Hi.

Whistle
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This is terribly intimidating. So it would be nice to get a response or something, haha : D.

Okay, so recently my friend and I have taken up tinwhistling. Last month. We purchased them at a local store near our school. (It was embarrassing! The cashier mocked us! With poor judgment and malice, and all those things that hurt!). It was a joke … but now we we have this creepy obsession to playing folk tunes during lunch hour at school and annoying the heck out of other kids. (Which is okay because we go to an incredibly geeky school where no one gets beat up). So we were wondering if it would be a good idea to start taking lessons or such. We both have previous musical knowledge (piano, clarinet, various string instruments, musical theory, etc.) and we have the fingering and stuff down. But the really high octave sounds bad. In fact, it sounds horrible(!), and I wouldn’t subject any living being to such noise except our math teacher (except I think he said he’s going deaf so it wouldn’t matter). So anyway, another friend’s flute teacher was offering us half-price lessons if we both take them at once, but would they be useful in any way? Because half-price is still expensive (haha). And we are poor, hence our purchasing of such cheap instruments. [Oh, and if anyone cares, I have a tin whistle in the key of G (which apparently is really strange if you’re starting out. But I did not know that at the time. It was an impulse buy and the the G whistle was smaller and therefore cheaper). My friend has one in D. I think it is “Walton’s”. That was only because a woman before came and tested out all of the generation whistles regardless of a neon sign that said “do not test whistles” in large block letters.] Oh, and I guess I do not know what a paragraph is. Sorry for any difficulty reading XD.

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Okay wait I lied, I have more questions. (What the … how come you have to type in the subject when replying?). That wasn’t one of the questions, but answer it anyway because I’m confused! XD.

How is one supposed to play the high high octave and make it sound “good”? Tonguing? Making the note so short that no one can tell it is not in tune? Don’t play it? =S.

Also, when playing accidentals (or any note that requires half the hole being covered), what is the easiest method? Right now I’m just using my fingertips to do those notes. And it is hard D:. And I suck at it so much D:.

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Hi Shawna-- this one place where you to NOT need to feel intimidated, that’s for sure. People here are generally friendly, and we were ALL beginners at one time or another.

You don’t have to type the subject when you reply. Not really sure why that’s there.

The high G whistle is cute, but for most traditional music you really want a D whistle like your friend’s. That will play tunes in the keys usually needed. Breath control on that little G is also tricky. Hang onto it-- you’ll want it someday.

When you say the “really high” octave sounds bad, do you mean up above the third D(G on yours)? Fuggadaboudit. You’ll almost never need that. If you mean the second octave, you WILL need that. It’s all in the tongueing and breath control, and will get better with time and practice.

If you already know the basics, you don’t really NEED a teacher. There are some really GREAT tutorials out there. My favorite is a book/CD combo called “The Clarke Tinwhistle” by Bill Ochs. L.E. McCullough also has a really good one. Follow the lessons and listen to the examples on the CD and you’ll learn. Also, get lots of recordings and LISTEN a LOT. You’re in for a ton of fun.

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What brewerpaul said.

Regarding your 2nd question: You only have to type in the subject when you’re starting a new thread, which is what you did. After that, subjects are not required.

Welcome.

Dale

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If you are really hurting for cash (and who hasn’t been there), your local library may be your best bet. I was able to check out two good tutorials and keep renewing them as needed. (Hard to believe there is not more demand. :laughing:)

If you local library does not have what you want, try interlibrary loans. No extra cost, but you might have to wait a little longer.

You do need that D whistle. I have seen very cheap Meg whistles (great sound) on eBay and elsewhere. Or ask around. A lot of people have one stashed somewhere that is not being played.

With your music background and enthusiasm, I bet you will improve quickly. And that will annoy those kids even more. :smiley:

Wecome to C & F.

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Wow, Shawna, you’re taking this so seriously! I thought you were going to put a message in the Test Forum. When it wasn’t there, I didn’t know what to do!! I feel intimiated, too. But the people here seem nice.

I didn’t really need to reply, no? You already had people replying… HAHAHA! Was it that unexpected?

Wow, and here I bought a D whistle without even knowing it was better to have… YAY! But since we have WhOA, we might end up acquiring more in the future, anyway.

Yes, I don’t know if we should take the half-price lessons Laura’s teacher is offering, as nice as it sounds. It would be more expensive than actually buying the whistles. And then we would have to buy pricier whistles to make up for it! GAAH! And it would be a vicious circle as we improve at playing and want to take MORE LESSONS!

Maybe we should try a tutorial. LMAO.

I KNOW! It was so sad when I bought mine, and the cashier was all like, “Ohhh, what a large purchase,” and stuff. What a mockery! I am so insulted! HAHAHA, you’re right. If we were at a normal school, people would probably beat us up. AND TAKE OUR LUNCH MONEY, NUUUUUUUUUUU~

HAHAHA, yes, I think he is going deaf, too. Maybe he wouldn’t even notice if we, like, left the class and played right outside. Or inside. :slight_smile: Or maybe, since he is experiencing deafness, he would think it actually sounds nice! OMG! We should start playing in band. I wonder if there’s actually a part for it, LMAO. At least the scale fingerings would be somewhat easier… And the runs in Mame and Symphony 1. But, uh, that doesn’t really fit with the Irish thing. I guess I don’t know when to end a paragraph, either.

Ewww, yeah. That was so weird. I would NEVER try out a whistle in the story. ><; I would have bought one of the small ones, too. But then, actually, that would have been bad because I might have bought a G.

Wow, I wonder if we’ll ever have enough money to purchase higher-end whistles. Even so, I don’t think GP even sells them… and I think the store person might mock us even more if we bought more… HAHAHAH!

Hmmm, yes. We sound terrible. And we need more Irish tunes so that we aren’t stuck attempting to harmonize the Christmas music… At least the “I Saw Three Ships” and “God Rest Ye…” were sort of, liek, in swing and stuff, and were actually in the whistle book, YAY!

Okay, this reply is long. I think I might post a message soon. Maybe. You sort of said it all already, so… um… yeah.

I need an avatar. Maybe I’ll PaintShopPro one. HAHAHAHAHA!

I don’t have a signature, so…

Yeah. I’m still bored…

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Well, here’s the thing about lessons. If you want to learn to play Irish music, you’ll need a teacher who plays Irish music. A flute teacher would be fine, I’d think, as long as they are familiar with Irish Trad. But a classical flute teacher won’t do you any good.

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Follow this link, and you’ll read about some school children in my village who have gotten their hands on some whistles.

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=33025

If you would like 10 of the same kind of C whistles, I’ll be happy to send them as a gift. That way, you can offer them to your friends if they’re interested. They’re pretty nice whistles, and the only reason they exist in the universe is so I can give them away. The upper register is not so shrill on these.

I don’t know your age, and I’m not sure at what age you should show your parents this message so they understand the context of where the whistles are coming from. Perhaps others on this board can advise.

Best wishes,
Jerry

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This board has been an inspiration for many. And the wonderful thing is there are so many people who are willing to help. I know!

It sounds like you 2 bought some low-end off the shelf whistles. They can be quite intimidating to master. You may want to search through some posts and find some very reasonably priced whistles that may give you a better chance of learning. I have a Dixon that is very nice for what I play.
If you are serious about playing Irish style music, a D whistle is almost mandatory for playing well with others.

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Here are some on-line tutorials you guys might want to take a look at:
http://www.whistletutor.com/
http://nigelgatherer.com/index.html
http://www.whistleworkshop.co.uk/home.htm
http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/index.html

Once you can play simple tunes, this website has nice recordings of traditional Irish tunes that you can listen to and learn by ear:
http://irishwindow.com/wst_page7.html

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Take Jerry up on his offer. You will be in possession of some great whistles. Besides that his price is right. Go to this site to listen to some great playing and some not so great playing. You can get an idea about what the various whistles sound like.

http://www.tinwhistletunes.com/clipssnip/

Ron

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YAY!!! Pre-adult whistling pride!!!


fist pump

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I don’t know if this will be any help, but I think it could be a good idea. I’m a beginner as well, so I’m trying to figure out good ways to learn this all well on my own! :slight_smile:

I want to learn to play by ear. So what I’m going to do is use my mic (hooked up to my computer) and record each note, one by one. For practice, I’ll randomly choose one, without looking, and play it. Then I’ll attempt to match it on my own. Do it until I think I’ve done it right, and then look to see. I’m hoping it will help to boost the recognition of different notes. :smiley:

I’m trying to come up with good ideas to memorize notes so I can read sheet music, but I can’t remember how I learned to with the upright bass. XP

Anyway, just thought it might help you out. Maybe some more experienced players can say if it’s a good idea.

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Yea, I meant the third octave. And thanks XD.

Haha. He doesn’t even let people knit in class though. AHAHA.

And I still need to get you photoshop. It will be legal, I swear >___>.

We have to start, like, a tin whistle movement or something. Perhaps (mayhaps, haha) it will be bigger than the current pie movement! Which isn’t that big anyway.

Are you serious? That probably costed a lot. With the money you paid for those, you could have bought 2 accordions! (Haha). I don’t know if I would want 10 though. But if you really wouldn’t mind donating to a random person on the internet, I’ll pm info and stuff to you. Except would I need to rent a PO box or something? I don’t … use mail often. Haha.

Thanks anyway. Even if you change your mind.

This post amuses me XDDD.

Vullnoid: I need to learn to play by ear too. It sorta helps to know piano or keyboard or something. The notes on a keyboard are so logically arranged! Unlike the clarinet! But anyway, er … I do not have the proper equipment to record and play notes. But random notes on the piano work just as well.

Thanks for all the replies, everyone. I’ll take a look at some of those links soon, because I am currently in a library that would prefer it stay quiet. Hahaha. And I have no headphones.

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I’m completely serious. I give these away, 10 and 20 at a time.

I’m in the business of producing and selling “tweaked” whistles, which are mass produced whistles that I have modified to make more consistent, less squawky, etc.

One of my most popular models is a tweaked “Mellow Dog,” which is made from two different whistles. It uses a whistlehead (which I then tweak) from a Feadog C whistle and the tube (which I also tweak) from a Waltons Mellow D.

When I’m done, for each tweaked Mellow Dog I make to sell, there’s a pretty nice C whistle I can assemble from the leftover whistlehead and tube. Most of the children on my daughters’ school bus have asked for them, and we gave out about 40 of them for Halloween, so they’re all over the village. They’re really very nice whistles, and I’m delighted to be able to give them away.

My idea in offering you 10 of them would be that you could share them with your friends. They do nothing for me sitting in a box on my workshop shelf.

Best wishes,
Jerry

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Jerry gets my vote for “Upstanding Citizen.”

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…but shouldn’t these young ones be warned about the dangers of WhOA?

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This is an excellent idea! When you get good at it, try to create held
notes with instrument sounds besides the whistle (a MIDI program like
Cakewalk is good for this), and do the same. This way, you’re sure that you are learning the note, and not just the whistle’s version of
that note. Mess around with octaves, too (i.e., try playing the set of notes from the first whistle octave, and match them with second
octave notes of the same name using the actual whistle, and
vice-versa).


Help me out here… what’s “XD” mean? (I thought I was hip… :cry:)

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Help me out here… what’s “XD” mean? (I thought I was hip… > :cry:> )

I think it’s basically this:

http://hopi.dtcc.edu/~chade/gfx/XD.jpg

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That’s an unsual (to me) smiley.
I guess I’ve forgotten the ascii smileys now that they get automagically
turned to pictures.