NOTE: I do appologize for the typos (I have also edited the message for some additional tips) & I have tried to correct them. Thank you.
Some have many questions about how to “keep” time when playing the whistle. Not always an easy task for some. So, instead of e-mailing persons individually, I decided that this was the best possible place since they are C&f board members. Others perhaps could try this exercise as well if they find it useful.
There are some that have a really hard time “TAPPING” there feet to the tunes when playing. So, I want you to please try this simple, but effective exercise below.
1-Take a good size wall clock & watch the second hand as it ticks away (give this a few minutes before playing). Get into a really comfortable position before trying this exercise. Now try playing your tune to the second hand as it “ticks away”. This simple exercise is very effective for keeping time. If you find that you are a little off, don’t worry, simply keep watching the clock. Let it guide you & you will start to feel when you are off. After a while you will notice that you can easily tap your foot because after watching the clock for some time w/ practice it has taught you “how” to “keep”, TIME!
Note: Throughout life we are always concerned about making it on time. Infact, we feel as if time has become our worst enemy!! But, for once in our life, we have the opportunity to let time be on our side by reaping some benefits from it through, whistling. I admire those who really strive to work hard but just cannot seem to get where they want to be because they have no teacher on hand. Don’t worry & keep a really possitive attitude!
2-Along w/ this, tape your playing on a cassette player & you will be pleasantly surprised at your progress indeed. Eventually, you will no longer need the clock after a short while after attempting this exercise. It really can solve the problems with “timing issues”. Now when you are at ease play the tunes at there normal speed. Now you can tap to your tunes w/out problems. However, it’s nice playing the tunes at slow speed to develop a feel for the music.
Hope this helps those who have e-mailed me in the past concerning this.
Thank you for your time today. See you in the future.
Good suggestion. And, if you want to play slower or faster than 60 beats per minute, there’s a device called a metronome. Metronomes are available at all fine music retail outlets.
I agree. Here’s another: kudos is a singular noun. It means (well it used to mean) “glory, prestige,” and not “good on you mate.” I’ll spare you a snippet or wisdom about apostrophes for another time.
runs away to avoid rotten eggs and cries of “pedant!” *
Kudos (always singular, even though it looks like a plural): “fame and renown resulting from an act or achievement; prestige” thus by logical extension is often used as a praising remark.
And yes, it is taken to mean “good on you mate,” certainly on this side of the pond. Let the egging commence.
"Kudo:
A praising remark; an accolade or compliment: “Children’s book author Virginia Hamilton added another kudo to her prize-laden career” (Calvin Reid).
Usage Note:
Kudos is one of those words like congeries that look like plurals but are etymologically singular. Acknowledging the Greek history of the term requires “Kudos is (not are) due her for her brilliant work on the score”. But kudos has often been treated as a plural, especially in the popular press, as in “She received many kudos for her work”. This plural use has given rise to the singular form kudo. These innovations follow the pattern whereby the English words pea and cherry were shortened from nouns ending in an (s) sound (English pease and French cerise), that were mistakenly thought to be plural. The singular kudo remains far less common than the plural use; both are often viewed as incorrect in more formal contexts.·
It is worth noting that even people who are careful to treat kudos only as a singular often pronounce it as if it were a plural. Etymology would require that the final consonant be pronounced as a voiceless (s), as we do in pathos, another word derived from Greek, rather than as a voiced (z)."
Ergo, I am far more concerned on whether it was pronounced correctly at this point.
Regardless, I live by the dictum of the greasy spoon:
Tips are appreciated.
There are a good many words, such as kudo, which are understood by the masses in their common contexts. For instance–“hopefully,” as in
“Hopefully, I needn’t tape my foot to Cooley’s Reel, as I believe I would get a cramp, and the tape would make my foot sticky.”
Yet, there are sticklers (pedants, if you will StevieJ,) who will insist that it’s only appropriate to use the word “hopefully” in the following way:
“As Cooley’s Reel did not adhere properly to my foot, even with duct tape, I will now use the tape to ‘hopefully’(i.e. with great hope in my heart) apply a large clock to the doghouse wall (as it’s the only place I’m allowed to practice,) and try to make sense of all these semiquavers.”
Yes, despite the unavoidable chiff-riffing, I think Talbert has suggested a “tip” which could be very useful to folks who’d find visualizing an even beat easier than hearing one, at least at first.
I did say “used to mean.” Modern dictionaries have to describe English as she is spoke, there’s really no way around that. But some of us like to treat words with more respect. if ever I give you a kudo feel free to shove it up my assho.
I think that imagining that kudos is somehow the plural of a word kudo must stem from the lack of a short “o” vowel sound in North American English. This means that the “os” in kudos is pronounced like “oes” in potatoes.
“North American English”! Oh precocious oxymoron, my ghast is utterly flabbered!
‘Kudos’ is a Greek word, and its original meaning remains extant (glory). Over here we pronounce it cue-doss (or koo-doss in some regions), which certainly doesn’t rhyme with ‘potatoes’.
Hey StevieJ, what’s an “assho”, I should like to know that I may treat this new word with more respect.
[/quote] if ever I give you a kudo feel free to shove it up my assho. .[/quote]
so let me get this right…,
would that be a singular kudo? or plueral kudos
i guess it depends on which one fits best???,right?
does size really matter?
its one hell of an offer anyhow stevie
best brace yourseft bro
:roll: good onya mate
(grin)
David
Emmline, I think the use of hopefully at which some turn up their noses is a direct borrowing from the German, where “hoffentlich” has long been used in the sense of “here’s hoping things turn out this way.”
All right then Gary, “English speakers in North America.” Will that satisfy what I take to be your Prince-Charlian notions that Britain is still somehow the guardian of the tongue of Shakespeare?
I’m acutely aware of this short o problem in North America. We named our daughter “Olwen,” an old name in my family, but to my dismay only about one in ten people over here seem able to pronounce it as intended. They have to plump for either “Ole-wen” or “Ahl-wen” and I can’t decide which is least horrible. Sorry, harrible.
(And quite a few (younger) people have said, Is that from Lord of the Rings?)
Good to know. But I’ll try to use “hoffentlich” instead, as it is ten times cooler.
I understand. My bro’s daughter is named “Ethnie” after the Scottish mother of St. Columba. The correct spelling is “Eithne,” but the child’s mother insisted on a spelling which would give confused people a shot at pronouncing it correctly.
My grandmother’s name was spelled Vulia, but pronounced “view-la.” How anyone was supposed to figure that out, I dunno.
There was a fellow in Vermont whose family name was Koch…many people I know with that name pronounce it “kotch” but he pronounced it “coke,” which I suppose is closer to the original German. He got so fed up with people mispronouncing his name that he had it legally changed to “Coke-is-It.”
Woah! Careful there jmccain! You can’t just go about whipping out the “M” word around here especially when there are clocks to be stared at!
This kind of pell-mell attitude about using stuff as a reference will only lead to debauchery. What next, a device that people can use as a reference of pitch?! I can see this going as far as people making little written reminders about how a tune starts or changes into the B part, or worse even how a whole tune goes!
And these, these music outlets you talk about… what’s that all about? I suppose they would have all kinds of things that I could use to maintain my instrument with like some sort of grease for tuning slides and polishing cloths that “remove tarnish” Bah! I can rub the tennon of my whistle in the crook of my nose and lube it up fine. As far as your cleaning rag, I like to soak my whistles in a plastic bag filled with a private blend of ammonia and tobacco… they come out looking just the way I like… Music outlets, indeed.
yes i am blissfully uneducated, 
