Accidentally played my Walton

A friend of mine wanted to play a duet with me (she plays recorder) and the tune was in D. Well, I play alone most of the time and use any old whistle, the lower the better for me (my Meg C, Gen Bb, Shaw A, etc), but almost never play my Walton D–which I HAD to buy one day when I went to pick up an LBW (to carry in my purse) and I didn’t have cash and the credit card minimum was $10. So I got a Walton just to get that $10 min–even though I didn’t like the sound. It became the whistle I never play.

Well, when it came time to play in D for the duet, I was too lazy to go downstairs and get by LBW from my purse, so I hauled out the Walton and you know, it wasn’t that bad! It was less–how do I say–annoying than I remembered, more mellow. And pretty easy to play.

Moral of the story: whistle tastes, like anything else, change over time. Maybe in a year, I’ll like my Susatos (if I haven’t sold them by then).

Oh, the duet came out very nice, by the way. First time I EVER played with anyone, too!

I’ve had the same experience, but for a different reason. I’m fairly new at the whistle, but I practice a lot (a couple of hours per day). (O’ the pleasures of retirement!)I have put aside certain whistles because I thought they were unplayable or just sounded bad, only to pick them up a week or so later and find that they are not only fairly easy to play but sound halfway decent. I.e., with me it’s obviously only a matter of learning how to play.