So I bought myself a Tony Dixon DX004 whistle at beginning of the week and am really enjoying it. I’ve been playing guitar for 30 years and have been around music and musical struments for the majority of my life but this is uncharted territory.

I’ve been watching lots of YT vids and practicing a fair amount and I’ve improved considerably in a few days but I noticed something that I wanted to get some feedback on.

While trying to yield the prettiest tone I can, I have been trying subtle changes with breath and mouth shape etc. What I’ve noticed is that the best tone for the lowest notes in the lower octave is produced with almost no blowing at all and more just breathing into to. As I climb the scale I find I have started to contract my mouth ever so slightly and force air a bit faster and through a slightly smaller aperture in my mouth. I’m definitely not blowing into nearly as hard as I could and therefore it’s much quieter than it could be. The higher notes have a slight breathy flute vibe but sound pleasant. I just find that blowing harder produces a much more shrill and piercing tone in the upper register and a shaky and honky lower register. So I’ve been opting to keep the mouthpiece just partially inserted in my mouth and blowing (using a subtle “tonguing technique”) just strong enough to produce a clear and consistent tone which I find to be the most audibly pleasing tone too.

I can hit almost every note consistently in both lower and upper octave but the highest D gives me grief still. Is this the right approach?