Until now. Maybe they started up a new line or maybe they started up a new operator. Whateve the cause, some of the pipe had a smalled ID than I had been getting from this source for years. OK, now that I know what happened, what can be done about it?

I could just measure the pipe and try to use only that pipe which was the size I expected it to be. But just beacuse I measure one spot doesn't mean the whole pipe is the same size. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and ream the ID of all the body sections so I would be sure that the body ID was the same for all my whistles.

I made the prototype whistles, and found there was an improvement in the intonation right off the drill press, which required less work tuning the whistle. This was good since reaming adds a fair amount of time to the making of each whistle and I hoped to get that time back somewhere. Of course happier customers alone are worth it, but often there's an actual manufacturing savings when you improve product quality. So long as you actually improve the process and not just inspect the quality in by throwing out more product.

Now that I was going to be reaming the pipe, I was going to be chucking the pipe quite tight and would mar the end of it with the chuck teeth. So this would need to be cut off, wasting a small section of material. Since I was now reaming the body I thought it would make sense for me to do all the body parts of a whistle together and keep them as a unit now rather than make so many heads, so many bodies and so many Walkabout parts and then after they are all machined, match them together. This required a complete change in how I measured the cuts when parting the whistle pieces from the original pipe.

Well, you get the idea. One small improvement and I completely re-worked my process for making the whistles. They appear to be the same whistles when you pick them up. But from my perspective I make them in a very different way now.

From Whistle Promos

This is a plot from one of the whistles made after the process change. (click to enlarge)

Even before the process change I have been keeping statistical process control charts on a lot of the steps during the making of a batch of whistles. Here's one on the tuning slide outside diameter. You can see just from looking that they are getting more consistent over time, due to relatively minor changes in how I do things. Note that it's how I do things not what I do that is improving. Maybe I'll talk more about SPC in the future.

From Whistle Promos

In a nutshell, narrower limits on the top chart means more uniform part. (click to enlarge)

Last Nights Fun

2009-03-09T10:32:00.002-04:00

As well as being a tune name, it's the name of a book by Ciaran Carson. Good stuff if you are a player of ITM or the flute.

So far my favorite line in "Last Nights Fun" is the one about the Boehm "... who devised an instrument of cylindrical bore and enormous tone holes which could not be covered by the fingers, but demanded an intricate system of pads, levers and springs to enable each key to open independently as well as interact with the others. The result, in the opinion of many, is a different instrument entirely; and certainly, it is disparaged by many traditional players as a class of typewriter."

I'm sure a Boehm flute is a fine instrument for the intended purpose, but this shows how one school defends itself against the other. I wonder what Boehm players say of simple system flutes?

Celtic Clan at the Celtic Ray

2009-02-23T11:26:00.002-05:00

Wow, it's been a while since I posted to the blog.

A lot has been going on behind the scenes in the workshop but nothing I felt worthy of a post. That's probably because I'm too close to it and it would be interesting to read. I'll try and get to a seperate post about the quality assurance improvements in the shop.

But what caused me to want to post today was having the lads from the Boston band Celtic Clan sit in during our session at the Celtic Ray yesterday. The sessions are always good fun, and each day has it's own personality. I'd say at one point yesterday there were as many Irish accents as not around the circle. And that with people sitting in chairs outside the normal circle. I can't do justice with words to the Celtic Clan guys. They are playing at the Ray on Monday and Tuesday and at Fiddler's Green in Winterpark, FL on Thu, Fri, and Sat. What vacation? And they come to the pub on Sunday for some fun. Very nice gents to have around and awsome players too. If you have a chance to catch them do yourself the favor and do it. You can find their schedule and other info including some cuts at their web site (click here.)

New Store Widget

2008-12-04T12:42:00.004-05:00

I'm working on making a Parks Whistles store widget, and the current status is below. It should be the sort of thing that anyone can include in their web page or blog. Pretty cool eh?

If you want to put this "store" in your blog or web page or what-have-you, click the "Help sell these products" link. Thanks!

Another toy I just found. Trying it out.

Discover Lúnasa!

Gail's Paddle Jam

2008-11-09T09:59:00.008-05:00

I wanted to share a glimpse of life here in southwest Florida. As most of the country is raking the last of the fall leaves and putting away the porch furniture for the winter, the weather here is just turning nice. Well, it's pretty much always nice, but in the summer the mid-day heat and the evening bugs can cause all but the most determined to chose an indoor activity.

Gail, one of our session mates, lives along the banks of the Orange River with her husband in a home that is on the register of historic places. She invited the local kayakers and players over for a hot dog roast. The paddlers could paddle in the afternoon or after dark as it was a nearly full moon. The players were welcome anytime. Here's a few shots of the event. Great fun, as it always is at Gail's place.

Parked by the barn, unloading the kayaks.

One of two launch choices. There's a concrete ramp on the right there.

The cove has a dock just to the right of Pat and Julie here. The other launch option.

Some of the players started up while we were out paddling.

Time for dinner before more tunes!

Doesn't it even look like we're playing Si Beag Si Mor? Great to flute with the autoharp.

And they're off into the tunes...

Dempsey's Session - New York City

2008-10-05T11:53:00.003-04:00

Here I am pointing to the Traditional Irish Music listing on the sign

While visiting relatives in New York City I took an evening to sit in with the session at Dempsey's Pub, the longest running session in NYC at 10 years.

The session was a good one, it started out with about 12 players and one drunk punter. The punter was wearing pointy gold metallic shoes and was stumbling a bit, bothering each of the players in turn. She stumbled into my pint and knocked it into a glass of tonic water which both went over and made quite a mess. Good thing there were no instruments under that table (there was a banjo under the other one.) Embarrassed, she left. Thank goodness. The session host asked the barman to replace the spilt drinks and I waited by the door while the clean-up was in progress to avoid the mop handle.

I watched in horror as the punter came back down the steps. She had some money in her hand and went straight to the barman, handed him the money and quickly split. Fair play to the punter. She must be a really nice person when she's not looped.

They did the round robin thing for a couple hours and I had a little less than half of the tunes played. I recognized most of them tho. I tried to start tunes I thought everyone might know, but sometimes did a solo for a bit then transitioned to another tune and folks got going. It was the usual "Do you know (tune name here)?" "Not sure, but let's hear it."

After a couple hours, the round robin gave way to folks starting tunes when they felt the muse. The session was smaller now, and the craic was picking up. Maybe it was the hour, or maybe it was the drink, but we had some really great long sets with the lead moving to different players without stopping. A couple times I had that "finger in the light socket" feeling. You know the one I mean? When you are somehow plugged into the other players and everyone is playing as one mind or spirit? Great stuff. To think this happens when I'm 1300 miles from home with people I've not even met.

About half way through a young girl from Chicago who recently moved to the city sat next to me. She was a great fiddler both technically and with great expression. I kept asking her if she knew this tune or that so I would start something she knew. I just loved to hear her play.

Over the course of the evening there were two other flute players, a handful of violins, two or three bodhrans, a couple guitars, four or five whistles, a couple boxes and a button accordion. That was until 11:45 when I left. Arbo said they went until 1 AM. The session host played a borrowed banjo a few times but mostly sat out. Doctor's orders for a bum wrist.

Polkas were a hit. They played some before I stared Maggie and Britches. Later nobody knew Cooley's Hornpipe so after once thru I went to Off to Cali and then Rights of Man. Really got everyone going and got atta-boys when we finished. But the reel fest was the best. Much like we do at the Ray, someone starts it, does a set and then someone else keeps it going without pause. I started a second super set with Whiskey Before Breakfast which most knew, then half the hard-core knew Far From Home, which I followed with something I don't remember and then a box player took the set to tunes I heard but don't know. It was 10 really strong players on fiddle, box, button accordion, flute (three at the high point) and a bodhran and guitar. Magic. That swept along in the music-drug feeling for a good 45 mins.

Oh, I played a 1840 Rudall & Rose flute for a short bit. It was surprisingly light and played all three octaves well. The low notes would really growl when Arbo the owner played it. I couldn't quite get the same tone out of it, but it was a nice flute to play.

Every Whistle Survives a Day on The Street

2008-08-21T10:22:00.002-04:00

Fabio from Italy sent the following report of his Every Walkabout's recent adventures. (In my mind's eye I see scenes from "Toy Story" as I read it.)

Here's a story you'd perhaps like. I'm still having the Parks with me wherever I go, as usual (this is not the story, that's coming).

Well, a morning of some week ago I was in a real hurry to get over a train - I was a bit late and that damn train has the very bad habit to begin running in advance, sometimes. To make the story short, I ran like hell and I did jumped over the train in time. The very first thing I checked was my pocket to see if all the three pieces of the whistle where there, as I usually paranoically do every now-and-then.

Horror.
Panic.
Fear.
Despair.

A single piece was missing. I passed the rest of the day blaming me. When I stopped and I started to think positively (it always helps) my toughs were like "that's not a wallet, that's only a plastic tube with three holes. Nobody will catch it, you'll find on the way back", which made sense indeed. And I found it. In the street, close to a car's wheel. But this is not the juicy part, yet.

The juicy part (I know, I'm a lot verbose) is that the tube was dirt, blackened and with the "sign" of a car's tyre. I can't be 100% sure of it, but it's not unlikely that a car completely rolled over it. BUT, apart some minor scratches which are there now (they are visible, actually, at a close look, but are external, away from the holes and *don't affect in anyway the sound*)... after a good wash my whistle was up and playing as if were hand new! With any other TIN whistle a good (I mean, bad) hit from the table to the floor can compromise the tone (I experienced that more than once).

This darn tube is very resistant, now I have an evident proof. Even if the car didn't rolled over it, it must have pushed it around or something like that to left that kind of "signature" on it, so this "demonstrates" how sturdy your whistle is. Congratulations.

Oh, I've also seen that now you're a lot into the flute stuff, what a nice chance (could I miss that?) to remind you of that beautiful idea of the fife head... that would sell ALMOST as the walkabout. Here, I hope.

About MUSIC itself, I'm learning "the rolling waves" jig, played the Kevin Crawford's way, but three times as slower. I'm enjoyin' my hard and slow improvements, although they cost a lot of efforts.Thank you, have a nice job making whistles!-- Fabio

Anyone else interested in a fife head for the Every whistle? I think I'll give it a try. I'll post the results here when I try it.

Regards,

Carey

Fay Not So Bad Here

2008-08-21T10:18:00.002-04:00

Tropical storm Fay passed south of us on Tuesday, which put us on it's better side. We only had winds gusting to 60 and less that two inches of rain.

Tornadoes and earthquakes are a lazy man's disaster. You just carry on as normal until it happens then see what's left. A hurricane comes with lots of warning and days to fret and carry stuff around, then after it passes, you have to put it all back again. Oh well, it's exercise.

Duck!

2008-08-16T13:37:00.003-04:00

Hi,

Thought I'd mention that I'm up to date on whistle shipments. Every whistle ordered has been shipped. I also want to let you know that we're preparing for a hurricane in a few days, so I might be off the air for a while depending on where it actually goes.

That island just north of the Tues AM (H) is Sanibel Island, and I am just northeast of that on the mainland. Not very far in however, there's a saltwater canal in my back yard. At the moment they are suggesting the winds on Tuesday will be 80 mph, but they are quick to add that there is so much land around and the gulf is hot (89 degrees) so a lot depends on exactly where Fay spends her time. Could be weaker, but could be a lot stronger too.

Here's the link to the National Hurricane Center if you want to watch our progress: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Flutes and Sessions

2008-08-04T16:17:00.002-04:00

In addition to cranking out whistles in the shop, I've been keeping up with the sessions around here (see the new header photo and a YouTube vid here) and I've bought an old German "nach Meyer" flute. These flutes were sold between 1880 and maybe 1920 or so but all sorts of outlets such as Sears and Roebuck. A catalog from around 1900 has them listed for $4.95. But remember, they didn't even have gas stations then, so you can't stay the nice wooden flutes cost a little more than a gallon of gas.

If you want to follow the saga of the antique flute tweak, it's on the Chiff & Fipple Flute Forum. You do know about the Chiff & Fipple Whistle Forum don't you? If not check it out while you are there.

Most of the nach Meyer flutes you find these days don't play in tune with instruments tuned to the current concert pitch of A=440 Hz. So I'm going to see if I can "tweak" it into being in tune. It's a fun player, so it is worth the effort. And I'll no doubt learn something along the way. If you want to know more about the official Meyer flutes and/or the nach Meyers (the ones made "after the style of" the Meyer flutes) Google will lead to a ton of information.

Walkabout in C released

2008-07-27T10:24:00.002-04:00

Hi, I've made a C version of the Every Walkabout. It's just the same as the D, only longer. You can order a D or a C or a C/D set in the Every Whistle Walkabout model now.

Here's Tiffany playing "The Bride's Favorite" on her Walkabout C.

The Bride's Favorite

That's it for now!

Been a busy month.

2008-07-22T15:41:00.003-04:00

Hello,

Just a note to let you know that I'm alive and well. I've not been blogging or adding products to the web site because the Every Walkabout's have been flying our of here so fast I have a backlog. Each time I take a batch of partially complete whistles to be engraved I'm thinking "This will get me back to where I can ship as soon as I receive and order." Then before I have that batch finished, they are all sold.

I guess it's a good problem to have, because it means the whistles are scratching an itch.

Lately the orders have been getting filled on average a week after they come in. Hopefully I'll have stock on hand again soon.

Cheers,

Carey

The Clip That Was An Ad

2008-06-15T09:47:00.001-04:00

Jessica, a long distance session mate, said she was going to record some clips of my whiste for me. I was expecting some sound clips, but got three video ad's instead. Thanks Jessica!

And the winner is...

2008-06-09T07:00:00.002-04:00

Congratulations Matahari!!! The judges have been haggling over the merits of the various entries, and finally have declared Matahari the winner of the Happy Birthday contest.

It was not an easy selection as every entry showed style and flair. Matahari's use of ornamentation on the basic tune exemplified creative whistle playing and thus was named the winner.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I do appreciate the time you took to work up and submit your clips. I had fun listening to them as they arrived. I will post the five tunes on www.parkswhistles.com for the use of the Internet in general when they are searching for a little tune to send someone for their birthday.

Creating Joy

2008-06-04T09:27:00.002-04:00

I often get e-mails from customers telling me of their experience with my whistles. This is one of the best parts about making whistles. It gives me a great feeling to be bringing so much joy to so many people. But sometimes I wonder if joy might not be a zero-sum game. Could it be that to get more joy you must take joy from others? No, joy can increase globally I am sure. But locally, maybe it varies...

"Carey, you'll never know how pleased I am with your whistle! I take it with me from one end of the house to the other and play very often. Margie hates you and does not even know you (LoL). I told her last night that I was looking into bagpipes next and she said if I was serious she'd take up the Tuba."

From reading on-line forums and personal experience it's clear there is something about a high whistle playing Irish tunes. I suspect it would not matter so much if the whistle were playing popular show tune or whatever, the high sound can grate on people. Some people more than others, as I have heard of some spouses and neighbors who encourage the whistle player. But more often not. If you have an "Every" whistle, be sure to use the tone ring when others who might object are around. Oh, and fasten your seat belt when you get in the car too.

Happy Birthday Contest Clips

2008-05-16T16:48:00.012-04:00

Below is a link to the on-line box containing entries in the Happy Birthday Whistle Contest. Enjoy! And if you have not sent me your redition, what are you waiting for! (Rules below)

You can click on the first entry and select "play" when the form appears. Let it play when finished the next clip will start automatically.

Entries, in order I recieved them, have been submitted by:

1) Bothrops moojeni (Susato high F) http://www.box.net/shared/rz1336n0g0
2) FluteRookie (Hammy Practice Flute) http://www.box.net/shared/gzll1qjwos
3) BelgianWaffle (Alba Q1 Hi D) http://www.box.net/shared/ajgbc8nkc4
4) GrampaB (Generation D) http://www.box.net/shared/8ej0s3rc4k
5) GrampaB (Parks Every D) http://www.box.net/shared/sic1que0ws
6) Matahari (Acorn Brass D) http://www.box.net/shared/mbvp1wm8kw

The whole collection is at http://www.box.net/shared/extrh99ssg.

Contest rules:

1) Send me a file of yourself playing Happy Birthday.
2) I'll post it and everyone can listen to them all.
3) Entries must be recieved before midnight on May 31, 2008 GMT-4 (US Eastern Daylight Time)
4) I'll either delcare the winner if it's obvious, or post the contenders if I can't decide and we'll vote on them.
5) Winner can choose a Parks Whistles hat or Parks Whistles Gig bag.
(http://www.parkswhistles.com/)

Check out the Walkabout Every Whistle

2008-05-12T00:24:00.005-04:00

Just a quick shot of the first prototype Walkabout Every whistle....

They should be available to ship in about a week. You can order them now by sending me an e-mail. I will put them on the web site store as soon as I can. They cost $60 and are only available in D equal temperment for the moment. Please excuse the poor logo marking on this prototype, I use the engraver's errors for R&D.

Cheers,

Carey

New Model in the Workshop

2008-05-05T11:56:00.002-04:00

Everyone thank Paul (see e-mail below) for prodding me to work on a three-piece Every whistle. I'm going to start work on it right away. I'll keep you posted regarding progress in the shop as I go.

Cheers,

Carey

Hi Carey

Greetings from the highlands and islands, well Glasgow actually, or as
near as damn it anyway, I 'm still enjoying my whistles,in fact since
receiving them they're getting about as much use as my flute, and with
the exception of my Hoover whitecaps, to the exclusion of the rest of my
tubes.

In fact I think it probably unlikely that I will add to my collection
again as your every whistle fills just about every need I have in the
whistle line; with one exception, I desperatley need, well OK prehaps
not actually need but I'm sure you understand better than most, a pocket
type whistle and was wondering if you intend, or could be persuaded to
manufacture a 2 part D tube. ... Anyway, thank you for the wonderful whistles and keep up the excellent work.

Paul

Honey, I'm going to go work on my brain now.

2008-04-29T11:16:00.003-04:00

The link below was sent to me by a friend who asked "Do you play the whistle because you are smarter than others, or are you smarter than others because you play the whistle?" Well if to you "smarter" means doing better on some the the metrics used in the studies then it's the latter.

http://www.sfn.org/index.cfm?pagename=brainBriefings_musicTrainingAndTheBrain

As if we need another excuse to play our whistles eh? Maybe it will work for you - "Honey, I'm going to go work on my brain now."

St Patrick's Day 2008

2008-03-20T23:39:00.002-04:00

Quite a St Patrick's day this year. I went to our session pub expecting to have a session and ended up entertaining. For a while anyway. We had a couple guys from Arkansas who were in for spring break join us. Great fun.

Around 10 PM we moved inside where we could hear each other at least, and carried on with the session we expected to have.

It wasn't until after 1 AM that we left the pub to drive home.

Wow, what a weekend.

2008-03-10T00:10:00.005-04:00

The weekend started out pretty mundane - mowing the grass. By by Saturday evening three of us were playing a gig at a house party, an Irish birthday party. Great fun. Great food. Can't beat it. Then from 10 until 2:30 we had practice for a new band we're getting together. As soon as that broke up, three of us headed 40 minutes north to a session that was already in progress at the Celtic Ray in Punta Gorda. I didn't leave there until 7 PM.

What a blast that session was. Awesome craic. A couple new faces, and a number of new tunes and some songs for the folks in the pub. It was one of those "play and sing with fearless abandon" times that nobody cares how you sound, just so you try. One old woman, who could have been 85, impressed the heck out of the whole place. She came teetering over with her cane, shaking from what I would say was Parkinson's Disease from her shakes. She sat down in a chair vacated by the bodhran player as one of the fiddlers was playing a nice slow tune solo. Mary was having trouble keeping the beat at that slow pace, and asked for something faster. We launched into a couple reels and she was pretty good. The place broke out in applause, and we did a couple more. When Mary stood up to return to her table the applause was deafening.

I hope you get to be part of something like that someday.

Cape Coral Irish Fest 2008

2008-02-23T21:21:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to post a couple shots from the Cape Coral Irish Festival today. Hope you are having a good weekend too.

Price Change for Every and Ghost Models

2008-02-05T12:00:00.000-05:00

Well, all good things must come to an end, and today is the end of the introductory pricing on the Every whistle and the Ghost whistle. The introductory price of $29.95 was pulled out of thin air with the knowledge that I would have to determine the actual cost and price of the whistles once I had enough data on making and selling them. After selling over one-hundred whistles I now have good data on what it takes to make them, and running the numbers indicates the price of the Every whistle should go to $55, and the Ghost to $25.

Most of the people who have participated in the tour or bought an Every whistle knew the price had to go up, and said so on the tour thread. Alas the time has arrived.

The thing that says I must do it today is the arrival of my whistles at three dealers around the globe. I'm not going to spill the beans on who they are until they have time to get their web sites ready to sell the whistles, but Doc Jones of the Irish Flute Store has his up and ready, so today's the day. Check out Doc's store via the link on the right of the pages. The other dealers have customs delays to contend with so I expect they will be along shortly.

The price change and the dealer network are indications of the growth of Parks Whistles, so look for more things from me in the near future. For example, I am in the shop as soon as I finish this making another batch of D whistles, and cranking out the first batches of C and Eb whistles. The C and Eb tubes will be available seperately to give you a C, D, Eb set with one Every whistle head. Watch for the announcement of these whistles here and at the dealers.

Happy whistling!

Celtic Ray Session

2008-01-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

The latest batch of whistles has been completed and all of the outstanding orders will be complete as of today. Both "Every" and "Ghost" whistles are in stock at the moment.We had a great session in Punta Gorda Monday evening. Made better by the appearance of Rick and Candice with their hammered dulcimer. It was the first time I had the pleasure of playing with one. Welcome to both of you.

Getting the Blog Rolling

2007-02-02T03:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a photo to start off the blog. I am standing in my workshop. It currently occupies the front portion of my garage, which of course makes me a garage operation. I wear that moniker proudly!