I am curious about how people have learned to play the whistle. Many seem to have had a background in music in some other instrument or voice. Anyone play just/mostly Irish traditional music on their whistles? If so, how did you learn to do this? By listening to CDs of Irish tradtional music; from a teacher; withing a musical family in Ireland or what?? As a music teacher I, would like to know.
I bought a generation D from the local music shop as it was only £2.50. I also bought Robin Williamsons Irish Tunes for Dummies (or whatever it was called) which was a few pounds, and that was it.
My school started me on the recorder in third grade. Since I moved a lot as a kid it was a lot easier to keep and play that than, say, a piano (which I took lessons for). I’ve always liked Irish music but never tried to play it until a few years ago after I went to the Renaissance Fair in Sterling, NY. That was when I got my Susatos.
Listening to good music and using my ears would be the obvious reply to that wouldn’t it??
Well, I still haven’t learned to play (or at least not much). I got my first whistle in 1978 and used Robin Willamson’s book and soon found L.E.'s original book and tape. Since that time I continued to try to learn through books (especially ones with tapes or CDs). I listen to Irish music through the day (I have a job where I can listen to music all day) but still need to have the books to help me out. I have never gone to a session (but maybe someday). I play for my enjoyment (and to annoy my kids) so this method has worked OK for me.
Joe
As ashamed as I am to admit it, I heard it, I liked it and a friend in Australia sent me one, and I just blew into the thing until I got it right and could play midi file karoke with a bunch of Barry Taylor tunes.
However, I did have some training on the piano and a silver flute eons ago.
I kinda slid over to whistle from recorders, and started with a low D. (another Riverdance wannabe…) Since I came from things like bass recorder, it wasn’t that huge a stretch. And, as my user name implies, tuba was my major instrument in college, along with organ and voice.
I find the whistle to have a warm, singing quality, which is nice as a contrast to recorders in church music. And, I’m still baffled about ornamentation - listening to Phil Hardy’s Low Whistle CD gives me the flying green willys… (not a pretty sight!)
“Hi, I’m Cal, and I’m a whistle addict…”
“Hi, Cal…” 
I bought a basic tutorial and a lot of vinyl recordings of Chieftains, Planxty, Clannad, Bothy Band, whathaveyou back in the 70’s. The tutorial was invaluable for figuring out the ornamentation (never heard of crossfingering until this message board; just can’t make myself do them now). I learned tunes printed in the tutorial that walked you through the ornaments. Then I listened insatiably to memorize tunes from the recordings, and learned them by ear. I experimented shamelessly with piling on ornamentation just to figure out how to get the sounds and see how they fit. The most difficult part has been choosing where to put them in and where to leave them out. That’s what I listen for and how tunes are phrased. It seems obvious when I hear good players, but working out my own interpretation is the big challenge. It has been a very slow process, especially having no teacher or mentor. I will endlessly advise people to record yourself and listen critically. If you’re self-taught, it’s a great teacher.
I did take piano lessons in 8th grade for 9months. I also played 5-string banjo (self-taught from books) before starting whistle.
Tony
My mother is a grade 1 piper and has been teaching since before I can remember. She also plays several other instruments. For 25 years I was a disappointment to my parents (they say otherwise) because I never wanted to learn to play anything.
Then, one day, I saw a Generation Bb in my dad’s pipe case and asked about it. He played “Simple Gifts” on it and I asked how hard it is to play something like that. He told me it is pretty easy.
The following Christmas, under the tree was a Clarke C with instruction book and cassette. I spent about a year meaning to pick it up and figure it out. Then, my wife was pregnant and we started taking separate showers (couldn’t both fit, anymore). I started playing with the whistle to have something to do while I was waiting my turn at the hot water.
I am not very good, but I learned to read music on my own with that little book. I also gained the confidence that I can learn to play musical instruments. Now I have and play several whistles and two sets of bagpipes. I have and don’t play an Appalachian dulcimer, a recorder, and a fiddle. I want a hammered dulcimer and a few other instuments, but they will have to wait until I learn to play what I have already. (Yeah, right. They have to wait until I have money!)
-Patrick
I came to the whistle from 10 years experience with the fife as a Civil War reenactor. Actually, I didn’t come to the whistle, but was led to it by my wife. She bought me an Overton high D for my birthday last year, and subsequently a Copeland high D, both of which I love. My guess is that she wanted to hear something other than the rather penetrating note of my fife, and hoped I’d take to it …
… and I have.
Much of the fife music I was playing previously was either Celtic or had Celtic roots, and I love that kind of music anyway, so the transition was easy. Much of the fingering and other techniques transferred, but I had to learn that rolls are different from turns, cuts from trills, and the like. I already knew how to read music from my years spent fifing and a disastrous sojourn with an Eb alto Saxophone whilst in the third grade. Ear training came from 10 years spent playing the guitar that way. I used a finger-picking style ( primarily a modified traverse pick, for those who know what that is ) and picked out the melodies by ear from the chords.
My formal training in music is nil, and I wish I had some.
I come from the most non-musical of families (although I studied recorder for four years in grade school and now regret giving it up). I first heard a tin whistle in Riverdance (although I didn’t know what it was at the time) and then again in Loreena McKennits “Skellig” from “The Book of Secrets”. I thought it sounded quite lovely so I bought Bill Och’s book and a couple of D whistles - a Sweetone and a Clarke original. I was suprised to find that reading sheetmusic came back to me very quickly even though I hadn’t done it for 25 years.
I like Scottish tunes the most but I play what is in my tune books which is mostly Irish tunes with a few English, Scottish, and American tunes for variety.
I’ve been playing for about 8 months now and I still feel I am a raw beginner - my breathing control is still bad and my ornamentation is rather primitive. But that’s okay, my wife and children listen to my playing (and don’t complain about it). My youngest son (8 yrs old) has begun playing whistle - I think playing music has added a dimension to our home that was absent.
I am planning on learning the bagpipes next (in a couple of years) and perhaps take some more formal lessons (especially in music theory).
Where have I learned most? Playing with others, in sessions or other group venues.
I couldn’t have done this, without all the rest of my amatuer music background. A background that starts with a mother that played piano and listened to a variety of records from crib side on (classical, folk, boogie-woogie, pop, but no irish). At Age 9 (almost 40 years ago), I took a year of piano, followed by years of choirs, choruses, and folk groups. I picked up a little guitar in high school mostly strumming and finger picking guitar. (Yea, Neil, I know what modified travis picking is, used to play both Peter’s and Paul’s parts of every PP&M record published). Passed in and out of music for a number of years moved from folk singing, to contra-dance instrumental, to irish traditional.
For me, I’ve always learned the most when I’ve connected with people through music. Learning to read music gave me a way to start learning a melody, but it wasn’t finished until I could play it with others. Listening to a recording, would familiarize me with a tune, or style, or technique, but it wasn’t my tune, my style, or my technique until I could bring it together with others. Its mine when its just a natural extention of my contribution to the groups music. I find that even solo work is an extension of the group, just a time for the other musicians to rest: for a measure or two or a tune or two. Its a connection to the musician in all of us as player or audience.
For me, music is connecting and sharing an experience that taps into the heart and soul of the musicians. When anyone, including members of the audience, taps into that connection, they’re part of the sharing, part of the group. The group can be two people sitting on a porch swapping tunes and songs, or a group of 2000 singers from 100 choirs gathered together to shake the foundations of a cathedral.
One of the reasons why I’ve gravitated to traditional tunes and dances is the expansion of musical connections. Playing a reel at a dance connects the instrumental players with the dancing audience. Playing a slow air for a cuddling couple on the dance floor, a quick jig for a step dancer lost in the joy of dance, these are connections.
Playing these tunes in an open session with strangers connects in a way that bridges across years of shared experiences, condensing them into the moment.
So, for me, where did I learn my music? From and with and for others connected to the music. As a music teacher, I hope you get to do this all day, help other to connect and …
I started playing recorder in grade school and kept at that for a few years without getting really good at it…I did enjoy it though. However, I wish they would start kids out on whistle in grade school!
In middle school and high school I played baritone saxaphone in conert, marching, and Jazz bands. The basic fingerings for sax are the same as whistle, so this helped out later.
After high school I didn’t play any instruments at all for about 8 years.
One day I decided I was going to buy a “good” recorder and start taking lessons. I went to a music shop and ended up coming out with a brass Generation in C. I had decided recorders were too much $$…little did I know what I’d gotten myself into…I’ve now spent much more on whistles than I would have on that one recorder.
I fiddled around with the Generation whistle playing american folk tunes for a year or so before I discovered traditional Irish music, and quickly purchased a few cheap D whistles.
Shortly thereafter I found someone to take lessons from, and my playing and understanding of trad. Irish music got much better. I still take lessons, but only every other month or so.
I really already had the notes under my fingers from playing recorder and sax, so I didn’t reallly have to think too much about whistle fingerings (except for high D and Cnat)
-brett
[ This Message was edited by: Bretton on 2001-10-10 19:50 ]
1 Chieftains Film Cuts CD + 1 Shaw D whistle + 1 VERY broken heart (at the time) = a very unlooked for emotional escape.
And look what it’s snowballed into!
B~
I was lucky when I took up the whistle in that I already knew Irish music well from years of playing fiddle. So I only had the instrument to learn, and not the music as well, which made things much easier.
To learn whistle, rather than jump straight into jigs and reels, I found my way around the instrument by playing Christmas carols (by ear) for a week or so. A method I’d recommend to anyone starting out - not necessarily carols, but any tunes that you know inside out.
I tootled away occasionally for the next decade or so. I only got into the whistle seriously about 6 years ago when a shoulder injury made playing the fiddle practically impossible. I always liked the whistle, but now I love it to bits. One of the chief reasons is that, unlike many instruments, the whistle is physically very undemanding. I’ve yet to hear of any injuries sustained from long-term playing of whistles… does anyone know of any cases?
Previous non-Irish music background (lots of bass in any style, classical guitar, bluegrass mandolin, and Chapman Stick) left me fairly competant in both playing by ear and reading music. I started with an Acorn whistle this summer, and the book, CD, and video that came with it. It did not focus on Irish playing. Then I got LE McCollough’s (sp?) tutorial. Still working on that, though mostly on my Howard low D I got about a month ago. Plus I am working out tunes by ear from my Bothy Band CD (I particularly like the set they call “Old Hag You Have Killed Me” - what a name!), and from Lunasa’s latest CD. I’m also working on this same stuff on a Boehm flute. I will be receiving an M&E flute in a few days, at which time the Boehm will go back into the closet (who says you can never go back into the closet?).
My tale is both interesting and unusual and something that I’m very proud of. My introduction to the pennywhistle came at the age of 24 after I had found a very cheap handmade tin whistle from Williamsburg, Virginia that I actually bought 8 years back when I was sixteen. At that time of my life, I had neither the patience or interest to actually sit down and learn an intrument. I never had the chance to play music when I was younger, and to be honest, I never had any talent.
At the time of coming across this whistle in a drawer, I was still battleing with phsyical and mental limitations from brain trauma I suffered in an automobile accedent. Even though I had graduated art school successfully, my right hand still tremored and I fought to continue to learn and challange my mind and body.
I found this whistle and the information that came with it and I began to think. I’d spent close to a year in hospitals and rehabs and came to believe I could learn to do anything if I worked hard enough at it. After all, I learned to walk, to learn, to paint and draw, to write. So, I picked up the whistle and the information. Amazing, even though reading music eluded me in younger years, everything made so much sense now(all that cognitive therepy, I think). Sure, it sounded crappy, and my fingers tended to lock on me(something that the medical field calls “tone”) but who cared? I understood how the notes on the staff corilated to the holes on the whistle. And, wow! Was it fun!
When I was encoraged to buy Bill’s Oach’s book and tape set, things really took off. I could hardly believe it. I made slow progress, yes, but I made progress. Eventually, I worked through the lessons and have been both playing and learning from other books.
Now, I can say that playing the whistle really made a difference in both my hand dexterity and mental flexability. If I could learn how to play, then anyone can. I started out believing I could. It didn’t matter how bad I first sounded, I knew I would be better . . . in time. It’s how I’ve approached my life ever since I was first hurt. It’s gotten me far.
Of course, I don’t expect to be Jonnie Madden. And even though I bought a Low D with the hopes of playing it well, I’ve met my match. My hands are too small and I get pains from trying to cover the holes. But I’d like to move on to the guitar later on.
As a family, my mom and dad have always liked music(my mom sang in the choir in school and had a very promising voice) but neither one can play music. Dad has told me how he tried to learn the violin as a kid and his family hated it . . . sounded like he was strangling a cat. I like to think I have a little bit of natural talent, but I have no idea where it comes from.
Dad’s got the irish infulence on his side . . . he didn’t bring much into the house in the way of music, but I delevoped this strange, beaming pride for all things irish(I’m only a quarter irish, or even less!) I love their music . . . it’s like coming home to a place you’ve never been before, but knowing you belong there.
Hope this inspires!
I love the Uillean pipes, and heard that one must be accomplished on the whistle before taking up the pipes. (I played mostly lap dulcimer, a little harp, and had been pretty fluent on the clarinet in my youth.) I had the good fortune to live about 6 miles from the House of Musical Traditions, so was able to try out many brands. Started out with a Clarke D, then C, then a set of 3 Water Weasels, etc., culminating with a Burke Pro low-D a couple of months ago. (Is his low-C as good?)
I started out playing strictly by ear, but sheet music is very useful for many tunes now.
How long does it take to be able to read for keys other than D?
Charlie
Like Neil, I was a Civil War re-enactor (guess which side I was on?). I was looking for something to do in camp, and I thought about taking up the fife (I played sax in high school). My musically inclined aunt bought me a Clarke to learn as a “stepping stone” to the fife, and I’ve never stepped off of it! I taught myself with the aid of a couple of books, and then finally after a few years I had the opportunity to take a weekend workshop with Larry Nugent and I learned a ton in 3 days.
WhOA has taken me from that original Clarke D to a ‘few’ more whistles, and I don’t re-enact anymore but I’m still whistling!
Beth
[ This Message was edited by: rebl_rn on 2001-10-11 19:26 ]
Mamakash, your story was really inspiring! Thanks for sharing it.
Mine is boring. I fell in love with the tune “Tabhair dom do lamh”- especially the pennywhistle part. Then I saw a band called The Mollys, who use a whistle in several of their songs.
I was sitting at my computer a few days afterwards, and I had an epiphany: somebody must have whistles for sale. Maybe I could buy one and learn to play it. (duh!) So I bought a Clarke and have spent the last year (!) trying to make what I play match what I hear in my head.
This is the first time I have ever considered myself a musician. It’s an interesting feeling.
