I just bought my very first whistle (Generation D - no mods to date) on Friday. I doubt I’ll ever play in sessions, or have an impressive ITM repertoire, or even set foot on Irish soil (although I would love to do that!)… but I hope you’ll let me hang around and learn from you all nonetheless. I’ve been perousing the Chiff&Fipple pages for a couple of days now, and it seems like a nice place. Not to mention I have a deep appreciation for the brand of humor Dale seems to enjoy.
My motive? To get good enough to play worship music at my church - I’ve been quite taken with the beautiful celtic sound of the penny whistles I’ve had the chance to hear, and I think it adds so much!
I can read music, and was at one time (sadly no more!) a reasonably accomplished Bb clarinet player (with experience on the whole family of clarinets, and Eb sax), so music isn’t strange to me… however, the whistle is. The closest I’ve been is playing recorder as a child and I was abysmal at it. Can anyone recommend books/websites that will help me get started properly? I want to avoid teaching myself bad habits that will be difficult to un-learn later.
Hi Moxie, and welcome! You’ve come to the right place. There’s a wealth of information here. I play Irish music very poorly but that hasn’t kept me from being able to play in my church’s band (the slowness of the songs there make it much easier than jigs, etc) so you should have no worries there. One of the best places to start is here:
When I first picked up the whistle, I happened upon L.E. McCullough’s instructional video at our local library. It runs through all the basics, gets into ornamentation a bit and teaches you a few songs phrase by phrase. It is put out by Homespun Video, check your local library!!
Let you hang around? Of course. You’ve already taken the perfect first step - you grovel marvelously
But seriously, welcome! We love to have you. You’ll have a lot of fun here and your whistling will improve. What more could you ask (fame and fortune are highly overrated)?
Thank-you very much, all of you. I appreciate the great suggestions. Thanks too for the warm welcome. I think I’m still in shock to have found such a wealth of information on the subject online… but to find not just a forum, but a very active forum… well that’s just a boon.
Now to find out who these illustrious Crystal People are…
Welcome, Moxie – from another newbie here. If you decide to look for instruction books, CDs, and more whistles – and you will NEED more whistles, trust me – check out The Whistle Shop, www.thewhistleshop.com. It has a great selection for beginning whistlers. You can also find some sheet music for hymns at www.tinwhistler.com, The Wandering Whistler’s music archive website. Check out the C&F links page, too. Lots of info there
ummmm… yea… suuuuuure… soft calming tone… that makes perfect sense… eyes darting from side to side scanning for the nearest exit*… thanks for the info… riiiiiiiight… has anyone ever offered any of y’all a nice new white jacket in which you can hug yourself alllll day long? mmmmhmmmm…
giggles
mox~
PS - thanks Judy for the links! drool… I’m crazy… I can barely squak out a discernable tune, but I’m already bit by the bug… yummy…
Welcome, Moxie! You’ll have fun learning the whistle. All of the above mentioned sites are wonderful. Praisewhistlers.com is a wonderful place to see how others are using their whistles in church worship. I play concert flute in church every week, and add whistles to some of the songs every couple of weeks. Our church has an Irish music leader, so our music leans toward the Celtic side, which is wonderful. It’s amazing how much the whistle adds to the service.
Scoff all you want, grasshopper, but no matter how I parse it, alien invasion is the only possible explanation for some of the players or threads that crop up on this board.
The Crystal People should not be trifled with. Sure, they may only be figments of Dale’s overheated ruminating, but - CAN YOU BE SURE?? Do YOU want to take the risk?
– check out The Whistle Shop,