How to Play Taps on the Tin Whistle

A cut lifts a finger above the note and flicks the pitch up. A tap drops a finger below the note and flicks the pitch down. The cut sounds brighter, a click; the tap sounds duller, a thud. Both take no time of their own, and both should be heard as articulation, never as a second note.

The practical difference is which finger you are allowed to use. A cut can come from any covered hole above the note. A tap has to land on the first open hole directly below it, because that is the hole setting the pitch. Close a hole further down the whistle and the note barely moves, so the tap disappears. That makes the tap simpler to map than the cut: for every note there is exactly one tapping finger.

The rule fits in one line: the tapping finger is the one that would play the next note down the scale.

Low D: no tap is possible. Every hole is already covered, so there is nothing below the note to strike.

E: the bottom-hand ring finger, on the bottom hole. F-sharp: the bottom-hand middle finger. G: the bottom-hand index finger.

A: the top-hand ring finger. B: the top-hand middle finger. C-sharp: the top-hand index finger, though a tapped C-sharp is rare in real tunes.

The second octave repeats the same fingerings, so it repeats the same tapping fingers.

A tap is a firm slap, not a press. Hold the tapping finger a centimetre or less above its hole, drop it hard enough to seal the hole completely for an instant, and let it bounce straight back up. Think of knocking on a tabletop to hear whether it is hollow: quick, definite, gone. The movement comes from the knuckle, and every other finger stays exactly where it is.

The two faults that ruin a tap pull in opposite directions. Too soft, and the finger never quite seals the hole, so instead of a clean dip you get a breathy smear. Too long, and the finger rests on the hole and you hear the lower note. Aim for full contact for the shortest possible time. If you are not sure which fault you have, slow the motion right down until you hear the lower note clearly, which proves the seal, then speed up until it shrinks to a knock.

Begin on a long E and tap the bottom hole every second or so, keeping the air dead level. When each tap is a short thud with no D in it, play four Es in a row on one breath and separate them with taps instead of the tongue. Then play the same four Es with cuts, and alternate the two. The cut gives a bright crack and the tap a softer knock, and hearing them side by side teaches you what each one is for.

Put the metronome on and make each tap land exactly on the click. A late tap is the most common rhythmic fault, and it is the one that wrecks rolls later, so fix it now while the tap stands alone. Work up through F-sharp, G, A and B, using the finger for the next note down each time. The tap ornament drill sets this out as a short daily exercise.

On their own, taps mark repeated notes, often the last of a group of two or three. In The Star of the County Down, the run of Es near the start is a good first place to try one, and the repeated As at the top of The Lilting Banshee work the same way. One tap per group is plenty. A string of taps in a row tends to sound like stuttering rather than lift.

Most taps you will ever play are inside rolls, where the tap is the second half of the ornament and gives the roll its dip. That is the best reason to get the tap clean on its own first: a roll can only be as good as its tap. The one place a tap cannot help is low D. Where a tune wants a roll on low D, players use a crann instead, a run of cuts covered in the ornaments overview.