Yesterday I went to (gasp) Walmart and bought 2 wooden dowels, 3 packs of sticky tack, and a bottle of mineral oil, and the woman who checked me out just looked at me for a little while then when I was handing her the money she said ‘What are wooden dowels for?’ and I said ‘For oiling a wooden pennywhistle.’ and of course, ‘What’s that?’ and I just said ‘a simpler version of a flute’, and when somebody else came behind me in line, I went on, but before I left she said ‘I’ve never heard of that’.
And the other night when I was at the hospital, the nurse asked me when my arms hurt most and I told her when I use the computer or play tinwhistle, and she said ‘what’s that?’
And three days ago, my aunt said ‘that’s a recorder just like we used to play in school!’
I know the feeling Cranberry, I walked into my local instrument store that has been in business for 45 years and they didn’t know what a tin whistle was either! That’s Revolting!
Don’t take it too hard. I played clarinet, which is certainly a well-known instrument, and just about all of my relatives called it a flute. A good portion of the non-musical populace tend to ascribe the name flute to any perforated wind instrument.
Walden, what planet am I living on? At sessions I’ve had people come up and ask if I was playing a clarinet! Seriously! “Well, I thought because it was black, and all…”
Once a young lady, a Boehm player, asked what I was playing, and in fun I told her that I killed an oboe to make it. She got the joke, and now wants to play trad flute. Yay!
Hehe! Cranberry, it just comes with ther territory. Try explaining the Uilleann Pipes. Everyone I work with and in my family know I have been waiting for a set for about 2 & a half years. Most of them still think I’m setting GHBs even though I have shown them all pictures. I even keep a picture of the model for my set taped to my monitor here at work to help explain… Well, that’s how it goes. You’ve gotta laugh about it.
Canberry, think of it as a litmus test. The world is divided into people who play tinwhistle or enjoy irtrad and into the people who have no idea what that cute little black toy is. shudder . . . Now, you want to be hanging out with the first group right? The fact that people don’t know what a tinwhistle is simply makes them easier to spot. And think of the joy of meeting another tin whistler when they spot your whistle and begin to shriek in excitment because they’re meeting you.
There is a little bit of joy in the fact that whistles are not commonplace.
compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, alcohol(1)) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful
When I go to my local hardware store to pick up more copper pipe and fittings, I’m automatically a plumber.
And when I go to Wal-Mart to pick up the occasional can of fiberglass resin, I’m automatically an auto body repair man.
And when I go to Sears for new Dremel bits, emery cloth or sanding drums, I’m often asked what I’m working on… and I’ve learned from experience that I’d better have a whistle with me if I tell anyone the truth.
Everybody calls mine my “flute whuch-i-ma-jig.” I don’t mind. I think it’s funny. Then again, I think a good many things are funny that no one else finds amusing at all, so it’s probably just me.
We are down to four instrument stores here in Kalamazoo. Two of them are of the “…it ain’t what we call Rock and Roll…” variety and one is strictly school band instruments. The other, fortunately, is somewhat geared toward folk/trad etc but their inventory is very low.
I’ve had music store folks look at me funny for asking about dulcimers, claw-hammer banjo, Irish flutes etc.
I didn’t know you could get a claw-hammer banjo. I’ve seen 4 string, 5 string and 6 string banjos, and even banjolins, but never isn’t claw-hammer just a style of fingerpicking?
Most people don’t know what an oboe is, or a bassoon, nor could they tell the difference between a French (freedom?) and English horn. Forget about vibraphones, marimbas, mellotrons, mandolins, lutes, hurdy gurdies and zithers. And what’s that thing you play by waving your hands around it? You know, the Beach Boys? Good Vibrations? The average person knows a guitar, drum and piano, and maybe a couple of others.
Folks not knowing what a whistle, a fife or an Irish flute is doesn’t bother me. But when they don’t know the difference between someone who plays Irish flute and a flute player from Ireland, I get a little crazy. Like when I tell people I play Irish flute and they say, “oh, like James Galway.”
ARRGH!
Jim, I was just about to add the theremin to the mix when I saw that you beat me to it (the Good Vibrations thingum). I still want to get one just to see if I can come to play reels on it.
As for the James Galway comments, I just put on this “you poor fellow” look (only if he/she is a musician, of course), and say that his playing is too jocose to be taken seriously as Trad. Snooty of me, true, and he’s more skilled than I, but I stand by it.
Martin. It’s a lot like a hammered dulcimer except you hit the strings with a bear claw.
I meant the style. It was inferred. Perhaps therein lies the problem.
It’s not so much picking as it is sort of tapping the strings with your fingernails and strumming/plucking. Since my 5-string doesn’t stay in tune well I haven’t worked on it much.
I even keep a picture of the model for my set taped to my monitor here at work to help explain… Well, that’s how it goes. You’ve gotta laugh about it. 
