Well, your introduction to playing whistle is certainly a better and more exciting story than mine.
Being Irish and having been a touring musician a good portion of my life, I’d always loved the music and instrumentation but just never jumped into it. Then several years ago while channel surfing I was taken aback by some incredibly beautiful women playing music that sounded very “Irish”. It was a “The Corrs Live in Dublin” MTV special. I NEVER watch MTV, but…good Lord…these women were gorgeous and playing some great music, so I was glued to the TV. I’d heard their hit “So Young” and liked it, but had never seen them. Aside from the pleasant visual, I was also taken by the music and obvious talent of this musical family. After watching Andrea playing whistle, I decided I had to learn how to play. Whatever the inspiration was…the beauty, the music, or both, I was hooked. It came on again, I recorded it, and must have watched it every day for the next few months.
So I started calling all over town to find a whistle. I didn’t even know what key to buy. None of our music shops sold whistles, then one of the last calls I made…Books-A-Million of all places sold Clarke Sweetones. I didn’t know Sweetones from Schweetones, so headed to Books-A-Million. They had them on display in colors and in two keys, D and C. So for $3 each, I bought two of each key. I remember being pretty excited about finding and now owning four instruments I’d only seen played in videos or on TV.
After getting home, I remember searching online for whistle tutorials and found a a few that were very helpful. I drove my roommate and her cats completely nuts for the next few weeks while I attempted to learn to play. I actually picked it up fairly quickly and began the Whoa syndrome, ordering a few more whistles from Thom Larson at The Whistle Shop. He was also a big help and spent some of his valuable time with me on the phone talking about technique. I’m a graphic designer by profession, so Thom asked me if I’d be interested in helping him with his band’s logo design in trade for some whistles. I agreed, and in turn he sent me two complete sets of Generations in both brass and nickel. All of a sudden I had a ton of whistles.
I remember my roommate hearing about a special Irish concert at the University put on by a local group, so naturally I went. That was my first connection with actual players I could interact with on a local level. When they finished, I spoke with one of the whistle players and she invited me to join the gathering (they didn’t call it a session) that took place each Tues evening, so I did that for about 2 years. There were some fine musicians in that large 20+ member group and with their help I really excelled on whistle in that time.
Soon, I was invited to join the few who did the actual pub session afterwards at Finnegan’s just down the street. As a guitarist/singer for *^&&^ years (we won’t count the years), I started playing guitar at the sessions as well as whistle. After about a year and learning DADGAD tuning, I was invited to play guitar and whistle, as well as sing in a band that four of the best musicians were forming. These guys are the cream of the crop on fiddle, mando, low and high whistle, banjo, and bodhran, so I felt honored to have been asked to join them. They’d all been playing Trad music most of their lives and know a TON of tunes. We named the band SlipJig and I was part of it for just over two years. Our biggest accomplishment was opening a concert for Gaelic Storm and it went great.
But I left SlipJig to become a duo with one of the best Irish fiddlers/bouzouki players in the area, Larry Lynch. We gigged for about three years then he went through some family problems, I moved me mum here from Florida to take care of her, so we took some time off. We’re now starting it back up and adding a bodhran player with great harmony vocals, as well as an Uilleann pipe/whistle player.
So what began with a chance MTV special has turned my life around. I’m also learning Irish Gaelic when I have time. It was all meant to happen and isn’t it great how the Good Lord works. 
DC
