Shifting to Another Instrument (from whistle)

Whistle
1

Dear Guys I have few questions that some of you can relate.

Do you get bored in Whistle Playing after some time and feel like wanting another instrument?

I’ve been Trippling (Tin and Low whistle, flute, voice) with my instruments and somehow feel bored and I want something else.

These instruments are very much related in air use and control, though different in structure, if I may say percentage of each technique is somewhat transferable and very useful to the other instrument.

I use my instruments primarily in Church, in which I play in Solemn and Contemporary (Rock Sounding) Christian Worship.

There is a thing in me about the violin. However there is a fear that in my current age (about late 20’s) I feel too old to learn it.

Another question: Is there anything that I can transfer from wind instrument to the violin? (Other than the tune)

I can only think of my ear/pitch sophistication issue, but is there anything else?


Is there a sense of pressure to learn it after being somewhat good from my main instrument ?

Is it good to be Jack of all trades but master of none or master of one but limited?

Is it just me?

Advices from multi-musician is requested.
Relate your stories as well.

Regards,
Angel

2

Sorry I don’t play violin, but if you get bored playing whistle / flute you might simply have a try at another genre and get an alternative viewpoint on your instruments. If you play worship music, maybe something more demanding for example :smiling_imp:. No seriously, I don’t know what exactly you’re in fact playing of course, but if you’re trying something different, you might then notice what your instrument is actually capable of.

I myself am mostly playing ITM on the flute, but there are days when it just won’t groove. Lately I’m dabbling in playing some of that wicked classical stuff for a change, which is so much different that it almost feels like playing another instrument; yet my general flute skills can only improve. :slight_smile:

3

I transferred my music-reading skills, that were developed for playing the whistle (and other woodwind), onto the mandolin within a few weeks last autumn, aged 63 3/4 :wink:

Admittedly I was off work recovering from surgery, so I had the time in hand, but the procedure was fairly painless (the mandolin, not necessarily the surgery :slight_smile:

Given that the violin and mandolin are tuned the same, a person of your relatively early years should have no problem :laughing:

Alternatively, a clarinet uses very similar fingering to a flute or whistle (a “simple-system” clarinet even more so), but the dynamics of clarinet playing can be significantly different to those used for a flute/whistle/recorder etc.

I definitely fall into the “Jack-of-many-instruments” category. I can play well enough to enjoy myself and entertain a few friends on a hat-full of woodwind (whistle, recorder, flute, clarinet, cornemuse) and fretted strings (guitar, 5-string banjo, ukulele, mandolin) and I’ve got a balalaika and a set of bagpipes I’ve yet to get familiar with … if you don’t try it you’ll never know and cheaper second-hand instruments are so readily available these days … gain a little proficiency and get something a little more expensive if you wish, if you can’t get on with whatever, no great loss, you’ll probably be able to re-sell it easily enough :wink:

YMMV but, whichever route you take, enjoy :slight_smile:

4

Those are nice inputs. New Genre and sheer pereseverance.

I guess age is not an issue for learning a new instrument.

I skipped the Trad because, I don’t have somebody to play with.

I guess I need a fellow musician who plays the same genre too.

Irish Trad.is not well known in my place. Whistle and flute are not a common instrument used on band set-up

Out of 10 aspiring musicians here,
5 choose the guitar(rhythm, lead,bass)
2 choose the piano
2 choose the drums
1 choose a weird instrument (classical or folk)


I’m so out numbered. These makes me feel like choosing another instrument.

5

You’ll find that quite a bit of the simpler baroque music for flute works quite well with whistle. Give it a go.

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Yeah, for example van Eyck is quite nice and mostly works on a C whistle easily… but then IIRC Angel even has a recorder as well anyway. :slight_smile:

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I’m going the other way! Simplifying my life, reducing the number of instruments.

After playing Highland pipes exclusively from age 17-20 I suddenly decided to learn the uilleann pipes, wood flute, whistle, and bodhran simultaneously. At least with whistle, flute, and uilleann pipes there’s shared repertoire and quite a bit of shared technique.

I studied Baroque Flute at university but I didn’t stick with it.

Then it got rather excessive, because I started playing kaval and gaida (Bulgarian) and zampona (Bolivian) and gaita (Galician) and doublepipes (Cornish). I was doing the Bulgarian stuff in a dance band and I got fairly decent at it.

But I was spreading myself too thin and after I passed age 50 I began divesting myself of most of those things, returning to the older core (for me) of Highland pipes, uilleann pipes, and whistle. (Hand cramping forced me off the flute.)

I’m appreciating now that it’s better for me to keep a higher level of proficiency on a smaller stable of instruments.

Anyhow Angel if you take up the uilleann pipes, you’ll never find it boring! Intriguing, beguiling, obsessive, frustrating… but never boring!

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I’ve found that a lot of what I have learned as recorder (transposed flute) repertoire actually falls better under the fingers on the whistle, like some of the less chromatic Telemann fantasia movements, simple minuets and so on. Just from noodling around on whistle and retransposing back into flute keys - but I feel it’s hardly worth really learning them on whistle since the recorder is more suited to that repertoire anyway in terms of tone imo, but it does work very nicely. I hadn’t really thought of Van Eyck, but he would probably be closest to whistle of all in spirit. It’s just a matter of transposing down a minor third (I think mainly in terms of alto recorder), after all. I should look into it a bit more probably.

To the OP - I personally play the recorder and whistle primarily as solo instruments, it seems you mainly play with a church band. I’m not familiar with that kind of music, but all I’m really suggesting is that there’s a world of solo music for these instruments which you can explore and maybe find something more challenging and satisfactory to play.

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I did have a recorder, just those cheap ones.

I find the intonation bad on the chromatics and weak on the cross-fingered notes, so I did not pursue it.


Uillean pipes seem bulky and need some armpit motion,sounds haunting but I don’t feel like its for me.

I do use whistles and flute on the following:

Song intros (particularly on solemn songs)

Voice double (particularly on chorus parts)

Counter Melody (particularly on adlib or bridge part)

Bass Guitar Double (for flow emphasis)

Tone Color shift (Low whistle /flute initial then shift to High whistl/ piccolo, To add a brillance factor on the song.)

Solos (I’m given solos on refrain sometimes and on initial adlibs before building up the dynamics)


Main instruments on the Band are piano/keyboard, guitars (lead, bass and rhythm) and drums. Infact they can exist without me.

My playing is mainly for flourishing the existing melodies given by those instruments, thus I use my voice as a backing vocal, singing melodies to thicken the sound and harmonies to add sound colors.

Contemporary Christian songs we play are from Hillsongs, Bethel, Jesus Culture, Lakewood/Israel Houghton)

Those music have no flute/whistle on it, so its up to me to add my part.
I am challenged also to add parts that were never even there, and to find a spot where the flute/whistle will shine and create a balance so that I complement the lead guitar instead of competing it.

Thank you for the inputs.

10

So you had the wrong recorder!

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That’s hardly an advanced age. If you want to play the violin, give it a try. It isn’t as hard as you might think. Like whistle and flute (unlike guitar and piano), it is a melody instrument, so you only have to keep track of one note at a time. Like flute (unlike whistle), it is played off to one side of your head. Flute and whistle music in D and G should transfer readily to the violin.

Go for it.

12

I was going to say that… you can’t beat the Yamaha YRA314B. Absolutely great instrument for just 35 euro. It’s taken me about five years to appreciate just how extraordinary this piece of plastic really is.

13

Those Yamaha ABS recorders are king! :party:

14

Ah, in that case, you might want to try the ORGAN! :open_mouth: It is definitely a demanding instrument, particularly in the worship/religious sphere – flute? rarely need more than seven or eight fingers. But organ? You need to coordinate all ten fingers of both hands, often as many as three or four keyboards at a time, still manage all the stops, coordinate all that with both feet and their own keyboard (which you can’t see, and for that matter, the music rack is so high, you can’t see the manuals either!), plus pistons, plus volume and effects pedals, and plus you’re often up in the organ loft sitting half a mile away from the priest / minister and sometimes nowhere near the choir and you have to do all of that while watching for cues in the mirror.

But it is a wonderful experience all the same!

Cheers

15

Funny, from the very first line - even from the title - I knew you were going to say violin. Or fiddle. Same thing. My strong advice would be don’t. It’s a killer. Mandolin would be a much easier start to the world of strings. Mandolin is a fairly simple instrument, and it’s relatively easy to make a nice sound on one. It then also has the added benefit of having the same fingering as the fiddle, if you want to try that later.

As a kid, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend starting out (after whistle, of course :wink: ) on fiddle. Bu I think a mandolin is likely to prove more rewarding and less disheartening than starting out on fiddle. Cheaper usually too.

Just my 2c …

16

Ben’s not wrong - he’s far from wrong - but if you’re willing to commit, your 20s are not too late to begin the fiddle. It’s likely to mean that you need to put down all other instruments for from 6 - 30 months to concentrate on the fiddle, but it can be done if you want it badly enough.

What’s more worrying is the news that you’re bored with the instruments you now play. Both whistle and flute can be as complex as you have the patience to make them be, but both can be played to a basic standard more easily than a fiddle. Are you willing to work (much) more than twice as hard to be half as good on a violin? Frankly, for most people who ask this question the answer is no.

17

I had some short basics with the Violin and somehow, I would say I love it.


My friend graduated with a Degree on Engineering and also Music (Major in Voices, Minor on Keyboards and Violin). He thought me how to bow and finger the board but it requires great muscle memory and ear coordination on the string.

I seem to have an advantage on ear and muscle coordination with flutes
But can it be transferred to the violin?

Ever since I was a child we have several games for ear training, not in a musical way though.

I enhanced my ear training as well after playing with EQ Temperament instrumentalists, particularly on matching the sustained notes, eliminating the interference beats. This skills were greartly used onmy ssinging as well,creating vocal harmonies with another singers.

I do read scores but frequently play blindfoldedly to focus my attention to ears and hands.

However, are those skills transferrable or I am in a very long mile.
Do I really need to drop my winds and focus on violin?

Can I not be a two timer?

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I certainly don’t want to play the grinch and tell you not to do it. What I am saying is that this is a commitment several times greater than that required to play whistle or flute. From what you’ve said here you have the raw ability. Where you go from here is up to you and your patience. You’re going to sound bad for a lot longer before you start to sound good.

If you’re not positive that you have that patience or if your fundamental understanding of music is singing rather than melody, you’re likely better off taking Ben’s advice about playing the mandolin/bouzouki. Violin is hard.

ps: He plays it a lot better than I do. What I’m saying might be more to your taste but frankly he’s more likely to be correct. If Ben takes serious exception to anything I say, believe him.

19

I’ll second the mandolin recommendation. It’s an awful lot of fun and the fingering is fairly intuitive since the interval between strings is the same across the fingerboard. You can get some Asian made mandos for not a huge amount of money, although considerably more than the average whistle. For more information, check out the Chiff and Fipple of the mandolin world, mandolincafe.com .

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Compliment gratefully received. :slight_smile: And, for the rest, I agree with what you’ve said in this post.