Hi, folks! The lonewhistler here. I was just wondering what has inspired each of you to start playing these darn things in the first place! Also, how long have you been playing for, are you playing as a hobby (if that’s possible ), playing as a professional, etc.
As I described in my “Tips for a Beginner” post, a recent visit to Ireland inspired me to pick up the tin whistle. I have always enjoyed traditional Irish music, but I really fell head-over-heels in love with the music upon visiting Ireland. I’ve been playing for only a few weeks now, but I enjoy it more and more each time I pick up the whistle. My Dad has been playing for a few years now, but I’ll let him tell his side of the story. Music is my love and passion in life. I’ve been playing the guitar for a little over 10 years now (self-taught), and I’ll be learning the piano soon. I love all kinds of music (except MTV, mainstream radio crap ) from Bob Dylan to Classical to jazz to heavy metal. If it’s got talent, depth, and soul I’ll probably like it…
The ball’s in your court now…let’s hear your story!
… because of hearing the excellent Kwela player in Paul Simon’s Graceland album. That was the first time i saw a whistle (hmmm, looks like a metal recorder!).
When I was 13, I was a volunteer at the Expo '74 Folklife Festival in Spokane, WA, where I first heard and fell in love with Irish music. In early 1975 we got cable television and I first saw and heard The Irish Rovers (who used to have a weekly TV series on CBC, which first came to Spokane with cable). A short while later, I saw a “little flute” like the one Will Millar played (i.e., a brass, red-topped Generation whistle) in a local folk instruments shop. I had just enough babysitting money to afford an Eb, so that’s what I got (and I still have it!). I taught myself to play. That little whistle went with me everywhere…to school, to summer camp, to church, you name it. Mostly I played camp songs and hymns, but I did pick up the odd Irish tune here and there (two of my first tunes were “King of the Faeries” and “Mo Mhuirnin Ban”). I didn’t play much during college, but picked up the same old whistle again when I moved to San Francisco for a few months after graduation (I used to busk with it to get enough money for a beer, which would also get me dinner, as most of the bars had huge happy hour appetizer bars). I stopped playing again during the early years of my marriage, but picked it up again several years ago. Because I never had any formal teaching, my playing style isn’t purely “Irish” (I picked up what I could by ear from my LPs, and what I couldn’t pick up, I made up) and, other than playing for a local kids Morris troupe, I play mainly for my own pleasure.
I’ve always been involved in music in one way or another. I’ve been in church and school choirs since I was little, and used to sing in a folk group for a while during my teens.
Because I was staring down the barrel of a long, cold New England winter, and was desperately searching for something to prevent me from going insane from cabin fever (being one who must be outside at every opportunity, until it gets too damned cold!)…
Playing whistle was battered into me (literally!) in primary school in Ireland. On leaving school, the whistle was dumped into a drawer. 'Twas not long afterwards that I heard John Sheehan of The Dubliners playing the Belfast Hornpipe and thought " Hold on a minute…"
That started a lifelong (so far) love of the whistle and ITM and led me into other instruments and many happy years as a pro/semi pro musician.
John Sheehan is a superb musician who does not get anything like the respect he deserves from the ITM crowd , probably because he plays in a “Ballad Group”.
Check out his work with the Dubs and you will not be disappointed. Us whistlers can learn so much from this man.
For me, I needed a way to make the cats leave the room at will.
Actually, I’m not sure why I didn’t ever try the whistle long ago. I’m 43 and I’ve played guitar since age 7, everything from bluegrass to fingerstyle to classical. I played bluegrass banjo for about 12 years, fiddle for about 2 years, and r******r for about a year. I guess I never ran accross any good sessions or a music store that had anything but really cheap whistles. I just recently ran accross this site, did some research, and I’m happily on the road to learning whistle and flute.
You were lucky, all we had to play were these stupid bells, and icky wooden recorders, , as these things go, the recorders were dropped a year or so before I would have been subjected to them
I took up the whistle on a lark, after looking at Dale’s C&F Website, I thought, gee, this guy is really having fun.. maybe I’ll give it a try!
Mom gave me a Generation D, and Robin Williamson’s book when I was in high school. Played it adequately. Somewhere in the process of decluttering the house of excess baby toys (years later) I lost the Gen. Bought myself a Clarke. Never liked it much.
Here’s the mysterious part:
2003…
a)saw an Overton Overton Low D on eBay. (didn’t know who Overton was.) Bought it.
b)Stumbled across C & F. Joined.
Cannot remember whether a or b happened first! I think a was first…but I cannot summon up any recollection of why I was looking at whistles on eBay.
Have been working on technique ever since, since I could already play.
Mine was cause I saw a VERY CUTE young guy playing one in a band
I accidentally ran into at a Celtic NewYears Celebration.
(2 years later I was asked to join the band and got to play with
them 2 1/2 years before they moved out-of-state).
It was a wonderful beginning…and I wish I had done it at 15 instead
of 55!
Lolly
I had looked at penny whistles in music stores over the years, and was tempted, but didn’t have any idea about whether they would be worth the effort.
Around the end of last year, I was looking at information on camera batteries on a flashlight site that someone recommended, and noticed a link to tin whistles. This took me to http://www.tinwhistler.net/tin-whistle.htm
The whistles there looked very different from the ones in the music stores–more like “serious” instruments. There was also a link to C&F.
On coming here, I was infected with WhOA. By the first of the year, I had three new whistles and several books and CDs. Now I have ten, and another on the way.
I was particularly interested in being able to get those long, plaintive sounds that just don’t come through on acoustic guitar and mandolin. I was especially impressed with slow airs that I heard from Tony Higgins and Mick Woodruff, and that’s what really pushed me to get started.
My story is a long one. Let me go back to 5th grade where the students were taught to play electric guitar. Each student uses headsets and mostly listens to himself play. At the end of the year each student goes up in front of the class for a solo with everyone listening. I am up there, playing away, thinking how good I sound. When I am done, the teacher blurts out, “that was awful.” (Maybe that is why I like the American Idol TV show.) I carried that judgement for many years.
About a dozen years ago on a vacation trip to Seattle I was at Pike’s Place Market. There was a vendor with flutes and other instruments. I picked up a flute and of course could do nothing with it. The vendor gently suggested an ocarina. I bought that and enjoyed it, but quickly outgrew its simple tones. I found a Clarke C with a book and cassette in a bookstore and quickly took to the instrument. I did not do too well with the lesson in the book and tape, but I could coax pleasing sounds from the whistle. Even after about a dozen years of playing virtually everyday I do not consider myself technically proficient and I have a difficult time learning songs.
Mostly I perform original whistle tunes. I have written about 100 songs, the vast majority have lyrics and melody. I perform for small audiences at my church and open mics. Some would say that my most moving performances were at two memorial services, one for my grandmother, another for a friend that committed suicide. For each, I performed a song that I had written for each person. It is impossible to put into words how much my music has meant to me and the other people in my life.
What I credit Chiff with is expanding my horizons. I only knew my Clarke original for ten years. Now I know that there are other whistles, other whistle players.
Who dares to mock the noble handbell?? Say what thou wilt about rcrdrs and pltcs, but know this: A classroom full of rowdy children is no place for the handbell, but in capable hands, a set of handbells can make some of the most beautiful music around. (I know everyone says the same thing about rcrd*rs, but in this case it’s actually true. )
I started on the whistle about a year ago when I heard it in some soundtrack (not Titanic or Riverdance), and really liked the sound of it. I bought one partly because a college dorm room doesn’t exactly have space for handbells. I’ve been a bell ringer for four years now.
After playing recorder for many years, I heard the Chieftains on Sat Night Live and I was hooked. I went to Andy’s Front Hall to find some sort teaching method, and found Bill Ochs’ book. This was quite a cooincidence since I knew Bill MANY years ago, when he was just getting into Celtic music.
A while later, when I could play somewhat, I went back to Andy’s and saw a Thin Weasel, which knocked my socks off. After much soul searching about spending a whole $125 on a whistle (which tells you how long ago that was) I splurged. This is what ultimately, after a LONG time, led me to whistlemaking. Lotsa cooincidences out there
NO Q.J. (or Ants) I’m not talking about the relatively cool hand bells that people play in choirs, these were more like Orff instruments, they could be played individually, but were struck with a mallet sort of like a xylophone. I remember the teacher asking which bell we thought would make the highest note, the bells were standing on end, so naturally I pointed to the tallest one and said “that one will play the highest” in a way I can still see a pervers truth to that answer , but imagine my surprise when the teacher disagreed with me!
All my life I was taught by my family that I was Irish. I became very interested in Ireland and the music. I never really thought about playing until about 1983 when I was living in Rhode Island. I went to the Brick Market in Newport and saw a whistle called a Feadan. I bought one for $7 or $8 and started to learn. I soon lost interest and placed it in a large bowl on top of my refridgerator. It stayed there until 2003. I had visited Ireland in May 0f 2002. I bought a few CDs and got interested again. Then in march of 2003 I had a heart attack. I started to play because I thought it might help me build up my windpower. I have a lot of whistles now but I still like that Feadan. Of course my Alba has kind of displaced it. One day I was searching the web for whistle information and I found C&F. I have learned a lot here. There are some very good and helpful people here.
I have my roots in the recorder also, but as an adult.
I got some tickets to a Red Priest Concert and took my wife and son. It was very enjoyable. That group really was having fun with the music they were playing. Not the somber, dull type of chamber music I was actually expecting, but wanted to expose my son to (for his benefit, of course!) He actually enjoyed the music and the antics of the performers. Did you know that a harpsichord can actually be fun to listen too in the right hands? So can a recorder. We could not afford a harpsichord or a cello. I had tried violin (classic and fiddle style) and so we did some research on the recorder. Turns out you can get a fairly decent beginners instrument for a reasonable price, about the same as you would pay for a really nice whistle.
We tried soprano and alto. We did not like the quiet and all to sensitive nature of the beasts. We REALLY did not like the cost of the nicer entry level wooden instruments that we were told we needed to get over that.
Somewhere along the line we found this site and the generosity of several board members we were infected with WhOA. My first whistle was an Overton Low D that I picked up for less than $100. We have slowly (well ok, quickly) gravitated to the more expensive whistles (Bleazey, Copeland and Overton.) They just sound better to us.
The great thing about this story is that after more than 20 years of marraige, this is the first hobby that Renee and I are participaing in TOGETHER. It has strengthened our relationship.
Yes Q.J., it was a form of toture, devised specifically for grade school children. I remember having several “run ins” with music teachers in grades 1-5. Grade K was cool, cause we primarily just sang and had fun, but grade 6 was cooler yet when we started in on real concert band instruments! Ahhh, the annoying sounds you can make on a trombone when your 11 years old!!
Kinda complicated here. Started with trombone in school. then left music behind for years. got involved in reenactment, then helped put on a music and storytelling festival which led me in turn to mountain dulcimer.
Then I wanted to play pipes, but they were pretty expensive so I settled for a practice chanter - from which I could never get much more than a loud buzz. Tried recorder and hated the squirrelly fingering. Then i picked up a Generation pennywhistle and in noodling around found that its fingering was straighforward, not unlike a mountain dulcimer.
), playing as a professional, etc.
) from Bob Dylan to Classical to jazz to heavy metal. If it’s got talent, depth, and soul I’ll probably like it… 
Who dares to mock the noble handbell?? Say what thou wilt about rcrdrs and pltcs, but know this: A classroom full of rowdy children is no place for the handbell, but in capable hands, a set of handbells can make some of the most beautiful music around. (I know everyone says the same thing about rcrd*rs, but in this case it’s actually true. 
I’m not talking about the relatively cool hand bells that people play in choirs, these were more like Orff instruments, they could be played individually, but were struck with a mallet sort of like a xylophone. I remember the teacher asking which bell we thought would make the highest note, the bells were standing on end, so naturally I pointed to the tallest one and said “that one will play the highest” in a way I can still see a pervers truth to that answer 
, but imagine my surprise when the teacher disagreed with me!
