Hi; I’m a pennywhistler lover in New Mexico, where no one plays or knows anything about it. I’m having to teach myself, research myself, and look for things myself. It gets lonely; no one understands my love of the whistle and thinks I’m nuts “playing” with a “child’s” toy at my age. This is my second posting. I could use a pen pal. Oh, I’m happy because I found a whistle I thought I had lost; my Eagle whistle, which comes apart in two sections.
Well, you’ve come to the right place. You can have about 3000
“pen-pals” here. Just ask questions and read the posts and it will
keep you plenty busy.
Lolly
…I feel your pain!!! 
I live in Arizona, right next door! I posted a topic with the subject of possible Chiff and Fipple gatherings for those of us in the four corners/southwestern area of the U.S. I didn’t get much of a reply… 
I think that there are a couple of other “whistlers” here in Flagstaff, but I think I’m gonna have to hunt 'em down. I shall keep on playing with pride, and you should do the same!!
I’ve never heard of an Eagle whistle…
Welcome to the board!
A version of the Clare whistle. Check out http://www.chiffandfipple.com/inexp.html
Don’t know where you’re located, but Farmington has a healthy Celtic community, as does Durango just across the border. So does Albuquerque. I played uilleann pipes with Wild Geese (Durango) one season. 
Oh nuts. When I saw the title of this thread I was all shy and excited at the same time… as a lonely whistler the prospect of answering a personal ad from a “Lonely Whistler Lover in New Mexico” had me all a-tremble!
Hi Gary,
I’m single, never married, no children, age 39. Is that better?
– Miss Chris
Hi, thanks to everyone who posted replies to my Lonely NM Whistler Post. To Flagstaff: I graduated college in Phoenix in '99 and miss Arizona loads. We should have a 4 Corners Whistler Fest! That would be awesome.
Last night I was listening to “The Civil War” series (repeat) on PBS and was at the same time messing around with my whistle, and found myself tooting along to “Battlecry for Freedom” and realized that I can pick up on and play what I hear on TV or radio. I was thrilled!!!
I’m working off a Mel Bay pocketbook for whistles; it has basic teaching and Irish tunes in it. I need a lot more sheet music though. Hard to find!
I’d love to go see Four Corners; if there seriously were a gathering there this summer, I’d likely try to come.
where no one plays or knows anything about it
I believed this for a while too until I borrowed a tutorial booklet from the library. It had handwritten notes on it and I was all “whoa, there’s someone out there.”
I’m thinking I should leave my email address before I return it.[/code]
I’m willing to pay for any photocopies of sheet music, old books, etc., and the shipping costs if anyone has anything to sell/copy. I was a violinist for years but now I have rheumatoid arthritis so I switched to the whistle; much easier to play and to cart around
Oh, Durn! I was in the same place Gary is, but you’re WAYYY too young for me.
Don’t feel bad, many of us are lonely when we start to play (gee, weren’t there thirty people here a few minures ago??). It’s worse for pipers; they can empty a stadium while we’re good for little more than a mid-sized living room.
You should be able to find more sheet music than you can shake a stick at here: http://www.musicaviva.com/
There are several places on the web that you can find music in various formats. One fairly popular one is the ABC format, which can be converted to display as sheet music with this: http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html
Hi Chris…I have “in-laws” (some “out-laws”) in Artesia, Roswell,
Las Cruces, Capitan, and Deming, NM. Are you close to any of these ?
Me, I’m out in West Texas where usually only the cops and coaches play whistles.
Dunno 'bout travelling to 4 Corners for the scenery. It does sound cool to be in Four States all at once, but we went once, and drove a zillion miles to find a lonely stone monument - which you get to stand next to with a sheepish silly grin and record the moment for posterity.
You will be greeted by dozens of Native American’s with onyx and tuorcoise (Yikes, I thought I knew how to spell that, ya big dummy), and silver necklaces and bracelets. You feel so guilty just driving away that you end up spending $25 dollars at every tailgate. (Can you say “eBay”)…
Whistle girl, hop on your pony and giddyup back to Prescott, fast as you can.
Miss Chris, you forgot to mention your obvious “GSOH”! 
uhm…you haven’t met Amar yet, have you? It won’t be long now though.
Chuck, the young lady’s a perfect age for me, old chap, now b*gger off I saw her first!
Gary,
Worry not about this greybeard, laddie. But tell me, now. The young lady is a resident of warm, sunny New Mexico.
Have you by any chance mentioned what passes for weather in the soggy land of Albion?
uhm… no… uhm… wait a minute! Seasons! We have four distinct seasons! OK, so it rains in all four of 'em. Almost all the time. It’s all Wales’s fault anyway.
Well, I know of a concertina player who’s getting ready to move to somewhere in New Mexico, but I can’t remember the name of the town. I think she said it’s about 40 or 50 miles north of Roswell, and it has a college (where her husband is going to teach). So it’s not a whistle player, but at least she’d be sympathetic! She’s even talking about trying to find people to get together for tunes.
Good luck finding others, but even if you don’t, keep playing. It’s fun by yourself too!
Steven