How long does it take to “get good” at the whistle
Well, that depends on what your definition of “Get good” is.
It took me 3 years before I felt comfortable with the whistle. It took me another 3 years or so before I started feeling comfortable making some of the more complex ornaments like rolls and cranns. I’m just now starting to get comfortable learning tunes on the fly, and learning better variations for tunes. I may be really happy with my playing in another 5-10 years.
It’s a journey. There’s always something I want to improve.
If you had started 10 years ago, right now you’d be wishing
you’d started 10 years before that…
I started about six months and am moving along at a good clip. I’ve got forty or fifty tunes down pretty good, and am starting to get the hang of cuts and taps. I think in a couple of years I’ll be a pretty decent whistle player. It helps that I’ve played sax and clarinet for more than forty years. Sax fingering in particular is very similar to whistle fingering.
I played whistle (very badly and only for a short time) some 20-odd years ago. I picked it up again just before Christmas. I practice an hour or two every day. I think I’m doing alright and regularly play at local folk sessions. The first session I played whistle at I had just one tune. Now I’ve got about 8 or 10 tunes I feel reasonably comfortable with and more I’m working on. Everyone at the local session is very encouraging and comments on my continued and (although I say it myself) reasonably rapid improvement (I hope that doesn’t sound too smug).
I don’t think about (or really care) how long it will take me to get ‘good’ (and define ‘good’). I’m just enjoying the journey.
I agree. Just sit back, relax, practice and enjoy the journey. Don’t worry or stress about it too much or you’ll never be much good for anything at all.
I’ve been playing nearly 10 years and I’m still shite!
Levity aside, this is a question that can’t be definitively answered.
There is violin player (?) I know who has been playing longer than I and he has no more understanding of basic musical skills or rythm than he did 12 years ago. Bless him!.
How good a musical ear do you have? Do you already play a blownn instrument? Do you have will and determination in bucket loads? These are all variables that will affect your learning curve. I agree with the last postm don’t worry about it, just enjoy the journey!
There’s a big difference between playing your tunes and practicing. The former is recreational and the latter is studious. I’ve played the whistle for decades, but only began sounding (a bit) like a whistle player in the last few years. That’s because I started to structure my time and do the tough work it takes to really learn the instrument.
Hint: If your partner enjoys what you’re doing, you’re not practicing.
This is just plain bad advice! There is no need to divide between playing and practice. If you really play you practice. Making music should be joyful. No need for “serious” practice. There is plenty in the music which will inspire and drive you to play, and play better, while you enjoy it. This is not serious classical music! This is music of the people. Relax. Slow down. Enjoy.
Oh, and play a lower keyed whistle for the benefit of your partner!
I’ve always been in awe of musicians. What a fantastic gift!
Now I want some of that for myself and a month learning the whistle has given me the belief that one day I will be “good enough”. By that I mean good enough for me. Along with learning a few tunes and at least what I need to do to learn to use cuts and taps I’ve learned to lower my expectations and I think that is a good thing.
All of this is very new to me, I’ve got to 51 years old without having mastered any instrument. I’m surprised by how your body remembers how to play a tune. I start playing and the rest of the tune just happens without any real concious thought. In fact if I start to think about it that’s when I go wrong. Is that normal?
Thanks again
HS
PS Simon - if I made whistles and Tony Hinnigan played one I’d be “chuffed to nuts”.
Hans, you’re right there, and I overstated my case.
What I was trying to say is that it’s easy to fall into the trap of blissfully playing what you already know. In this way you make no real progress, and reinforce any bad habits you’ve developed. The real progress takes place when you engage the brain as well as the heart, and put some thought into what you want to accomplish. This means slowing things down, stopping and starting, repeating phrases as needed, etc… all less than engaging for the listener.
I couldn’t disagree more. I can tell you that there are some very damned serious Irish players who break down the tunes and rehearse bits of them. Take rolls, for example: what is wrong with playing a string of them to focus on getting them tight? Or just plain slowing the whole tune down, taking the swing out of it, and practicing laying the fingers down smoothly?
I propose to you that you’re not entirely aware of what really goes on in the back rooms of cottages all over Ireland and the world, in the pursuit of better trad musicianship - definitely more practicing than computerized harmonic analysis!
You are right, Rob, I certainly do not know what goes on in those backrooms! Maybe the Irish take their music very serious indeed, including tune analysis and practice drills of phrases and ornaments. I just wanted to speak out against the expressed opinion that it needs tough work and studious practice, as opposed to playing the music in an enjoyable way, to get anywhere. I prefer the latter. And I am not speaking for the Irish. And I hope I have not made an enemy of your good self!
Most days I play music for relaxation. I spend an hour or more going over things I’m familiar and comfortable with, and end up feeling great, but not furthering my abilities very much. (Nothing wrong with any of that).
When motivated, I get serious and take on a specific task: say improving my embouchure to get a dark tone on flute, or learning some interesting arpeggio on mandolin. I do a whole lot of really obnoxious and repetitive things with it for a period of time, and work pretty hard.
With some effort, I come out of this with an improved skill. This new tool becomes part of what I reinforce on my “easy” nights. So…learning is really a combination of work and fun, at least for me.
Hans, you’d have to work bloody hard to do that, mate! For the record, some of the people I butt heads with the most on C&F are also the same ones I’d most like to have a pint with. Your local or mine?
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