That’s Whistle Unstoppable Playing Syndrome. Now, you see I sort of object to the idea of WhOA, because it isn’t a matter of mere Acquisition, which sort of implies that more is better; there is some sort of stash of whistles in my home.
But I PLAY them. Every single one of them, even the Generation that has a place of honor in the visor of one car. The Burke D is my primary session whistle, but at home in the kitchen I haul out the low D, and then the A, then work up to the C, which is about as high as the birds like to hear without chiming in on the high notes. The B flat is my living room companion. I have one of my Soodlum D’s in the other car, and usually one tucked in my purse.
I’m not obsessed. I’m thorough!
The Chieftan G and Susato A are another matter; I have no particular need or use for them and I’ll happily part with them. So amassing whistles isn’t the goal. It’s having the appropriate one for the mood, setting, tune or song.
My whistles are sort of like my kids. One time one needs my attention and gives to me in certain ways such as helping me laugh, while at another time another whistle listens to my heart just the way it needs to be listened too and asks something different of me. The little rascals sort of get under my skin. And like kids, I don’t love one more than another, there are just different relationships.
Anna, are we still going to try to get people to Deadwood for the summer solstice? We can surround your neighbor play such lovely music that they will forget they don’t like whistles and ask oh so politely if we will allow them to borrow a whistle and teach them to play. Anything is possible.
How is the healing coming along?
Namaste, Jim. The ankle is healing, and boy, a whistle in sounds great in Deadwood, I’d say let’s’ go for it, just looks like we’ll literally be competing with horse manure, the mounted shooters and gunfighters are scheduled to be here then, too!
Actually, this afternoon one of my coworkers, when I said I had another whistle coming in the mail, asked if I was like the guy in Spinal Tap who had instruments he’d never played, never seen, never let anybody else see. I explained about needing different keys, having whistles in different parts of the house, the car, needing different D’s, etc. He knows me well enough to know I was serious.
I don’t play every one of my whistles – there are about 5-10 that I hardly play, either because I don’t like them, or because I just don’t have much need for an Eb or F whistle. I actually do play my recently acquired Burke composite low-E quite a bit, partly because I have some A tunes that go below the keynote (which is why I got it in the first place), and partly because it’s an absolutely amazing whistle. I don’t know how he does it!
I played my whistle for the first time in my car last night.
I am now considering designating one of my whistles for the car.
The story about last night… I was waiting in the church parking lot for a group of musicians to show up for practice. I was on time… they were late and there was no one else around. Call me chicken.. but there was no way I was going to cross that parking lot and open up the church until some one showed up.
So there I was… playing my whistle in a dark parking lot… a forest behind me…looking in all three mirrors as I played. ( I think this comes from too many horror movies I viewed as a child)
Other than that it was a good opportunity to review a new tune I had just learned that day without annoying any family member with repetative replays of mistakes.
Funny you should single out Chieftain G and Susato A. Usually, there’s some inconsistency across whistles for some brands, esp older Chieftains; but I too had these whistles among my collection and they are awful. The Chieftain G had no redeeming qualities and was one of the two worst whistles I’d ever played. I threw it in gratis with a sale advising how awful it was; ironically, one of the whistles sold was a truly terrific Chieftain Low F. Play on Tygress Philo
The other day we are in a music store and I am talking with the clerk behind the counter; the whistles are in my line of vision. I see my children and husband (Graphics Guy) gravitating toward them. Sort of a slow motion floating thing. They’re all drooling over the whistles. I say very loudly as I finish, “Step AWAY from the whistles”. Of course all the clerks in the store break out laughing, my family looks very dissapointed; looking as if they had been caught with hands in the cookie jar sort of thing. (yes, I impeded the whoa thing there. Quite proud of myself too) We continue on to the tribal smoke shop. (before I get the lectures on smoking tobacco, they sell many other things besides tobacco) What do we find there? Whistles. These are wood whistles. Nicely polished, with the feathers and pony beads dangling from them. The tag reads “made in Vietnam” and they’re 4 bucks. Dan wants one. I can’t resist! Knowing the thing is most likely not even close to tune, I buy it figuring that Dan will eventually tweek the daylights out of the thing…
This is the horrifying part; we have both played this whistle. It’s the worst sounding whistle I have ever heard; many of the notes are the same note. Playing a scale on this thing is out of the question, but by the gods, it’s got feathers.
What’s interesting is that last night Dan decided to move the feathers to his Clarke. It didn’t look half bad.
On 2002-02-02 11:20, PhilO wrote:
Funny you should single out Chieftain G and Susato A. Usually, there’s some inconsistency across whistles for some brands, esp older Chieftains; but I too had these whistles among my collection and they are awful. The Chieftain G had no redeeming qualities and was one of the two worst whistles I’d ever played. I threw it in gratis with a sale advising how awful it was; ironically, one of the whistles sold was a truly terrific Chieftain Low F. Play on Tygress Philo
Aw, come on, Phil, they’re not THAT bad! I’m actually trying to sell them under the proviso that if you don’t like 'em, send them back and I’ll refund all but the shipping charge. I haven’t a clue as to whether they’re in tune or not (I would imagine the Susato is a yes and the Chieftan is a maybe, depending on the temperature) because my ear is very unreliable (ask Feadan just how bad my ear is! I think I actually got looks of alarm from a couple of people at session on Friday!)
We’ll see. I’m sure I’ll be able to get something for them on eBay when I decide to get down to brass tacks (or plastic/aluminum whistles) and find them new homes.
Meanwhile, wood is a wonderful thing! and a wooden Weasel sounds warm and fuzzy. Kinda like a tinwhistle in a fur coat!
I also ended up trading my non-tunable g I do miss not owning an A whistle… when the budget permits, I will start an A whistle quest.
But I may need to aquire a few other instruments before the A… >
I personally find an A whistle among the most essential keys. It allows you to play D pieces that go a note or two below the keynote. The only one I own right now is a Water Weasel, which is good, but nowhere near as good as the low-G. I have a Sindt on order, just have to wait another six months.
