Recently I’ve been struck by how much choice we have in the modern world, an incredible luxury when you think about it in comparison to our ancestors. Think of the choice of coffees at Starbucks; there must be thousands of possible permutations. I regularly buy sliced ham at the supermarket and can spend several minutes deciding which of the fifty possibilities to buy and that’s here out in the sticks in Northern Scotland. Reading thoughts on the Hans Bracker tour and thinking about my own choices in buying a low D from Colin Goldie, I’m struck by the colossal choice we have before us as whistle players, not just in terms of makers (a quickly growing number), but the permutations those makers can come up with in an attempt to meet our individual preferences and expectations. As consumers we’ve actually come to expect more, I believe. And in most consumer products the choices will continue to grow. Having to make constant choices, especially for certain personality types, can be incredibly stressful . . . . and Brigitte Goldie has stories to tell of visitors to the workshop confronted by whistles galore and the enormous difficulties of choosing the right whistle . . . whatever that means for them.
But looking back, it’s not so long ago that Finbar Furey and Davy Spillane played the first low whistles. For them, there was no problems with choice. It was Bernard Overton . . . or not. Now, obviously today’s whistles benefit from the years of experience and experimentation of committed makers like Colin Goldie. But back then, given the limited choice, players like those mentioned would buy Bernard’s whistles and just get on and learn to play them whatever their idiosyncrasies and in that monogamous relationship learn to get every possible nuance of tone and emotion out of those whistles . . . something perhaps WHOAD doesn’t allow as easily.
I’m making no judgements here on what is best or right, merely noting the changes and my own reactions, which are likely to be in the minority, I’m sure. These are just reflections for others to think about and comment on. In many ways, I’m delighted that I have the choices available to me now. I’m not sure I would have managed to play an early Overton low D quite as easily as I can one of Colin’s . . . and yet, I also long for more simplicity in life, fewer choices, the absence of the possibility of WHOAD, which I’m affected by even if I can’t afford it. Maybe that’s my problem. Maybe it’s just sour grapes on my part and I wouldn’t be thinking these thoughts if I had the money to enjoy and sample the rich choice of whistles available out there !!
I hear what you’re saying. I do think that having so many choices causes us (or allows us) to be picky to the point of being finicky and not being satisfied by anything.
Those earlier players who didn’t have so many choices may have learned skills that we won’t because they had to adapt to the whistle - not the ohter way around.
Those earlier players who didn’t have so many choices may have learned skills that we won’t because they had to adapt to the whistle - not the ohter way around.
Nice thought. I like that! Maybe because we have the choice to go out and buy something that gives us more of an immediate “fix,” or at least we hope it will, we won’t wrestle long enough with our original whistle to draw out of it, its full potential, and out of us, our full potential.
Good thoughts! Makes me want to get to know each of my whistles better instead of picking out one or two that “suit” me and thinking there is something wrong with the others.
Mike, you speak a universal truth concerning technology, in general. It took a while, but I finally realized that attempting to keep up with the newest whiz-bang ‘improvement’ from any whistle maker is counter-productive, in the long run. With whistles, as with other ‘gear,’ there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ magic. If one changes one parameter to make the instrument ‘better,’ other parameters will change, automatically. And often, the laws of unintended consequences and diminishing returns hold sway, and the resultant product is not necessarily better, just different.
Musical instruments - all of them - seem to be in a category all their own. Make two hammer dulcimers of the same model from the same tree, and they will sound different. Significantly different… The smallest change in the technical parameters of whistles may produce identical models that have very different playing characteristics. In the end, personally, if I find a whistle that truly pleases me - that has the right subjective full range tonal quality, controllable octave flip characteristic, predictable playability, just right breath resistance, etc., I keep that whistle - even though the maker goes through many succeeding generations of ‘improved’ instruments. Newer is not necessarily better.
Sometimes, and hopefully, for a whistle maker, more often than not,
an ‘improvement’ is an improvement in the evolution of whistle models!
But if you got a whistle you really like and are happy with, of course keep it!
But if you look for a new whistle from a maker and want your choices limited, just let the maker decide for you.
There is always the choice of making no choice
I don’t see a sword with multiple edges, nor a danger that you’ll get hurt.
There is also the option of returning an instrument, if it does not suit, to have it changed, or refunded. That is even enshrined in law in the UK, as a “remote buyer’s protection”.
[Edited to add] Ah. Just looked it up. It’s called the “Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000”. It doesn’t necessarily give the consumer the right to return goods. Rather, it enshrines in law the right to cancel the contract within 7 days of entering into it. Of course, you might not have had the goods within that time, in which case, you’d have no right to return them unless they were faulty, or you’d already cancelled the contract.
Sorry - I’m interested in the law. Don’t mind me. Carry on.
[Edited to add yet more] If the goods are personalised, then there is no right even to cancel the contract, let alone return the goods - again, with the exception being if they are faulty.
The distance selling directive does in fact give the customer a seven day ‘cooling off period’ during which the order can be cancelled or the good purchased returned. De facto giving the buyer room to return goods within that period simply because they don’t like them.
Interesting thoughts, Mike. I did suffer from the inability to be satisfied by my whistles for quite a while. Indeed, I own 6 high Ds. Of them, I’m only convinced that the Busman and the Bluebird were good buys (for my personal needs). I’m on the fence about the Burke and I didn’t need the Sweet, Blackbird or the Susato.
I think the most valuable type of whistle is a whistle that allows the most freedom of playing. I feel like a lot of the more “specialty” whistles try too hard to be “different” rather than just “a good Irish whistle,” and thus limit the kinds of sounds one can get. If I were giving advice to myself a year ago, I would have said, “Get a Bluebird, or a Feadog, or something that’s ‘just a whistle,’ and after you’ve played it a year, then start looking for other options based on what you think would support, rather than alter, how you play a whistle.”
To be more philosophical, I like a whistle the player can make in their own image, rather than a whistle that makes the player in its own image.
“Get a Bluebird, or a Feadog, or something that’s ‘just a whistle,’ and after you’ve played it a year, then start looking for other options based on what you think would support, rather than alter, how you play a whistle.”
That’s probably the most sensible thing you can tell yourself. Unfortunately most people need the benefit of hindsight to come to that revelation. In fact, in the past people have gone into a huff here when being given the same advice. So maybe it’s a point everybody has to reach for themselves.
It’s probably inevitable but at the same time a a bit unfortunate the board is going through another very vocal phase of edging on people into whistle buying. Unfortunate, as this doesn’t teach you about playing the whistle, the only thing you become expert at is the buying of whistles.
As a result of this, reading the For Sale forum, we see whistles put up for sale, ‘played only a few minutes’ by people who go get encouraged into buying every whistle they can find before they can in fact assess anything about a whistle’s quality or playability. This baffles me time and again, on a number of levels.
FWIW, I have spent part of the afternoon playing a Generation E flat, my first whistle, that I bought in 1970 or 1971. It still does the job very nicely.
To be more philosophical, I like a whistle the player can make in their own image, rather than a whistle that makes the player in its own image.
I like both your comments. I find it interesting, from what I’ve read, that an experienced player, let’s say Davy Spillane, can manage to get something of a distinctly Davy Spillane sound out of other quality whistles. And by the same token, different experienced players will get something of their own sound out of the same quality whistle. Doc Jones reviewing a Goldie suggested that it was not an immediately easy whistle to play, more like a wild horse that needed taming a little in order to unleash its full potential . . . however that potential may be coloured by the individual’s playing. But maybe something of a long apprenticeship with a whistle is almost necessary to both get the most out of the whistle AND to define one’s own playing. Maybe one of the reasons pros often stick with different keys from one maker is that through long experience and time with those whistles they know how they handle and have the ability to get the most out of those whistles. For me, WHOAD (much as I would like to be able to afford to suffer from it - sour grapes creeping in again!!! ) where people collect different whistles in the same key, would seem to mitigate against having that relationship with a whistle that allows one to draw the most out of it and one’s own playing. Though I recognise that this may not be such a problem with standard high whistles as with low whistles. Does this make sense or am I talking rubbish?
I would have said, "Get a Bluebird, or a Feadog, or something that’s ‘just a whistle,’ and after you’ve played it a year, then start looking for other options based on what you think would support, rather than alter, how you play a whistle.
Good thoughts, Mikethebook. I think you’re right to make the connection to the wider culture (such as the ham selection at the local grocery store). I’d like to think music can be a refuge from consumerism, but it’s not always the case…
Of course, it’s great fun to try different instruments, and while different whistles do exhibit different characteristics, in the end, it’s still me playing the tune. I’ve yet to find a whistle that can fix timing errors or generate creative variations, so any whistle that lets me make music is good enough. (Makes me think of that aphorism ‘The perfect is the enemy of the good.’)
Now, as a flute player, I like a whistle that can take a bit more air, so that affects my choice of instrument, and cost is a factor, and tone/volume…but it’s not that hard to account for those things. Whistle in hand, it’s now up to me to make the music–and better to spend the time there, I think, than engaging in a quest for the ‘perfect’ whistle.
Yeah, it’s a conclusion I had to reach the hard way. I was a newbie not long ago and made my share of angsty threads about what whistle I should get. I think there’s a tendency to shun ordinary whistles along the thoughts of, “If I get a whistle that’s special and different my playing will be special and different too.” That’s why I like my Folk Flute so much; it has none of the decoration of other flutes, and so people don’t assume that my playing (for better or for worse) is due at all to the flute. I guess my style is “unadorned.”
Interesting thought. I’ve played my friend’s Goldie and it takes a bit more care to get a good tune out, but I think there’s a difference between “takes some getting used to” and “hard to play.” I have some whistles by well-known makers that I (and better whistle players I know) have described as “difficult to play,” and so I think there is a grain of truth to some complaints on here. A whistle should inherently be relatively straightforward to play, allowing one to focus on the tune. That’s rather the point, as I understand it.
That makes sense to a degree. I feel like I learn something about my playing every time I play a different whistle, and if I improve on one I improve on all of them. However, I definitely spend enough time with my favorites to get to know them. The cycle of buy-sell-buy-sell is only good for Ebay’s fee revenue.
Interesting thought. I’ve played my friend’s Goldie and it takes a bit more care to get a good tune out, but I think there’s a difference between “takes some getting used to” and “hard to play.” I have some whistles by well-known makers that I (and better whistle players I know) have described as “difficult to play,” and so I think there is a grain of truth to some complaints on here. A whistle should inherently be relatively straightforward to play, allowing one to focus on the tune. That’s rather the point, as I understand it.
I think you may need to distinguish a few matters: first of all for who a particular whistle is hard to play (think skill level and experience) and what an instrument gives (or doesn’t) in return for being more difficult to play. You can have instruments that won’t give a squeek no matter what you throw at them but in return reward you with a rather bland, not very colourful tone or,at the other end, you may have an instrument that takes a bit more skill to drive but rewards you with flexibility, different sounds and approaches. Ofcourse there are also instruments that are awkward to play that have nothing much to give in retrun. Those are the ones you really need to avoid.
Yeah, there’s a lot of subjectivity with regard to what whistles are “easy” players and so forth, so I was really referring to whistles that restrict one to a certain manner of playing and don’t support a wide range of approaches.
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