New whistle player here (about 3 months, but been working hard and taking lessons)
I feel I am making quite a bit oif progress and I am pleased. My previous attempts to learn to play something were not so great.
Is it that the whistle is comparatively easy to learn to play…or it could be my greater maturity and willingnesss to work harder?
Would love to hear from those of you who have learned several instruments.
Welcome, Lizzie! I picked up the whistle last year and my first couple of months were ear-splitting hell for everybody who came into my territory. I haven’t had any complaints lately! Whee! I decided to pick ujp the guitar again, and haven’t played one since 1983, and boy it it hard for me to stay motivated and get calluses and hand strength back, much less play music. Whistle is easy for me to practice, the guitar is hard.
I have played guitar for over 15 years… and I’m still not very good at it.
I’ve been playing the whistle since March of this year, and I think I’m already better at it than I ever was on the guitar.
The layout of the fretboard just never did “click” in my head, so all I ever was decent at was playing rhythm.
I never could manage any lead work other than what I memorized… I never could improvise.
Now with my whistles, I find the satisfaction in playing that always seemed just beyond my reach with the guitar.
I think it’s the straight-forward way that the notes on a whistle are laid out, and maybe the fact that it’s a diatonic instrument that make it easier for me.
Maybe the Irish in my blood helps a bit too… who can say? 
That’s my 2¢ worth on the subject.
I know you wanted to hear from multi instrument types but I have to tell you that I have NEVER been musically inclined and have been at the whistle for a bit over a month. I am making surprising progress. It must be the instrument. I practice EVERY day. It is so easy to sit down and pick it up and GO!!
Bravo, I find that too. I keep that whistle right by my computer where I mainly work, and it makes a good break to just pick it up every so often and play.
And when I have something really tough or boring to do workwise…why I just leave it and tootle away.
Liz
I come from a background of playing (or committing murder with, your word choice!) several instruments, including violin, oboe, guitar and recorder. I have also found that I have improved more quickly on the whistle than the other instruments, but I don’t think that has much to do with the whistle being “easier” to learn. Rather, the whistle is the only instrument I own that can easily be slipped into a bookbag, a suitcase, a glove compartment, a back pocket…you get the picture! Because I can take it with me everywhere, I find that I practice more frequently than the other instruments I play. Furthermore, traditional Irish/Scottish music is basically what I have been listening to since the cradle, so I have that as a motivating factor as well;-)
Two things about the whistle that help make it a easy(ier) instrument to learn.1, Simple fingering, 6 holes, 6 fingers. very little movement. 2. Portability vastly increases practice time. You can’t slip a piano, or even a fiddle into you pocket.
Cheers,
jb
I’d go along with those who feel the whistle, in contrast to other instruments, is a pretty easy thing to get started on. Also learning new tunes on it comes much easier than working out the fingering on a stringed instrument. Having said that, with a cumulative 5 or 6 years playing behind me, it’s still a slow, difficult struggle to get to a point of playing well- smoothly with style, feeling, ornamentation and phrasing in place, etc. In other words, what you hear the pro’s doing is not at all easy. It takes mega practice and discipline. When I learn new tunes, it doesn’t take me long to bring them up to par with the rest of my playing, but moving the whole glacier forward is no easy trick.
Tony
As someone who plays an assortment of things, I’ve been amazed how much time I’ve been spending with the whistles. (my mom and wife are calling it “obsession…”) I think the thing that hooked me is that, though it really is a simple instrument, the expressiveness even for a beginner is amazing. The things you can do on it right away are really neat, with nowhere to go but up!
I’ve been playing a year or so, and my jaw still drops to hear someone who REALLY knows the instrument. But, still, at my level, I’m able to get some pleasing things out of it.
Maybe we’ll call it an infinitely accessible, yet infinitely challenging instrument. (but, that would be a little cumbersome on the business cards! 
)
Cal
I think whistle is undoubtedly easier than most instruments to learn … although bass guitar is pretty easy to becaue you normally play a slower, simpler part than the other instruments.
I can’t understand for the life of me why schools insist on starting kids on recorder rather than whistle.
Thanks for all the input…kind of confirms what I was thinking. Although,as Tony and Cal have said…it is easy to get started and therefore rewarding right away, but you can work a long time at it to reach a certain degree of expertise. A couple of sports come to mnd…raquetball is easy to learn and reach a point where you can have a lot of fun…but to get really good is another thing. Golf, though, is tough right from the get go. And it would make much more sense to introduce kids to whistles rather than recorders.
I wonder at what point I can call myself a whistler???
I don’t know if there is a point when one calls themselves a whistler . . . however, I think that if you persistantly play over the months(and, egads! Years! Has it been years for me? I think it’s been three slow, awkard years) you can call yourself a whistler. I reached a point, not of being great, but of feeling that pratice and play became a natural part of recreation.
It’s an easy instument to play a simple tune on, but not so simple to learn to play well. After all, it’s simply just a piece of tin with a wood or plastic fipple, nothing to really soften or hide bad playing. Sounding good on the tin whistle is an art. Practise really pays off, even if you hit a point when you seem to stop learning. Keep pushing, and you’ll break through it.
And if you post again in six months, we can all hear about how much you’ve improved!
I found I could play the whistle well and quickly, it is playing music I find lots harder!
I have no probs making not too offensive noise with the whistle. I can make all the notes, just not in the right order! I think the real trick is reading music, knowing the tunes.
I would not call myself musically inclined. I have been using parts of my brain that have had little excercise in the past 40 years. I often play in the parking lot at work during my lunch break, and I try to hide, but every once in a while people figure out where Im hiding, and tell me they think it souns great. I do know two tunes by heart! Loch Lomand and Rant & Roar (Aka Ladies of Spain)
I’m working on many others, using tabliture/sheet music from the Digital tradition pages of MUDCAT.
SO I guess what I am saying the whistle is not that hard to play ( but easy to play poorly), the trick is wanting to and putting your feelings into what you play. Oh and practice, and lots of other stuff…
Nick
Learning to (1) read music and/or (2) learning to internalise (ie, memorise - more or less) music and/or (3) learning to play by ear could probably be considered “musicianship” skills rather than whistle specific skills.
If I was good at one of these 3 skills (and blowing sweetly and fluently) I’d feel I could wear the badge “Whistler”. If I could do 2 or 3 of theses skills I might feel able to wear the badge “musician”. Of course, this is just the definition that works for me and others will have their own measures for these terms.
Well, folks, after teaching recorders to my grade five students for three years, after Christmas it’ll be whistles instead. I can’t wait! The fact that the upper octave so closely mirrors the fingering of the lower octave makes my job so much easier… learn the fingering for the lower eight notes, then blow harder and double your production. Gotta love it! I’m really excited about getting started, and will post my observations.
Jef
As a multi-instrument abuser over the years (Violin, Clarinet, Guitar, Mandolin & now Whistle) I agree with three main points above - portability, immediacy (i.e. lack of maintainance) & lack of strain.
That I can take a whistle anywhere, anytime means I practise in short bursts several times a day (e.g. during an advert break on TV). Compare that with the effort of digging out the clarinet, carefully connecting up all the pieces, & wetting and clamping the reed, or having to tune up the guitar or mandolin strings, often several times between tunes.
The lack of strain from playing, as opposed to the wrist & finger cramps I got (& still get) and the chopping up of the ends of my fingers on the strings, means that if I don’t play for a week or two (yeah, sure) then I’m not going to have to rebuild the strength to play. I find the whistle no effort at all to play, and if I get bad squeaks it’s because I’m blowing too hard.
What I find really lovely is that a slow air played on the whistle can convey great emotion, but such a tune can be learnt in a few practise sessions. Yet the instrument is jaunty for Reels and Jigs.
It takes a few hours to learn to play, and a lifetime to master!
I agree with the folks who seem to be saying that while it is easy to make music early on with a whistle, it’s not easy to play it at a certain level of skill. I’m also learning mandolin, and it’s frustrating because to get a good tone is difficult at first, and you can’t make music on it til you get to a certain level. By contrast, with the guitar, you can learn a few chords and at least sing simple songs. Of course, there’s a world of difference between learning 3 chords and being a skilled guitarist, but you can at least sing around the campfire. I guess for any instrument it’s a journey to get to where you’re considered good or great. Good thing I’m happy just to play for my own pleasure . . .
My darling Husband, aka Tyghre, when asked what he plays, usually replies ‘stereo’. I forced a whistle on him a few months back, and he grudgingly got a scale or two out of it, said he’d go through the Clarke tutorial. . .occasionally would be coerced into trying it again. He just never considered himself to be a possible musician.
Last night, BY EAR, he picked out Patriot Game. I am so proud I could plotz!
I have finally made a major attitude adjustment toward life, and I have the whistle to thank for it. I too have been a multi-instrument abuser. Sometimes it would take me years of trying and sometimes just weeks, but I invariably got discouraged and quit playing a thing. I gave up on piano when I was too immature to appreciate it–and then by the time I found an instrument to appreciate, I was too old to become a natural at it. In a previous thread we discussed how we got started playing music and I already gave my music life story, but suffice to say every instrument I would try turned out to be something that takes a life to dedicate to. I was “above” simple ones like the whistle. Well, I came back down to earth and have discovered the spiritual value of the six hole fipple flute. All I’ve ever really wanted to do was play music, recreate haunting melodies, and be challenged by complex phrases once in a while. The whistle completely and humbly satisfies these desires. Thank you everyone who participates in this forum for your fellowship in appreciation for this humble and most friendly instrument.
Lisa
When can you call yourself a whistler? I didn’t know the answer to that either until
a few weeks ago I was in another state.
(I have played 3 years also). I wanted to
join a session and told the “leader” I
played with a small group and showed him our
little c.d. etc. When he introduced me to
the group, he said, “This is Lolly, she
plays PROFESSIONALLY, and she will sit in with us tonight” I think that was one of the
proudest moments of my life, and I was
really shocked he said it, as the session is
ALL music teachers and their prodigies and
I felt very small!
I also was THRILLED when I bought my
first whistle that I could actually go thru the book, and learn the thing and leave it
lying around and actually got good enough
to please a few people.
I have played at School assemblies where
the kids ALL play the recorder and when I
tell them the Whistle is easier, well, I have just “shot myself in the foot”, haven’t
I, ha ha) But, I presume from previous questions I have asked on this forum, is that
the Recorder was a “high class” instrument
as Henry the 8th had tons of them, and they were played a lot; compared to what the guys
in Ireland have posted here saying the whistle was looked down on and not recognized
as a REAL instrument until the last few generations.
I just hope we all continue to LOVE the instrument as much in the future as we do
today.
I am so “inspired” by the loveliness of it,
that I want to buy a keyboard and a mic and
a computer program and make my own album.
Lolly