Starting out and have a few questions. (volume)

Whistle
1

Hi, I’ve just stated playing the whistle after playing the guitar for a few years, and deciding that I just couldn’t get very far with scottish/irish taraditional music with it, so needed to play something else too.

Anyway, I was wondering what you think is the best way to go about learning to play, resources on the internet aren’t ideal, any books you would recommend?

The other thing is that I am in university halls and volume might be an issue is there anyway to reduce the volume of a whistle?

Thanks for any help, and I look forward to contributing to this community in the future.

2

some great online resources for the irish stuff in case you didnt find them:

www.thesession.org - basically a repository of fairley accurate notes and midi files of almost every ‘folk trad ish’ song.

http://www.youtube.com/tradlessons - played fast and slow on you-tube for your convienience ( i started here )

http://www.youtube.com/user/RyanDunsSJ - father duns whistle youtube cource ( i should have started here )



now, there isnt really any resource as far as im aware for whistiling other types of music; if you can learn all the basic technique and fmiliarise yoruelf with the instrument you should be able to pick up tunes gradually after listening to them and noodeling arround with the whistle. - video game music is allwayse fun for this, tetris to start out or super mario if your feeling adventurous.

  • be warned, if your playing along to modern pop or rock music; the recordings are frequently tuned nearly a semitone sharp to make it sound brighter to the audience, thus it may be next to impossible to play along too, your best bet is to find live recordings.
3

Hi and welcome! As for internet resources, the above post is hard to add to. As for the volume issue, I recommend getting a Dixon. You might also try a key lower than D, such as Bb, which aren’t as shrill. Enjoy your whistling!

4

Sure … Take a look at this thread and links:

https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/how-to-play-less-loudly-or-which-whistle-is-quiet/64083/9

You can also do a forum search on “whistle mute”. Also check out Carey Parks’ Everywhistle, and the Generation “Shush” from BigWhistle:

http://www.parkswhistles.com/
http://www.bigwhistle.co.uk/shop_results.asp?prod_id=690

5

A friend of mine who is a really good whistler now said when he started out he would practice in his car.

6

In addition to the higher tech solutions, there’s the old standby trick of blowing across the fipple, flute style. You’re limited to a single octave, but you can just hear the pitches you’re fingering. This trick is a session standby for people who want to figure out if they know the tune being played without being heard by anyone else. Also works for latenight practice in a dorm or apartment.