Here’s a question born of Wednesday night idle curiosity…
It’s often been mentioned on this forum that despite sharing a fingering system and repertoire, flute and whistle are quite different instruments. How many of you flute players also seriously play whistle–or don’t? How different are your approaches to the two instruments?
In my case, I gave up the whistle some time ago, partially due to a recommendation from my cats, but also because I wanted to focus on getting it “right” on the flute. (Still working at it…) Had a brief go at low whistle, too, but I also gave that up.
I play whistle too.
I play mostly flute, but am an occasional member of a group that likes the whistle more than the flute on some tunes. I have a low whistle, and am slowly adapting to piper’s grip by playing slow tunes, and now they want all the slow tunes played on the low whistle. I find whistle and flute to be very different, and that the whistle shows up my sloppy playing. I feel a lot more exposed on the whistle, but this could be an impetus to improve. If I am having a crappy sound day on the flute, I sometimes play the whistle so I can learn tunes without beating myself up about the undignified noises I am producing.
Hugh
I’m learning to play flute, and I also play tin whistle (since 9+ months ago).
Particularly, I won’t stop playing whistle. As you said, they are different instruments, and I love them both.
Also play low whistle and whistle, though I am out of practice.
Arbo
I essentially stopped playing whistle with the arrival of my first wooden flute little more than a year. My flute teacher suggested to focus on the flute. Recently interest for whistle started to come back, but still I am mostly playing flute.
Cheers, Moritz
I’ve played at the whistle forever but really only started getting serious about it in the last two years. I got a cheapie Generation Bb and an Oak C around then, and I don’t know whether it was the alternate keys or what, but I got all fired up. And since I got one of Tommy Martin’s nifty little Eb whistles earlier this year I play every day; it’s about my favorite thing to do.
Anyway, I laugh because I find tinwhistle beastly hard to play the way I want to – maybe even harder than the flute! (It seems there’s less room for laziness on the whistle) And I do find the two instruments wildly different, at least in terms of what I’m trying to achieve. I find I want to play the whistle in a more measured, articulated fashion with a fair amount of piping-type pops. I’m also thinking about breathing differently. Basically, I guess I want to sound as “whistle-y” as possible, and to my ear that’s just different from the flute – the whistle requires tighter playing and more attention to small things.
Funny; what I arrogantly thought was a “beginner” instrument is turning out to be the one that’s got me working my tail off. I’m hoping one day it’ll improve my flute playing too, but who knows.
Ah well, that’s just my observation of the last few years. Opinions are subject to change as future layers of scales fall from my eyes (I hope they do, anyway!).
P.S. My old cat “Floyd” (RIP) hated the D whistle too, but could live with the Bb and mostly tolerated the C. The new cat doesn’t seem to care; she even lies on my knee while I’m murdering my pipes. (I think they remind her of her mother.)
I play low whistles, penny whistle, my A, G and F whistles as well as the the Irish flute and Boehm flute. My ear seems to find a preference for one or the other depending on what kind of characteristics I’m looking for on certain tunes. I use the Boehm flute primarily to back vocals when the vocalist is singing in an “unreasonable” 
key, like D flat minor.
I started on whistle, a few months later moved on to flute. For a while they were about equal, but of late I’ve been concentrating on flute- and lost a lot of my whistle skills. Course tendonitis has thrown it all away. Harmonica for me!
At first my flute playing was just a transfer of fingering to the whistle, but then I discovered Jack Dolan and similar players- whew! Darn near fell in love with those recordings. Since then I’ve adopted a very breathy, syncopated style for flute, very little ornamentation or huge melodic variation, just lots of pulsing (and tons of tiny variations that keep it fun).
Whistle it’s about the opposite- I do inject a lot of rhythm, tongue rolls, that kinda thing, but generally I strive for more flow in my whistling- more ornamented, more varied, more slurred, etc. It’s just what seems to fit the instrument better, since I can’t control the volume like I can on flute, and so can’t really beat a rhythm into the instrument.
I started on whistle and took up flute a little later but I still do both. For a while I was trying to concentrate on flute to get somewhere near a halfway decent embouchure (don’t think I’ve made it yet) and when I’d pick up the whistle every so often at a session I could really tell I’d been away from it for a while. But I agree, there is a different approach to each. And I totally agree with the fact that it’s easier to be lazy on flute than on whistle. Since I didn’t have a flute teacher (there aren’t any around here) I think I tend to play flute more like a whistle and I am trying to work on that. How often I play one or the other depends on who (who? whom?) I’m playing with but I’d say, for the most part, it’s pretty evenly matched. For my tastes, some tunes just call for whistle and some are much tastier on flute. 
i play the whistle for about 10 minutes every month, sometimes even less… i’m not good at it, since i play it so little, and is not in my plans to improve the way i play it. i love the flute, and that’s enough. but since sometimes high notes may be required, i’m planning to get a piccolo, that should be closer to the flute…
Yes.
Started on Boehm flute, acquired whistles and recorders, migrated to trad folk music, acquired 8-key simple system flute, much later acquired low whistle, piccolo, good wooden high whistle, other flutes… (new toy - pibgorn!) … Nowadays hardly ever get out and assemble Boehm flute save to demonstrate something at a workshop or to lend it to someone: very occasionally play recorder for some thing specific (e.g. The Horse’s Brawl or a song accompaniment where the timbre suits…), play mostly my R&R, use other flutes for particular jobs, use high whistle quite a bit, low whistle ditto, piccolo ditto, usually for particular tunes that I prefer/habitually play on them, and low whistle particularly for song accompaniment. Tend to use whistle in sessions if feeling lazy/having really bad embouchure day as is much less effort than flute… though also will switch instruments according to balance of instrumentation in sesh/tune set - lots of flutes, play whistle & vice versa.
I probably play in pretty much the same way on both flute and whistle, allowing for the technical differences over embouchure/intonation/dynamic control and for the fact that (on my whistles at any rate) one’s wind lasts much longer on whistle, so phrasing is different - but I don’t tend to think about it very much. Maybe use a slightly greater amount of tonguing on whistle to compensate for loss of diaphragm pushes. The only way in which I would consider whistle to be circumstantially more difficult than flute is when playing tunes needing accidentals that one would use the keys for on flute. Generally, I can play most things equally readily on either instrument. I think anyone who can play flute competently can play whistle, no probs.
This might have made an interesting poll thread. I’d venture to guess that most players of Irish flute also play whistles, at least on occasion. If you have the fingerings down, and know the music, why would you not at some point drop $5 to have a go at whistle?
I play whistle less, now that I’m working at the flute, but I don’t love it any less. And I don’t envision unloading them all, (maybe some).
I grew up on Boehm flute, then put it away for 15 years, dabbling mostly with piano and bass. When I started to get more interested and eventually obsessed with ITM, my dear wife gave me the booklet by Bill Ochs that came with an uber-crappy Clarke (the rolled sheet metal kind with a wooden fipple that gets soaked in about 2 minutes). I celebrated my graduation from the Ochs book by getting a Susato, which marked the onset of whistle acquisition disorder. After about two years of whistling, I remembered my flooting years, thinking that I would still have some of the chops of yore. I guess if I had known how wrong I was, I would’ve never tried. Another two years later, I still play and love them both.
My approach is very similar, but I would like to be able to treat them as instruments in their own right. I feel that the embouchure on the flute requires more dedicated practice, so I tend to play the flute more. I try to play the flute with little tonguing and as much “honk” as I can wrest from it, while I strive for a more “bouncy” sound on the whistle (such as the H-T-T tonguing in jigs). I also find that some tunes lend themselves better to one or the other.
i have a nice, old burke whistle that was given to me. it is handy to play when i am on the road and bored. i hardly ever play whistle.
I seldom play whistle for two reasons:
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I just don’t care for the sound as compared to flute.
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I use very different ornaments and articulation on whistle than I do on flute, and keeping them straight is a pain. I gig far less now than I used to, but when I did, I pretty much kept my flute and whistle repertoir separate.
Like many others, I started out on whistle. I still play it some. Mostly it’s in the car and to break in the wooden whistles I’ve been making, but there are some tunes that I find lend themselves to the whistle much moreso than the flute.
Only while I’m working.
I keep a whistle in my car. I got stuck in construction yesterday, woo hoo. I accidently taught myself to play left-handed and am in the usa so playing a flute in my car in the driver’s seat doesn’t work. Sometimes I have my fife in my car. That works.
Whistle comes in handy busking.
Also when playing old time music.
I find all the practice on flute makes me
better on whistle, though the two instruments
are played somewhat differently.