What they said. It’s fine for a Christian artist to make money off his work… Paul requested that local pastors be paid in, I don’t remember what letter of his. But to demand money to use the song in worship, does not seem very Christian to me.
I have talked to the praise teams in church, the problem is most of the praise teams are more contemporary in their worship songs. Some have heard of penny whistles but none play them or knows too much about them.
BTW our church does have a CCLI license, so we have a lot of stuff (too much actually) to look through. That’s why I wanted to know if anyone here had any favorites or knew of any sites specifically for worship songs for whistles.
I’ve been a church musician my whole life but usually at more modest churches, so humor me with this simple question. Why don’t you just try playing a whistle on a song and if it sounds good, then use it and if it doesn’t then don’t? Are you playing with a full/partial orchestra or something? Are you looking for songs/sheet music that are orchestrated and have a specific whistle part?
I remember seeing a cassette tape that had a Copyright Message, “Copying this tape is a violation of Federal law and the Eighth Commandment” (Note, different denominations count the Commandments differently: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments hmm, learn something new every day)
Sheet music with specific whistle parts would be ideal since it would be with a praise and worship band.
I have read music all my life and have just started to try by ear in more recent times. There in lies my dilemma.
Violinmyster,
Embrace the dilemma. It’s time to leave the comfort zone, IMHO. I’ve been there, and done that! I grew up playing trumpet in band, and singing in choirs, and so I always believed that there was ONE right note that I should be playing or singing at any given time. When I first started playing mandolin with the praise band, I hacked away at chords, just like a guitarist. (We had a guitarist, btw, so most of my noodlings were redundant) Some songs in some keys, I just couldn’t get the chord changes done fast enough.
One day I got lazy, and just played tremolo on the high string, whatever note would be on that string for the written chord. Several people commented to me later how good the mandolin sounded! I had definitely been making it too difficult, and too mechanical. I started experimenting (in church gasp) with playing OTHER notes, same key. It worked, shockingly. Maybe didn’t fit any “predestined” form of the music, but it worked.
Then I got really crazy, and tried introducing the whistle. At first, I tried to get written music for the stuff - no dice, mostly lead sheets with words and guitar chords. (Dang guitars!) I realized I was going to have to listen to the melody and other harmonies, and make a semi-educated leap into improvising fills and countermelodies.
Long story short, for playing in a praise band, I have found written music more of a hindrance than a help. Whistle makes for great ornamentation and counterpoint. Sometimes, I’ll play the melody on the verse, then take off and do something else on chorus or bridge.
And, unless you have an extremely accomodating (and unusual) band leader, you could spend a lot of time working out the written part that you want, only to have the leader change the key at the last minute.
It took me several years of retraining myself (I’m a bit slow, both as a student and a teacher), but I have gotten to the point that all I want to know is the key a song is in, so that I can pick up a whistle, listen to where the song is going, and jump right in.
Good luck, and as Tolstoy said, “sin boldly” (musically speaking, of course)
Mark
The last time I tried that was with a ukelele.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6BKfkw1aOiE
They threw me out…
Well, no wonder. A banjo ukelele no less. And no grass skirt. What were you thinking, man? And I’m very disappointed that your ejection wasn’t captured on video. I’m left to imagine that the angry congregation left you sprawled on the church steps in something approximating the Australian Position.
I’ve played in our church’s morning service orchestra and the evening services praise & worship band for over a decade. We pay all copyright licenses so we can legally put the music up on Easyworship/Powerpoint for the congregation, and print it for the band/choir. You do NOT want to get tagged by the copyright cops.
However, I’ve had good success in hunting down and calling the artist or their handlers to ask for permission to play their tunes. The usual answer is “sure, just give us credit and don’t print anything for distribution”. They appreciate the feedback. You can start with your local Christian radio station for help with contacts.
As far as whistle/flute (or any other instrument, I’m primarily a guitarist)…learn the tunes by ear. Most of the songs our praise band plays are re-arranged to our style, sometimes radically. Printed music wouldn’t do much good for the melody instruments and it’s not worth the time to transpose it. We get our set lists and charts, play through a couple times, then perform. The melodies are usually very simple, compared to Celtic trad. Hymn books are full of great tunes too…the dots are there.
After a couple years…when the folks got use to it (after Riverdance and Titanic came out 
), the congregation decided they liked whistle and I get requests to play it often. A Jerry Freeman Blackbird, mic’d, is haunting! Works great for “In Christ Alone” and the “OokPik/Amazing Grace/OokPik” sandwich my daughter and I played a couple Sundays ago. 
I’m amazed by the responses this question received! I thought I was alone here.
Ah, then ya haven’t spent much time over on PWA, I’d have to guess. I thought the same, before my own enlightenment, and discovering a network of garden-level (that is, semi-underground) folks who like to whistle in church.
Wow!..uh,… and all this time I had myself convinced I was forging new ground in church music technology.
There’s even a notable contingent of Texans on the board. Be sure to join and give a shout out!
It’s our deep, dark secret. Don’t let him on too early!
To late. I’ve joined. 
Well in that case I’ll head on over to welcome you 
Hi VM, have you been to http://www.tinwhistler.com ?
click on the tunes,
click on tunes sorted by type,
click on religious & Christmas carols,
click on Amazing Grace in G.
This is a very good version to play on whistle with triplets. I have played on two praise teams for several years and in one group there is a piano player, clarinet, and myself on whistle. I was hesitant to play with a clarinet player remembering them in high school as being screechy instruments. But when we play harmony the music blends to something new.
The piano player has degrees in music with over thirty years experience. When we put a hymn together that goes out of the range of the whistle she is able in a moment to find another note in the chord that works. The other group is a contemporary with guitars, keyboard, and vocals. The whistle is very good for playing the refrain part of a hymn. Or the melody. Whistle all the way through is not that good unless your playing an instrumental. It is not good to play in the key of D when the congregation sings. It is to high for them. But the vocals in a contemporary group should be able. One of the hardest parts of playing whistle with the groups is trying to convince the directors to print the whistle part in the Key of D and then I will play what ever key they want with a different whistle letting the whistle do the transposing. I have not seen music just for whistle so you play the melody line. Whistling in praise music is like a good food seasoning. To much is to much. But you will also want to offer a solo now, and then on the low whistle.
I don’t think any of us are treading new ground. I was hoping to be the first person to play a harmonica at a Catholica Mass but the nun who gave me her flute said she’d seeen it done before. I played my new ocarina last week. I got a concertina last year for Christmas. I sound too much like a pirate and have only played this at practice with the folk group. If anyone knows of any Catholic hymns that need a pirate’s touch, please let me know.
Why only a high D whistle?
Where folk music (not only Irish) gives you relatively few keys, that you can mostly handle on the high D with C as a back-up, church music uses any and every key, so you need more whistles.
Folk music gives you almost nothing for the E flat whistle (why do Gen still make it?) but pick up a hymn book, and you can rip into ‘How marvellous, how wonderful’ or relax with ‘Oh the deep deep love’.
Any hymn book will give at least some arrangements that double as four-part harmony, so you have three harmony lines you can play, if you don’t want the lead.
Having said all that, for high D ‘Thou who wast born beyond all splendour’ sounds gorgeous on a Clarke Original - start practising now for next Christmas!
Or try ‘A Debtor to mercy alone’.
church music uses any and every key, so you need more whistles.
One of the handiest things I own is a 3 whistle Susato set. D, C, Bb. That covers most songs and my keyed flute covers the rest. Most of the old favorites and praise music are in G or D, thankfully. Interestingly…it’s the youth that come up with most of the praise songs, and droney G/C is the first and easiest thing they learn on guitar. A whistle can give those tunes some life. 
Ever notice that the 3/4 and 6/8 hymns have a suspicious link to Celtic jigs? Play 'em fast and they are downright snappy! Go figger…
How about Aaarrrhhh vey Maria?