Hi all,
Been lurking several months, first time posting. This site is great, what a tremendous source of information it is, I’ve learned so much already from reading it. Years ago I started messing around with whistle, having heard some chieftans albums and working with Robin Williams’ book. That eventually shifted into playing highland pipes (which I still play and love), but now I’m coming back to whistle as well. I played pipes in a play last year, and for a few tunes where pipes didn’t quite work, I dusted off a couple of old whistles. I’m used to people asking about pipes, but I was surprised by how many people asked me about the whistle, and how positively people responded to my mediocre, simplistic playing. I’d been thinking about getting scottish smallpipes, or shuttle pipes, or something of that sort, and maybe I still will. But I realized the whistle has so much to offer to augment my pipes; cheap, play in various keys, two octave range, I can play in the sun without a problem, no reeds or hemp or bag to worry about, carry it anywhere, play chromatic notes. Plus I can use it for Irish, Scottish, Northumbrian, or many other types of music. I think blues would sound really good on whistle, though I’ve never heard it. So, I’m off on Wednesday with my trusty whistles in tow, to my first lesson with Bill Ochs, here in New York. Thanks for letting me ramble, look forward to chatting with all of you in the future,
take care,
Jason
