I was just wondering what whistle paddy plays because I’ve been playing for about a year and I love the way his whistle sounds, but I can’t get any of my whistles to match its sound.
Jack Murphy
journeyman whistle
You’ll be surprised to hear that the very special sound of Paddy Moloney is due to his superb, delicate and highly individual playing style. On almost all Chieftains recordings I think he plays an auld, battered Generation Brass whistle. Recently, he is said to play Burke whistles once in a while. But mind you, he had more than sixty years time to refine his playing style. That’s a long way to go for you..
Christian
MurphyStout, I don’t think it will necessarily take you years, let alone sixty years, of playing to get something approaching the tone you admire. Technique and shape of the mouth do count for something, but so does the whistle.
I suggest you check out the recent thread on tweaking Generations by narrowing the airway. You can make them sound softer, airier, sweeter. Buy a couple to experiment with. For example I think I sound like Séan Potts now, the other whistle player on the early Chieftains records. (It doesn’t hurt to dream.)
The Chieftans recently appeared on “Late Night with David Letterman,” and Paddy, to the surprise of many, was playing a low whistle. It looked to be an aluminum whistle, not long enough to be a low D, more like a low G. It would be interesting to know what it was. Nevertheless, there’s an interview with Paddy in the “Personality Parade” section of this site. It’s on the Main Page.
I read his interview on the “interviews” page and he says that he prefers generations but he can’t play all of them. He said you mold yourself into them. The one that he had on stage during the interview was 22 years old and held together by glue and electrical tape.
I had a chance to see the Chieftains on March 10 at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. I sat in the conductors circle in the center BEHIND the band by about 25 feet and about 12 feet up. I looked down on Paddy’s small stand where he kept his whistles. Paddy had the old Generation that everybody knows about. He also had a Sindt (C or D) and a modest collection of Burke Composite whistles (mostly if not all Burke low whistles). I doubt that (or would be very surprised if) he has recorded more than a modest handful of tunes on anything other than the Generations.
I really can’t put words on how enjoyable the performance was. Their tour is more focused on their prior release of Another Country. I think they wanted some American connections for the American audiences after 9/11.
Answer for Tom’s post below: I couldn’t really tell. It wasn’t much bigger than the 8 inch by 14 inch wine rack that I use to hold my whistles, but it looked even less substantial. It was also covered with what I think was a TuffBag whistle case. In summary, I have no quality information to share on that question, Tom. Cheers
[ This Message was edited by: Mark_J on 2002-04-11 10:01 ]
MarkJ: What did Paddy Maloney use for a whistle stand?
BTW: several of the whistlers in my local session use Oaks for some very impressive results; and one plays a Clare beautifully!