Hello all,
I’ve been lurking around these boards for the past couple of weeks gathering information on tin whistles and I’ve liked it so much I thought I’d stay.
I’m new at the tin whistle and have only been at it since this past Christmas (Santa left one in my stocking - Walton D Irish whistle).
I’ve always enjoyed Irish/Celtic music. My Grandfather who will be 100 this April was a champion fiddle player who delighted his grand kids with old jigs and reels when ever we would visit. He still plays the odd tune but at 100 I guess we can forgive him if he isn’t up to it as much as he once was.
My musical background is guitar. I took some formal lessons in public school but mainly I am self taught by ear and I have a big spot in my heart for the blues and classic rock.
Last summer while camping with the family, the park we seem to have adopted (Murphy’s point Provincial Park) started up an annual Festival celebrating the local pioneering/mining heritage. Many Celtic/Irish groups turned up to play for the campers and visitors. I was instantly grabbed by the simple beauty of the tin whistle and knew I had to give it a try.
I’ve just started to really ramp up my learning curve on the whistle and I have been working through Ryan Dunn’s you-tube lessons on his blog. I’ve got “the Star of the County Down” committed to memory now and I’m able to add in some simple embellishments (hits and cuts … my rolls need a lot of work). I am also trying to get down the tune “The Silver Spear”. I almost have it memorized and committed to muscle memory and I will soon be able to pick up the pace and get it up to a decent speed. I have found that my current whistle is very spotty in the higher register and I know some of that is my inexperience but I hope to remove all problems put upon my by my Walton by upgrading to a Blackbird D. I’ve heard/read very good things so I just ordered one from Mr. Freeman today. So I’ll have no excuses now when I hit the second half of the silver spear where it flips back and forth between high F# and A (or something like that). The Walton seems to blow more air than music up there! I’ve tried to modify it by filling in the cavity in the fipple and that has helped for the notes below the high F# but above that, forget it.
So that is my story … my wife and boys haven’t kicked my out of the house yet so I must be doing something right!
I also hoped to get a lead on a whistle instructor and have no idea how to do that. They have a college here that has whistle lessons but it’s downtown and I’m not a big city person.
Jerry Freeman’s other whistles are great too.