im intrested in how long it took others to feel reasonable good at playing the whistle
everyone will say it depends on how much you practice. so i will be contrary and introduce something else. it depends on what music you are aiming to play of course. if irish traditional, it depends on part on your feeling for the music. so listen as well as play. also depends on how much you appropriately challenge yourself with ornaments and controlled increases in speed.
meir
I agree with this. I play the whistle in a lot of settings where I was already musically comfortable (more contemperary settings). I sound fairly decent, and I’ve been playing about four months. Ask me to do Irish trad with all the rolles, cranns, double tapps, not to mention breathing at the right time… well my playing will no longer be fairly decent… it will be awful.
Practice practice practice.
i’ve been playing years and years and i still don’t feel reasonably good at playing the whistle.
The damn little thing SEEMS like it should be easy, like you should be able to master it in, say fifteen minutes. I mean, six holes? Come on! The only thing easier would be a kazoo.
Not so fast, whistle breath.
It takes time and patience and practice. It took me a couple of years of lessons to get to where I feel I’m just an okay early intermediate player. The tunes I know, I can play in sessions at speed as long as no one can hear the fingering errors.
I think the key is what kind of music you’re playing. If it’s Irish, then I’d say years of listening and practice to get some type of understanding of the music and how to play it. I’ve been playing whistle for 3+ years (with lapses in amount of playing) and can barely squeak out a real ITM tune. I know a young man on this board, however, who plays the whistle and flute, has been playing about the same amount of time I have–with a thousand times more dedication in listening and playing–who is progressing wonderfully and sounds great.
Susan
I have been playing for about two years and I was just as good as most people at the Gathering. As long as you need. I am a good whistle layer and it didn’t take me too long.
If you have a simple enough life to throw yourself into it (like still living at home with parents) I would reckon a couple of years, but only accompanied by tons of listening, and if you possess a reasonable amount of talent. Most here that are not regularly gigging musicians have jobs, kids and such and it’s quite a drain on valuable whistling time.
You can play fast melodies without ornaments after just a few months but that is so far short of the mark of the Irish style that it’s irrelevant but you can play folk music and Xmas tunes, which is fun enough.
Anyway, after those conditions are met, you could probably play a few tunes and fit in. I think it takes much longer to have instant recall of hundreds if not thousands of tunes, and also to have the stamina to play fast sets and such. You might want to consider the Grey Larsen tutorial if you want to be spoon-fed (no, not a bad thing just never done before in such detail) the basic elements of what he calls articulations and others call ornamentation. If you really want to learn how to play all those wobbly bits that define the style, it’s well worth the money.
With lots of work, two years, provided you have a little music knowledge. Three if you don’t. But it’s fun all the way, right from the get-go.
What have you played beforhand? Any wind instruments? That’s a huge step ahead of the game. Even brass instruments. Woodwinds even more so.
Same for me. I’ve spent about 12 years at it and wouldn’t dream of calling myself a good player. I’d say 6 years for the technical work, and the rest of your life for rhythm and phrasing.
I think the definition of “reasonably good” will vary a lot among different players. Probably having played a wind instrument before would be helpful, but I can’t imagine getting to the reasonably good point in 2 or 3 years given my progress in six months. Not saying I haven’t learned alot, but I’m just learning more and more how much there is to learn. My listening has improved so I hear things I didn’t hear before—things I need to do something about. Just keep the work fun and don’t think about getting to a certain point because, in my view, that is setting yourself up for a problem.
A lot depends on your starting point and how musically challenged you are. If you’ve had some musical training in the past, you will be using skills which you already have, so you won’t have to develop them as a part of learning to play whistle.
I’ve been working on this for a year, starting at rock bottom, and am just now getting to the point that I can begin learning to play the instrument. It’s taken me this long to gather enough listening skills to be able to reproduce the tunes I hear, to learn where on the instrument the various sounds are, and to get them to come out cleanly.
Rather than worrying about how soon I can be an expert, I’m just glad it’s not going to be anytime soon, so I can have something to keep learning in my declining years.
The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know.
This question is essentially meaningless. What is “good enough”? What is “done”? What is “good”, even?
Every time I think I’m sounding decent, I send a clip of myself off to someone (or some people) who’s opinion I respect, and get a reality check. I imagine I’d qualify for some as “good enough”, but never for myself. If I thought I was “good enough” then I’d stop learning, stop improving, and basically sound bad.
On the other hand, I have no set goal. I’m not trying to end up somewhere, I am just trying to keep learning. This is the hard part, because if you aren’t satisfied with “good enough” then there will be times (many times. Many, MANY, times) when you don’t feel that you are improving. These are times when it is helpful to just keep going. And keep going. No matter how frustrated you get. And it’s also good to listen to those clips from before. This is also when I will sometimes send a clip to somebody other than those above (heh) to get unqualified praise. I don’t mistake it for what it is, but it sure helps. And then again, often during these times, it is also good to keep getting criticism, especially when you realize that the criticism is directed at a new or different part of your playing. Because this means you’re getting better at the other stuff.
How long to get “good enough”? One more year. Always.
-However long it takes for the neighbor’s responses to go from “Dang, He’s playing that verschlect thing again!” to “Awriiight!!-He’s playing that cool stuff!-Shut off your boom car and Fifty Cent and listen, Junior!” 
Whistle playing, like any other skill that’s been around for a long time is deep. Far deeper than I could ever go in any foreseeable future. I think its like languages or any other skill that humans come up with, once enough people master them the boundries get pushed into the realm of poetry or some such.
It doesn’t seem to take very long to sound good and pleasing, to develop some skill. But to go as far as the instrument can take you would be probably more than a lifetime for someone as talentless as me.
So I figure that even though I many not be mastering all the crans and rolls and fast fingering so soon, I can at least learn every step with grace. In other words doing what I can do and doing with an eye towards perfection would be my definition of good.
Ann, you can’t win the talentless contest. Too many of us qualify for first place. I’m sure you know that saying “Genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration”. I think that 90% can take a person a very long way. I don’t think anyone can master all those things you mentioned quickly. So if that’s why you say you are “talentless”, then I have to disagree. You simply have set a high standard for yourself. 
How long to get good? Say good now that music is a good thing to pursue. Good is when you start!
I’ve been playing for almost 6 years and I’m much better than I was when I started, and good enough to entertain myself most of the time, but still not good enough (for the most part) to keep up AND play well at your average speed session. I do think I can play many tunes (40 or 50) tastefully, expressively, and in the ‘correct’ trad. Irish style/idiom when I play fairly slow (a little slower than your average session speed).
However, I’ve also had detours into button accordion, tenor banjo, and flute, so I wasn’t always spending 100% of my time on whistle. I’m also married with three kids, a dog, cat, and bird, I work full-time, and take a class or two each semester, so I have quite a few other things taking up my time.
If you devote a significat part of your free time to playing whistle and you don’t have too many other responsabilities, then I’d guess you could get pretty darn good (much better than me) in about 2 years.
-Brett
MUSIC