I spent last weekend as a vendor at a greyhound rescue convention in Las Vegas (I’m a part-time leatherworker).
During the downtimes, while all the convention-goers were in seminars and such, I used the time to practice on my Dixon Low-D. Now, the hall we were in had to have been at least 200’x100’, and I was in the far back corner. So, I figured, not too many people would even hear me, especially as I was deliberately choosing tunes that stayed in the first octave, and was blowing as softly as possible.
Well, turns out that while the whistle is quiet, it does carry a bit. Most of the vendors nearby could hear it fairly well, though it took 'em a while to figure where it was coming from. My partner was all the way on the other end of the room at one point, and was able to hear me, though she was listening for it.
So, while the Dixon may not be a good choice for a session in a noisy room, it certainly is fine for solo performances.
I must be getting better, too. Nobody complained, and a few actually stopped by to say they enjoyed it.
Hmm…this makes me think of two things. One, at an all-day conference for work, I had to take a break and play my whistle, so I snuck out to an empty room…only to realize after a tune or two on my LBW that I was RIGHT NEXT to the conference room full of my co-workers, and only one of those thin plastic walls/dividers stretched in between. But I don’t think anyone heard me…
And yes, I’ve whistled in Vegas. Hotel rooms, though. I assume they are soundproofed enough to handle it.
LOL! I do most of my practicing indoors, to (ahem) “avoid bothering the neighbors” (translation: To avoid embarrassing myself). When I was coming home from choir practice the other night, I realized to my chagrin that, indoors or out, there’s no way the neighbors can’t hear me…heck, I can hear the TV set from down at the street, and I can hear my neighbor practicing his ukelele from my back bedroom! This being Northern California, we don’t bother much with insulation
Last Winter when I was laid up in the nursing home, I was dying to play, but it’s a pretty quiet place and I certainly didn’t want to disturb anybody. I had this vision of a 90 year old lady screaming 'stop that! as she rolled into my room to bash me with her cane.
So I got my wife to bring in my beloved Hoover Narrow Bore D - a quiet performer if ever there was one. Then I closed the door and started practicing. This went on for several days, then one day there was a knock on the door. One of the aides came in to ask if they could open the door. Some of the residents had complained - that they were having trouble hearing it! They were a truly an uncritical audience as ever there was!
