Just wondering what sort of feedback you whistlers get at home.
My wife and kids tell me to go play somewhere else, 
and thinking about it, they never say… " oh that one is a nice tune", it’s all pretty negative really.
I remember at school, most girls learned the recorder, and i can remember getting pretty tired of my sisters practicing 
What are your experiences?
Chris
My wife stuck her head out in the garage the other night and said “Sounds pretty good, Pied Piper” 
She plays the flute fairly well and cringes when I am working on whistles; a badly tuned whistle played poorly won’t win you a lot of fans. So what she really meant was I finally was learning how to tune them and she was finally able to tell that I play the first two lines of Amazing Grace after running the scale to see if it sounds all right. And she closed the door and left me to play alone in the garage…
But, hey, it’s progress.
Jan says she does not hear me anymore. It is part of her environment and fades into the background. Our dogs (both with collie in, so should hate the noise) just look exasperated that I have found something to do which does not involve walking, feeding or throwing a ball for them.
It is interesting to hear Jan whistling something I am learning or have learnt. When I play it later she will often say ‘you got that tune from me’. So maybe her subconscious, at least, treats it as music.
Unsolicited compliments are few and far between though.
No negatives, although I’m sure there are a few evil thoughts that go through the wifes head. I think she has just come to accept it now. Positives only come from the kids who go running for their own instruments to join in whenever I start up. Not a high rating since they’re only 3 and 4 years old, but it’s better than nothing.
Mick
I’m sure they’ll miss the music when I’m gone. I should make recordings and set them up on our computer to self-activate after I am gone to psuedo-haunt them. That’ll teach them to mock me.
My brother calls me Clifford! That little 
You know the kid that is played by a man that wants to go to dinoland.
It’s almost comforting to hear that even you fabulous experienced players get some flack. My wife is pretty supportive of my guitar playing (figured out it was an important part of the package early on), and even my playing in rock bands. But she and my 19 year old daughter seem to vigorously HATE the whistle, and to a slightly lesser degree the flute. I’d like to think it’s more because I’m a learner on that, and I make mistakes and play parts over and over, and am still searching for a high whistle that I can smoothly get around all (both?)the octaves on. But they are REally intolerant and insulting about it. I try not to believe I deserve it. I’ve tried to “train” them to let me finish a 30 seconds or so tune when they walk in the room without squawking and making faces and calling me names (because I do stop when they enter the room), but I gotta say it’s an upstream swim to learn this instrument around my house. But I ain’t giving up. I play in the car at stoplights, walking to the photocopy room when I’m at work late and no one much is around, sitting in my car in the garage, and whenever I can find an isolated space or time at home. I need a soundproof practice box, like the ones they make so you can play a loud guitar amp and record at home…Thank the lord I have a little more control over flute volume, and also for the lower whistles!! Maybe some day I’ll be good enough to shut them up, and I do use the “you’ll miss this when I’m gone” line–I love the recorded “haunting” idea!!!
Best,
Jaydoc
My tortoise pulls its head in when I’m playing, but it hasn’t commented verbally yet.
This is just my opinion. Whistles are completely foreign to my family’s experience. I don’t think they can handle such high pitched, high volume instruments inside a normal household room. They can handle these instruments at a distance in the great outdoors better. They can also handle lower pitched instruments better. The ocarina is exponentially worse for my wife. Maybe folks who grew up with high pitched wind instruments and music that included these instruments have more tolerance.
My kids both enjoy my whistle playing…
My soon to be ex-wife recently told me that despite the compliments she has given me over the years, she HATES the whistle and hopes to never again find herself involved with someone who plays whistle or flute after the kids and I move out.
Which, in turn, has inspired me to find places to throw in the occassional third octave E.
Digital haunting - I like that too… the only problem I have with this is figuring out how to get it to work with a garage door opener, so that every time I drive by…
Or, as my wife contends, their hearing is already compromised… 
Best wishes.
Steve
Actually, when I’m on trips my wife and daughter say they seem to hear the whistle when I’m gone! (not in a spooky way, just in the back of their minds)
Whether they do an exorcism when that happens or not, they haven’t said!
My wife doesn’t enjoy practice - I generally try to do that when she’s out of the house. I’m not sure anyone enjoys listening to practice, especially by a beginner. After all, practice involves repeating problem areas over and over and over and over and… not very entertaining. Why do you think music teachers are paid all that money to listen to kids practice? My wife does enjoy listening to me play with others. Solo whistle playing seems to be an acquired taste, at least in the western world. My cats have learned to tolerate me tho they still leave the room when I pick up a whistle.
Lately my roommates have both been saying, with remarkable good cheer, that they’ve learned to screen out my playing almost completely. This seems to be true – I’m not above fishing for compliments, and when I wander out of my room and and casually say, “Hey, that sounded better today, didn’t it?” they invariably look at me blankly and say, “Oh, I don’t even hear you anymore…” Actually, both of them have recently offered, “Oh, your playing never bothers me,” which openly contradicts the long-suffering expressions with which they used to respond to my questioning on the subject in the past. On reflection, this makes me happy, since this seems to suggest I’ve improved – though to my ears, I still have a long, long way to go before anyone might actively want to listen to me!
[Edited to add:]
Now that I think about it, I’m pretty lucky that I live with another musician, and with someone who’s mother & brother are musicians. Even during my prolonged stage of most-beginner-ish terribleness (I had no idea how to even begin to make music…), they were at least of the rationally-held school of thought that it was Good Thing for people to make music… even if, like me, the person wasn’t particularly good at it. That may have helped them achieve the Zen art of accepting loud and high-pitched quasi-musical noises.
I’m sure that, if you were really horrid, they’d notice!
I think there is a lot of insight into this comment. If a person has lived with a beginner musician before, they have some very important skills.
yer assuming that they didn’t get sent up, aren’t ya
Hmm, well, I’ve been asked to stop playing once already by hubby. He’s usually pretty tolerant–just depends on the sort of day he’s had.
Which is why now I try to practice when he’s not around. My kids, on the other hand, are utterly at my mercy. Heheheh.
I’ve taken to practicing to the basement, so I can use the metronome on our keyboard. All that serves to do, most likely, is to permeate the entire house with my [choose your adjective] echoes.
The Clarke whistle I’ve got ($5 whistles purchased in bulk for kids’ lessons) is not particularly good past the high G, either. It makes me wince!
At the present time and for some time now (I’ll just glide over the years of struggling “playing”), I’ll summarize by saying simply that my college senior daughter (on those few occasions when she’s home) neither closes her door nor asks me to keep it down when she’s working in her room which is about 10 feet from my office/music room. I need say no more.
Philo
So, the general consensus is that our families are throwing money at us to hear their fave tunes?