Most every night I sit down and practice with a select group of MP3s (note to myself: make “what are your favorite practice MP3s” when things get too off-topic a topic ). I am looking out at my favorite whistles and looking over (over-looking) the pile of non-fav whistles that is in my collection of whistles that I play when I pratice…
The 5 whistles I have out and play when I practice are (in no order):
Chieftain Low D (I have grown to love this instrument)
Chieftain Soprano D (it’s like the Low D. You need to “talk to it” special)
Copeland Soprano D (my 51th birthday present)
Waltons C (Amazingly in tune without tweaking)
A Jerry Freeman (He knows what he made. Ask him what it is. Hint : I would sell evey other whistle before it, dog-chews and all)
In my computer bag, which goes everywhere with me is a Dixon tunable C/D.
These are the regular bunch I play.
We all have WHOA. What do you play, apart from your favorite…
I just play the same favorite at home (Burkes) as onstage. I am close to selling the lot that I don’t play but when I think of everybody here and their vast collections, I feel like a sinner for thinkin’ it. Sometimes I will play the chieftain low A because it takes so much air that when I return to the Burke I have more lung power…
I do have WhOA, but I really do play most of my whistles. I don’t play the low-D’s much since I’ve taken up flute. Don’t like the key of F or Eb, so I don’t play those. Of my D’s, the only ones that get very little action are Weltmeister and Sweetheart.
When I plan on playing for awhile, I pick out 2 or 3 whistles unless I have the urge to play in an odd key.
I don’t have a set of practice whistles, just the ones that I play all the time and I don’t have WHoA. I simply can not afford it.
Whistles are like golf clubs. Those that take it seriously don’t have a practice set and a tournament set. They practice with the ones that they earn their living from. They learn what they can do with a certain club and can not do with that certain club. They learn it on an intimate basis. The club or whistle becomes an intimate part of them.
I gave away a bunch of whistles to someone on this board that could use them, they are happy and I don’t miss the whistles and am happpy that they are happy, although Emmanuel Kant says I shouldn’t be.
I do have to purchase a Low A whistle to accompany some singers and that will be my last purchase.
What do I play regularly?
O’Riordan concert set C/D in cocobolo which I have had for nine years.
Burke Brass Pro D
Burke Low G
My WhOA went away after I found the sounds I was looking for. I think that it was really just a matter of obsessing about finding the right whistles for me, not about buying every whistle out there.
I have one low D and that was the right one for me, from the start. A Chieftain. I played a Chieftain high D and didn’t like it one bit. But the low is great.
I also have a Chieftain Bass A, which is more for the wowza factor than anything else. Still, it sounds great.
For my reach-for whistles, I have a Clarke D, a Dixon non-tuneable D, a Generation nickel F (obtained in a trade on this board - and worth twice what I traded; it is a real gem), and a Sweetheart blackwood C.
I do play other whistles now and then. I keep a Meg in the car for stoplights and to have a whistle wherever I go. I have a bunch of cheapies and some very nice whistles, too. The Elfsong just feels a little too heavy when I reach for it, so it sort of sits. The Tully has to be assembled when I take it out of its case, which makes it less of an impulse whistle.
Ultimately, I suspect that the really good players here know what sound they want, find it, and stick to that whistle. I didn’t know what sound I wanted, so I bought/traded/was given a bunch of whistles and finally found the sound that suits me from among them, then lost interest in collecting. Wish I could afford to do that with bagpipes.
It’s odd, but the whistles I think I will play aren’t always the ones I end up playing. For instance, I love my Shaws (a couple are currently on hiatus at the Jerry Freeman Tweak Shop) but I don’t play them every time. What do I ALWAYS reach for?
My Dixon A. Hands down THE whistle I play the most.
My Dixon Bb/G/high D as backups
My C/D just-temparment Reyburns
And my favorite whistle in the world (even though the C-nat tuning is off quite a bit if you cross-finger), my Frankenwhistle D, which is an LBW head and an unknown body. I love the sound of this whistle. And the ironic thing is, I got it for FREE (traded a board member–we each had Frankenwhistles we didn’t like). I spend all this money on whistles and the one I like the most was a free reject. Go figure.
I practice on the same whistle I play in public, the Abell D. I’ve found that because each whistle has its own peculiarities I need to practice on what I will be playing.
I’ll do some playing with all the other whistles, especially the Water Weasel in the car, or the Burke (my fallback whistle if I don’t want to take wood out of the house), but real practice. . .scales, exercises, whatever tunes I’m trying to make presentable. . .I play on the instrument that I play ‘seriously’.
Oh, I’ll do some practice on lower keys to try and get my breath control.
I find that when breaking in a new whistle, i have better results if i play that whistle almost exclusively. So right now i’m playing almost only the Hoover whitecap. Before this, the Village Smithy, before that the Water Weasel. It usually takes me about 2 weeks of this concentrated treatment to really be able to play a new whistle the way it deserves to be played.
Elsewhere is most of my practices includes parking lots waiting each day for my wife to pick me up from the train, a lunch break a couple times each week spent in one of the local parks, and other opportunities as they present themselves. I generally carry my back pack and the following whistles (and flute) have a home there:
, heh, heh, heh!