Hi, my name is Elspeth. I have been lurking about C&F for some years and have learned a lot from the posts, but would like to participate actively now that I have more free time. I live in the Houston, Texas area, have been playing the whistle for about 20 years and would say I’m a fairly advanced player. I really started to blossom after going to the O’Flaherty Irish Music retreat in 2006, and I’ve attended 7-8 times over the years. I’ve collected and traded for a bunch of tubes over the years - High D’s: Copeland brass, Sindt brass, Burke aluminum, Overton, Milligan, BW black, Killarney, Freeman Blackbird, Thin Weasel, plus various Sweetones and a few Generations. I have a Burke aluminum Eb and a Burke composite C and Water Weasels in almost every key. I mostly play my Burkes, the Sindt and the Killarney, but love my BW for the more soulful tunes. Never really could get into the Copeland.
My big shining whistle moment was when I got to play on stage with Joanie Madden in Ireland on my birthday in 2016 (we were on her musical tour). If that wasn’t enough, Gene Milligan was on the trip and gifted me one of his whistles, despite having just met the day before. He’s an immensely kind and generous man and makes lovely instruments. Don’t mean to brag - it was just so awesome.
I’m trying to get up courage to join the local session; my confidence sometimes falters when playing in front of other people. Mostly I spend my whistle time alone, toggling among Spotify, The Session, OAIM backing tracks and virtual sessions, Seamus Connolly’s site, and various other places.
I appreciate having this large whistle community to tap into. Thanks for letting me introduce myself and I look forward to learning and contributing. Elspeth Grant
Sounds like you just need to get out there and join in with the local session(s). Confidence only comes with time in the saddle! Although a pint of Guinness or two couldn’t hurt!
Neat that you got to play with Ms. Madden and meet Gene, both are great ambassadors for our community.
I had a wooden Milligan that cracked just a week before St. Paddy’s Day (lots of gigs) and Gene said to return it. The next day I got a new Milligan delrin to play through my gigs.
Thanks! I should have mentioned that I was indeed terrified to play with Joanie but it was the chance of a lifetime and she asked me to play with her when she learned it was my birthday (I’d taken classes with her at the O’Flaherty retreat so we were acquainted). Whatever mistakes I undoubtedly made were certainly camouflaged by her masterful playing!
Welcome to the whistle forum. I too was a long time lurker prior to participating and I am slow/reluctant to play in the various sessions locally. I do play sometimes after prodding from someone or when there isn’t a guest musician at the session. Nice collection of whistles.
I’m not familiar with some of the things you talked about (O’Flaherty Irish Music retreat, OAIM backing tracks, virtual sessions) so I need to do some investigating.
Thanks for the link! But that Home Page features a pet peeve of mine: the whole page has no mention of where the festival is, even what country it might be in, other than “Spanish Peak”. They assume everyone knows what/where “Spanish Peak” is. I’ve never heard of it. The viewer has to either know about it already, or Google it.
At the very bottom there’s a mailing address in Colorado, my first hint of a location, but it’s very common for the mailing addresses of festivals to be in a different location than the festival, sometimes even in a different country. (Common with Scottish piping schools, with a home address in Scotland but music camps in various countries.)
They assume everyone knows what/where “Spanish Peak” is.
In all fairness, the home page menu does include a link for maps & directions.
But organisers can indeed be so focused on their event that they assume everybody knows the where and what. I, too, have seen posters go up for music weekends without any indication as to where the event was being held.
The Spanish Peaks festival is the only one I’ve actually been to. It’s a small, mostly regional event in La Veta, CO with a varied cast of teachers/performers.
The best part is that it is a casual and low-key festival, in a quiet town (village, I guess) in Southern Colorado, about 3 hours South of Denver.
The biggest negative is that some of the events are scattered to different venues 20-30 minutes away.
Of historical note, this part of Colorado was once part of Mexico… or actually it was the Northernmost reach of the Spanish frontier, settled long before the English came to the East coast of North America.
Added to the Whistle Instruction list (sticky above). Anyone here can add to the list as there may be lots more schools & workshops that I do not know about. Same for books and tutorials and other resources for whistle instruction. The sticky above is supposed to be a group effort for the whistle community.
One way to step into an existing session is to ask one of the good players if they give lessons. Tell them you have been playing on your own for a long time and would like to sit down with someone and work up the tunes the group plays. Becoming comfortable playing with one of the persons in the group will make it easier to do that first “sit down” in the circle.
