No, this isn’t a “child starting on the whistle” story. It’s a “girlfriend starting on the whistle” story. Almost as good, no?
Anyway, it’s only a couple days before The Gathering.
For Sarah, the lovely lady who is accompanying me to Denver for the Session/Concert to end all Sessions/Concerts, this is all new. She is a rather accomplished classical flute player, but while she enjoys Irish music (and owns four whistles!), she’s never tried to play it before.
So, this evening I invited her and her feadog D over, and taught her a somewhat slowed-down version of “the Rolling Wave.” She picked it up surprisingly fast–she isn’t used to playing by ear, but she has quick fingers, great breath control, and a really nice vibrato from all those years of playing the flute!
It’s always fun to see someone get started at something, and it was really fun playing together, although when both of us were playing in unison I did hear an unusual amount of door-slamming from my neighbors. Hmmmm. They must have been in a hurry to get in and out, it being unusually cold. Yep, that must be it.
Tom