Anybody else found taking up the whistle a great stress reliever? I often find a few minutes tootling helps me put things in perspective and restore some calm (until the neighbours start hammering the wall).
Maybe if Tom Cruise had suggested whistles instead of Scientology, as an aid to relief of postnatal depression, he wouldn’t have got in such a pickle?
I found playing the whistle to be very stressful.
Isn’t the whistle an interesting instrument, easy to play difficult to master. Relieves stress while simultaneously creating sress. They can be so cheap people think they are only toys or so expensive as to stagger the pocketbook.
Don’t you just love them.
Ron
The more you play and the better you get, the more stress-relieving it is - because after a while you can just get in the “zone” and crank out toons, and for me it can be greatly relaxing. I love music. 
Absolutely, 100%. That’s why I’ve got some that live full time on my office desk.
Well said.
I totally agree. Once a person is decent at Flute it relives stress soooooo much more than Whistle ever did well that is for me any way.
I love burning dragonsblood incense, and playing the whistle. To me it is a big stress reliever.
Hey we take care of our Dragons in Wales - that’s cruel
( :roll: )
I find it very relaxing to play,untill I am learning a new tune and cant get a certain part of it 
It is especially stress relieving when I make music with my wife. 
I find playing the whistle to be stress relieving; I concentrate on playing a tune and am able to forget about the more stressful parts of my life. Currently I’m learning The Rights of Man and incorporating some variations I read about on another site. That tune rolls very nicely, and my thoughts follow.
“I love burning dragonsblood incense, and playing the whistle. To me it is a big stress reliever.”
Hmm, I guess you would need some stress relief after collecting the dragonsblood in the first place? Just askin’ 
Practicing, for me, is stress relief, playing for my teacher is fraught with stress!! Not because of anything he does…just my desire to be instantly good.
The only time I find the whistle stressful is when I’m tyring to figure out a new tune, and can’t. Or it takes me a while… But when I do, or if I do, it’s beautiful. There’s part of a tune from a band called Blackwood, (a local Irish group out here in Phoenix) that’s called Fig For A Kiss.. The part that immediatly follows the beginning, I learned to play in about 10 minutes. The thing is, my cousin learned it, and I figure I wouldn’t be able to learn it at all. I thought it wa impossible for Me to learn it. He played it for me in our little “sessions” and I was awe-inspired, and I wasn’t going to try to figure it out in front of him and look like an a&*. But, the next day, I sat down and listened carefully, and sure enough, with a little messing around trying to figure it out notes, I was off and playing it. I soon found that it was rather easy to play after practicing it a couple times. It sounds sweet on a Clarke Original C whistle (if you got the lungs for it…), and Generation Bb.. Even if it was recorded in D, I still like to experiment with my other keys…
Anyways, I find the whistle simple, enjoyable, and amazing. Although yes, difficult to master. And I’m far from it. But I’m getting there 
Even if I play just one song I’ve been itching to play right before I goto work, it makes my day.
Not to be too contrarian, but proponents of every single musical instrument I’ve ever encountered have touted their particular instrument as “easy to play but difficult to master.” Could it be that this is a trait of musical instruments in general, not just this one or that one in particular? (I leave aside, of course, those instruments that fall under the category of “difficult to play and all-but-impossible to master.” )
And as to the notion of a whistle being “so expensive as to stagger the pocketbook,” even the most expensive Copeland silver whistle barely costs more than a decent but far-from-excellent guitar – and don’t even think about how they would compare to any piano!
I find the opposite to be true for myself. The flute is harder to hold. A whistle feels more comfy to me.
I think listeners tend to agree with you, however (my mum likes the Low D whistle the best though).
I agree with both points.
Its easy to teach somebody a few chords on guitar that can have them playing along to 90 per cent of western music in no time. But to master the instrument a guitarist needs to play melodies with expression and phrasing, finger pick arpeggios, re-harmonise chords etc etc These things some can never do.
As to the cost of whistles I also agree. My daughter is 10 and just completed grade three violin. Her new violin for grade four cost £500, the bow £90. You could really hear the difference and extra expression the instrument can produce when spending this much money. Her next bow (before she gets to grade eight) will cost more than a Copeland (never mind the next violin). Some Orchestral players spend literally tens of thousands on a bow alone. (My wife was taught by a player who spent £30,000 or about $55,000 on one!) £300 for the best hand made whistle, or a Chinese factory plywood guitar?
Fig For a Kiss is a traditional slip-jig, it’s not a Blackwood composition. You’ll likely find it played on tinwhistle only (which may be easier for you to learn from) on Clips 'n Snips, here:
I love the different perspectives we have on this board. To me a retiree a Copeland sterling silver whistle is beyond any possibility of owning. I have a Martin D28 that I bought for $450 when I was young and working. It replaced a Silvertone that I bought for $6. I certainly couldn’t buy it now. was there a big difference between the two. You bet there was. But I can buy a whistle for $10 or less that sounds marvelous. The Copeland doesn’t sound 75 times better. For me there is no difference between a $750 whistle and $30,000 bow. They are both beyond my capacity to purchase.
Yes all instruments are easy to play for those that can play them. I found the guitar to be very difficult and still do. I can’t play a harmonica no matter what I do. The whistle is probably the easiest instrument to learn of all instruments.
I love whistles. All of them.
Ron