Hello everybody,
Today I bought a Clarke Sweetone high “D” tin whistle and started playing. I play the violin for many years, now, I say I’m a fairly decent player. I have no problems with the flute, either (I learnt to play the recorder) but as I started to play a song this evening my mother just asked me to stop. Begged me to stop…
Well she doesn’t think much of traditional whistle playing, either…
Scarlett
PS: I’m really sorry for my English, I’m German^^
Whistle is, according to my wife, best played in a field…very far away from her.
Seriously, it’s always louder than you think, and the repetitive nature of Irish music can make the high shrill sound unbearable to those not playing along with you.
Just my guess - you don’t stink, you just play whistle.
Eric
Hi Scarlett,
Join the club !
I’ve been playing alone for 4 years now, and either everyone leaves the building, or makes it known with " isn’t that enough now looks"
It hasn’t stopped me though ! 
yaa dont worry, they will either get used to it, orrr you do what i do and wait till eveyones gone, it helps if you buy a lower whistle not quite as loud, Bflat is good to start with
Yeah, here too. It also doesn’t help when I use a session bore whistle. I believe the Sweetone is on the medium side of loudness. There are several quiet whistle makers out there. Perhaps you could try a Mack Hoover narrow bore brass - he can make them very quiet.
I agree as well. I get the same thing from my wife. It’s not so much the quality of the playing as the characteristics of the whistle.
Even the best whistles will be high-pitched, and generally loud - two qualities not best suited for close quarters.
Unless of course it’s close quarters COMBAT!
Jason
Low whistle is your friend.
That’s the main reason the Every whistle has a mute. 
Wife couldn’t stand whistle playing. And she agrees it’s not the quality of the playing, although repeating a tune to get it quicker makes her nuts faster.
Damn if I could play the Violin and the Flute I wouldn’t bother with the whistle! A German friend of mine comes to visit in Ireland 3 or 4 times a year, he plays Violin and was classically trained but now plays Irish trad. He’s played in lots of pubs in Dublin and Clare and always gets big cheers from the audience and the highest of compliments from other musicians. Have you tried playing any Irish trad on that Violin???
My wife begs me to go somewhere far when I start playing in the same room, along with the “too shrill” comments. If I’m in other room the “closed doors” poltergeist starts inmediately
that seems to work; I recently learned to control my D Overton and sometimes dare to play in the garden, they don’t run away anymore!!
I’m relieved! Because I think it’s a wonderful instrument and I would be very frustrated when was so terrible at playing it 
@Blaydo Yeah, I’m playin Irish traditional on the violin, well , I love playing Irish traditional and honestly, I often forget to do my ‘classic’ homework because Irish music is much more fun to play… I think… unfortunatly not my teacher 
Or you could sound horrible. Especially in the second octave, small changes in breath volume, pressure and air speed can create ear-piercing sounds. Things smooth out with practice. That said, I agree with all the previous posts that whistle music is an acquired taste. My wife has gone from “Not in this house” to “That sounded pretty good when I was three rooms away” in about three years of practice. I credit her opinion change in about equal measure to my improved playing and her increased understanding of the music. Or maybe her hearing is just going bad…
Na, it’s not because of the second octave… I never played it when she was near^^
(Ihr Englisch ist gut- viel besser als mein Deutsch, weiss ich- also seien Sie nicht so scheu 
viel Glück mit dem Musik! - ist “mit” richtig?)
Record yourself playing a bit, then listen to it. Then put it away for a week and listen then. What comes out what might be different than what you’re hearing when your lips are on the thing.
[quote=“TheSpoonMan”](Ihr Englisch ist gut- viel besser als mein Deutsch, weiss ich- also seien Sie nicht so scheu viel Glück mit dem Musik! - ist “mit” richtig?)
quote]
Thank you!
well, I’d say your German is quite good^^ the ‘mit’ is correct but it’s ‘viel Glück mit der Musik’
LOL danke don’t know how I slipped on that
I live in an apartment and it didn’t half annoy my girlfriend never mind my neighbours. My upstairs neighbor has a grand piano which he plays very infrequently, (and he is fab on it). He got so fed up listening to me on the whistle one day he ‘lit up’ the piano and we had what turned into a jam session for over an hour
Fun as it was, I didn’t want to push my luck so I ordered the every whistle with the “‘shush’ collar”. Great little instrument - now i practice till the wee hours and all is well.
In order to save my marriage I bought a Tony Dixon brass D, simply because I was told it was quieter - well it wasn’t! Consequently, my wife ordered me out of the house everytime I dared to glance at my whistle, so I started to play in fields, woods .. in fact, anywhere I could find where no-one could interrupt me.
Unfortunately, the winter months are pretty unpleasant and I wasn’t looking forward to another season facing gale force winds, rain and sleet while belting out the Boys of Bluehill at 7am on a January morning. Fortunately, at a recent folk festival I was seduced by a Tony Dixon aluminium low whistle. I am saved!!!
My wife let’s me practice indoors - today I’ve been playing off and on for about 8 hours without complaint. So, my suggestion - buy a low whistle!
D
I’ve already run into this problem–where to practice, without driving everybody crazy? My present solution is to practice outdoors in the woods when I walk my dog.
I ordered the one-piece Tony Dixon polymer D whistle, too. From what people have written, it’s a quieter instrument, and not too harsh in the second octave. We’ll see if it’s tolerable to others indoors.