Hi All,

This is my first post on a thread so take it easy on me. A newbie here, though a newbie my insights still matters 😮 .

I was a Traditional 7 hole Bamboo Flute Player since 6th Grade ( 12 years old back then) and what was thought to me is to tongue when you seperate notes.

I never heard of "Cut" back then as Cut and Tongue has the same purpose to seperate 2 consecutive notes of a given measure. And tongue is the preferred articulation of many bamboo flute tutorials.

Example of The use of Tongue and Cut is playing 3 consecutive Note "E" on Star of the County Down.

When I was first enthusiasted with Whistle I made research on it and many players have said avoid tonguing.

Since then I did not use the tonguing articulation and replace it with tap or cut.

After going to Ryan Duns Tutorial and started doing a record, I realized that tonguing, cutting and tapping has different sounds and feel.

I played Star of the County Down using Cuts on my recent record but on some parts I was not cutting but instead I was tonguing.
My finger and mouth argued that is why sometimes I cut sometimes I tongue.

Listening over and over again on my record I gained the ability to distinguish them.

Here are the sounds that I heard which I hope you hear as well.

On tonguing, when ever we articulate the note we use "T" sound followed by a vowel.
I use "TU" (like that of Tooth Decay)

Tonguing, which seperates consecutive notes "gives a slight sound of silence".

On the otherhand cutting the note by lifting a finger (T1 or T3 most often) does not give a slight sound of silence.

Cutting is an exact execution of lifting your fingers in a very brief moment that is why at first you may not notice it. But try lifting the finger on a longer time and you will hear "an awful note".

Do this when you play the consecutive E on Star of County Down.

Ryan instructed to lift the T3 finger for cutting.

The fingering for E assuming D whistle is XXX-XXO

Cutting it is XXL-XXO where L is lift briefly.

In a millisecond span of time XXL-XXO becomes XXO-XXO.
and your brain have heard this awful XXO-XXO sound.

Playing the E- cut- E- cut- E
it will be like this on fingers
XXX-XXO, XXO-XXO---- XXX-XXO, XXO-XXO--- XXX-XXO

Careful when reading, this is not tic-tac-toe or a virus code.

Try listening to this sound longer XXO-XXO. The Breath control of this is the same as that of E. Your mind might get confused.

Listening on a longer span of time makes it sound so awful and listening to it on a shorter span of time sounded good.

This is because Cut does not give a melodic value (value of actual keys played, like D-E-F# etch) but instead it gives a rhytmic value (millisecond beat value)

Rhytmic value has played a bigger importance on Irish Music as most tunes that I heard are fast beats. This cut articulation provides a certain flavor that adds a color on your whistle playing.

Try exercising the Star of County Down again and try mixing Tongue and Cuts, slowly you will hear the difference. 😛

Hi Kmarty,

Your Technique is quite different, you cut the note using the hole the note is from.

For Example
XXX-XXX -Is D
and when you cut it it will be
XXX-XXL
thus giving a millisecond "E" sound?

There were many ways how to cut your finger (im referring to the ornament and not about hurting yourself)

Other tutors use T1 and B1 fingers.

HOwever there are 2 tutors (one is Ryan Duns) using the T1 and T3 finger. The cutting method using these fingers is very useful when itcomes to doing a Roll ornament.

Yes it is hard...specially if you are right handed... as your major strenght is not on the holding part like that of the left hand

I as a left handed has and advantage hahahaah...

There are a lot of rolls that contain B-G and T1-T3 fingering on cuts will be an advantage later on.

Hi guys I've finally joined in !
Your figuring it out. The G (hole 3) and B (hole 1) notes are the ones you want to use. Once you start rolls they are your starting points.
G note to cut the bottom 3 holes and B for the top 3 holes.