. . . or, in other words, following on from the thread title - ‘to boldly go where no-one has boldly gone before!’ I recently taken my trustee Burke D whistle to a bluegrass session at a local pub nearby. By the way, to account for potential cultural differences, I live in Manchester UK – As you Americans may know, bluegrass isn’t really an English thing so it’s generally taken very seriously and all bluegrass protocols are generally strictly adhered to!
Anyway, as an exercise I quietly put my mandolin down and sneaked out the whistle from my inside pocket and began to play, well, improvise as nobody has yet written a rule book on bluegrass whistle playing! This ‘improvise’ thing I can do very well and sympathetically to the music being played.
The reaction was truly amazing – talk about instant alienation. It was as if I’d introduced an elephant suffering from ADHT into a mouse dancing party!
Question: why does it seem to be sooo difficult to introduce whistle into other forms of music without heated debate and consternation??? I mean does anyone, other than myself actually play jazz whistle??? Or am I merely a lone voice, well whistle, crying in the post-traditional wilderness!?!
Show tunes! Pop! R&R! Just a few of my favorite genres to zen-out on…
Really can’t think of any bluegrass cuts that I’ve heard whistle on, but just about every other type of music seems to be incorporating some sort of whistle sound or other.
(Oh, I like to play, hmmmm… Shady Grove, Beverly Hillbillies, others that have been well-adapted to Bluegrass.)
Seems like I’ve heard about these UK bubbles of genre-specific behavior. Is the C&W stereotype-cowboy craze still going on at all?
I think some people might lighten up a little and allow music to flow and communicate rather than build walls and batter down for the sake of perceived purity.
I play with a folk music group in a non-public setting. We’re mostly string players, and we sing
folk songs from a book, and play bluegrass and blues occasionally. They seem to love when
I accompany on tinwhistle, and sometimes I’m able to improvise along the E blues scale (pretty
limited…), which is well enough received. Perhaps you just need to find a more genial crowd.
Hey there mando—I take my bluegrass very seriously too, as any bluegrass lover ought. I could tolerate hearing a whistle play bluegrass music just fine, I might even really like it. But it wouldn’t be bluegrass music. It would be newgrass or some other debauched thing. You have your bass, your guitar, your banjo, your fiddle, your mandolin and that’s it. A good high tenor is quite desirable too of course. Nothing irks me more than going to hear Irish music and there is a bloody set of rock and roll drums there. Why do they mislead me? Just tell me it is Rock Irish or whatever they would call it. Then I wouldn’t get my hopes up. I think I might just like Manchester. And country music—that doesn’t even exist anymore. It is country rock, and now no one knows the difference. And then the singer-songwriter thing–okay, I won’t even get started on that, the whiny saps. Actually, if the music is good, I find I can handle new ways of playing it. But I guess if I am hungering for a certain sound and expecting it, I do feel a bit disappointed when someone has to go and get innovative. There is just a certain bluegrass sound and some people could be snobs about it which is stupid, but some people may just truly hunger for that old time sound. It seems that a whistle would not be so out of place, since bluegrass music does have its roots in Celtic and English music I believe. A whistle would be far better than a drum set, or whatever they call it. Jazz whistle makes perfect sense because I have no idea what to expect from jazz. I hope your breathing problems have subsided. Depending on how much beer they’ve had and how many of them there are, I might hold off actually hitting them with a low whistle as per vomitbunny’s suggestion.
A couple of bluegrass musicians recently visited my monthly music group. They encouraged me to play along with them on their songs. Unfortunately I did not know the tunes they were doing. So here in California, whistle is an accepted bluegrass instrument.
It may depend on the group. If they have had bad experiences with whistles in the past, that carries over to the next person. Being an octave higher than everyone, if you can hear yourself clearly, it is probably loud enough to disturb other people.
You mention strict rules. You might have done better by playing melody and building some trust before taking the tune to an unfamiliar place with jazz-type improvising. Another suggestion would be to introduce the whistle at an informal break time or the like. People generally don’t like change and the regulars are probably buddies. So unless your music is phenomenal and perhaps even if it is, I would wager the same behavior would get the cold shoulder more often than not. A stranger coming to an established group, with a different instrument, and insists on improvising off the melody.
I don’t play jazz whistle, but I do compose original songs with lyrics for the whistle. There are few that do that. Songwriting is dominated by guitar players with a few pianists. The curious can hear some of my songs at: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/9/billchinmusic.htm
Jeeze - The last time I listened to local music up the holler, (many years ago), it was made on anyting available and not restricted to any list of recognized approved instruments. And I always thought making music was just about that! Making Music. I guess I missed out on the announcement about the meeting of the rules commitee.
Unless someone posts a notice that this will be a event dedicated to the reinactment of some specific event in TRADITIONAL (whaterverkinda) MUSIC; then I mistakenly assume they are there to enjoy themselves and to share the experience. I know, I know; you may commence to slap me now.
Ouch!
Well, then…
Nevermind!
No wonder my father keeps me in a bag until there’s work to be done.
I suppose half-sax would be out of the question as well?
Actually you guys, I do think everyone should just do what they want to and enjoy it. I must admit, though, that I myself, as you have probably guessed, am quite partial to traditional music which is more or less dedicated to reinacting traditional music—it isn’t that it is played exactly the same each time, because it never was, but there are some defining things about it like instruments, style, tunes, etc. I mean do you want to hear a bluegrass group playing You Light Up My Life? (Well, that might just be worth a listen.) I just like it if a group makes it clear in their promo stuff what sort of music they will be playing. Then if it isn’t my thing I don’t go. I know, I should give it a chance, but I have, many times, and now I just go to what sounds really good to me fully aware that others might feel very differently.
Seems to me the common thread here is pepole want to know what they are going to hear before they buy a ticket. If it is blue grass, whistle or both just tell them. And if it is going to be rock and roll with Elvis and the Rogues www.therogues.com let me know. I want front row.
So, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the Bluegrassers quietly abscond with a large chapter of the Celtic music book during a relatively bloodless revolution that went on for some years back in the 20th century? And the blue thing! How about that? Certain of my relatives used to smear woad upon themselves upon occasion…
I can appreciate a certain decorum in a genre-specific session. I never let Duckie sing opera in the tub. Just sea chanties!
And Cynth, I agree about the expectations involved in committing time or money then finding out that the packaging was bogus.
There is actually a very talented jazz whistler over here in Calaforney, a young guy, last name is Countryman (I think), though I have only heard of him.
Anyway, welcome to the world of closed minded people who claim to be open-minded. Or, conversely, you could experience the injustice if someone with “cred” pulled it out. Then it would be OKAY! Like, say one of the Chieftains… It’s okay for celebrities, but not you, ya little worm.
If you really want blow some minds around American Irtrad wannabes, try singing a song. Man does that make 'em uncomfortable, especially the young ultra-competitive “expert” ones. Its not like they actually do that in Ireland or anything. Nyuk.
Being sensitive to the group and to the music is important. Sounds like your group isn’t ready for whistle yet, nor may they ever be… but you might try working up one of their tunes that sounds good on whistle, to try at another session sometime. I usually hold back with whistle at bluegrass sessions, and either play another instrument or sing harmony. Some of the old-time tunes seem to lend themselves more to whistle, and I come in occasionally. Whistles do tend to cut through and dominate.
I go to a sort of mixed jam around here from time to time, and it’s a lot of fun. Tunes are selected “round robin” with each player in the circle starting a tune. They do everything from Celtic to bluegrass, old timey, folk, whatever. Nice variety, and nice folks. There’s a Comhaltas session in Albany once a month and I go there occasionally, but the sessions often feel like reel after reel after reel played at high speed. After a while, they all sound the same.
By myself, I play all sorts of tunes on the whistle. I’m a major Bach fan (JS) and several of his compositions translate remarkably well to the whistle.
Wow! I’ve only been away from the computer for a few hours and hasn’t this thing grown! Hey thanks for the input people, much appreciated. Seems to me there are two issues - the obvious one is the music itself. Personally if at a session and somebody plays an unusual instrument well, that’s fine by me but I’ve noticed those of a more purist ilk scorn the offender in all their non-verbal vehemence!
The other issue i suppose is session ettiquete. I mean as soon as I guaged the reaction, I quickly put down the whistle and back to the mandolin only this time wearing an invisible stetson and trying to look convincingly as bluegrass as possible. and decided never to darken their session again with a whistle. They even speak to me now in words of more than one syllable!
But I kind of suspect that the geographical location (i.e. not in America) possibly makes them more purist about their chosen bluegrass love. Had I continued to turn up and play a whistle that would have been impolite possibly and they would have completely alienated me. But then we have extremely bad musicians who don’t really give a stuff. I remember an irish session in Preston I used to attend and a guy with spoons (yes, those kitchen implements for stuffing your face, only of the large catering variety) turned up every week and literally drowned everyone out with a particularly badly timed clatter. I think eventually he was assassinated! M
There is a Saturday morning bluegrass session at Pickle’s Gap, just down the road. I’ve been invited by a couple of the musicians to come and sit in (flute or whistle) but I’ve never made it yet…sleeping in on Saturday is a hard thing to give up!!!
On the other hand, I do play flute and whistle in a rock band, and though I was hesitant at first, everyone assures me it works quite well, so I got over my initial hesitation and finally just started jumping right on in. Flute gets played on more things than whistle, but the whistle does get played in a few songs.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll make my way to the Pickin’ Porch at Pickle’s Gap, and just listen a bit and see what happens.
