Let me confess: I used to play the trombone. A friend, who plays whistle in a contra-dance band, used to play the trombone. Now BigEvilGrape has made the move from Trombone to whistle. Mmmh…
Maybe it’s the fact that you don’t get to do a lot with your fingers when playing the trombone?
Any more former 'bone players out there? Or Tuba, Euphonium, and I guess even trumpet players?
FWIW, my first instrument was trombone, but I didn’t transition directly to whistle. Almost three decades, some with other instruments, occasionally with none, intervened.
I still try to keep up on the euphonium and occasionally tuba.
TBone player? You might check out the thread on slide whistling. I wonder if there’s a correlation.
Tom
I have a slide wistle, i didn’t really like it. When it got all spitty inside the slide stuck to much. I do agree with Bloomfield’s statement about not having anything to do with your fingers when you play trombone.
I played trumpet in elementary and middle school and played French horn in high school and in college for a couple of semesters. I’ve tried guitar, too, and couldn’t get the chord thing.
While I’ve really never played any instruments other than the whistle, I’ve recently found out that my wife, and two of my friends are old trombone players from high school. It’s enough to make me want to start wearing my tinfoil hat again..
Greg
I played euphonium in High School - some 20+ years ago. Had absolutely nothing to do with picking up the whistle, but might have helped with learning breath control.
On the other hand, playing Mtn. Dulcimer for the past ten years made learning whistle fingerings very easy. The dulcimer is a modal instrument, like the whistle, and if you use a D-a-dd Mixolydian tuning, each fret on the dulcimer has a corresponding hole on the D whistle. The two sound good together too!
(Not that I can play both at once! 
)
Umm, I’m another one. I went from trombone to euphonium to tuba. Played tuba for quite a while too. I think the taste and smell of brass and valve oil got into my blood. Maybe that’s why I like brass whistles. Probably just as well I changed instruments though. While my wife loves the sound of my Hoover narrow bore on the boat, she might draw the line at tuba practice below decks.
Mind you, during a fog…
I started on trombone, too, at age 11. From there I went to tuba, upright bass, guitar, bass guitar, french horn, mandolin, violin, congas, chapman stick, whistle, low whistle, flute. My specialty for most of my life has been bass (upright and bass guitar), but for the last 3 years I’ve been doing nearly all of my gigging on chapman stick (which does great as a bass plus much more), and lately all I practice is whistles and flute.
This is truly strange. I started with trombone in the 6th grade and switched to euphonium in high school and college. Now (25 years later) I discovered whistle and flute. Did all whistle players start on trombone?
I didn’t start on the trombone, but I do date a euphonium player!
Gogo,
Dating a low brass player?!?! Get out while you can!!! 
Tom (a low brass player)
Yes I played trombine for a long time
and the move to whistle isn’t all that strange. I think it has something to do with the trombone being basiccaly one Looooong tube and the whistle being looong tube both shaped in a rather, um, distinctive way. The only drawback to the whistle is it doesn’t get longer when you play it.
As a fellow trombonist, take my advice and just keep chanting to yourself “It’s a folk instrument- not a woodwind! It’s a folk instrument- not a woodwind! It’s a folk instrument- not a woodwind!” or your brass playing alter-ego will shatter your mind.
I am a tuba player and I still play both tuba and whistle. Love them both. At one time, I had aspirations of becoming an orchestral tuba player. I even have undergraduate and graduate degrees in tuba performance. The orchestral dream never materialized, plus my interests changed. I fell in love with the whistle a number of years ago and have the same passion for it as my tuba. I won’t be pursuing any whistle performance degrees, though.
[ This Message was edited by: claudine on 2002-04-01 12:37 ]
Just a quick note to point out that not all trombones are played from the elbow only. In high school, I messed around some with a keyed 'bone (like a big, deep trumpet with one REALLLL long coil) and in JC I played a bass trombone that had a finger valve to redirect breath through the extra section of tubing.
I also agree with DanD who noted that the mountain dulcimer is a more direct transition to whistle. That, plus in my case a serious case of bagpipe envy without the corresponding deep pockets I would have needed to indulge myself. (If I’d only known what I’d eventually spend on whistles…).
[ This Message was edited by: Chuck_Clark on 2001-12-04 06:05 ]
Hehe, I never thought there’d be this many low brass/brass players out there. Funny that remark about woodwinds: I haven’t touched my 'bone in almost 10 years and I had almost forgotten the woodwind scorn of the serious brass player.
As for valves: tenor-bass and bass trombones are ok, of course, but don’t think you’re a real trombone player if play a valve trombone. Give us a slide! Well, actually, give me a Sindt A.
And a Thin Weasel. And a Silkstone Low D. And… 
As for slide whistles: They have about as much to do with tin whistles as fiddles with pianos (both have strings). Completely different thing…
Um, I used to play a clarinet in middle school. It hasn’t helped in my whistle playing though, as I don’t remember anything about it except how much I disliked the experience, at least towards the end of it anyhow… blech
OK - here’s another of a long list of low brass players now playing whistle. Tuba was my major in college (hence the name Tubafor), and I also play euphonium a bit. Maybe that explains why my whistle collection is really small above low A, but more down to Eb, and I have several low D’s, a couple low C’s, and a low-low Bb and A!
It’s time to get the C & F Low Brass & Whistle Band started!!
Cal
well i never did have a scorne for woodwinds, things may have shifted a bit since your days. or it could be beacase i was the only girl in the brass section so i had to seek them out of the wood winds. now that i think about it we did make fun of aa lot of the wood wind ditzes, especialy the ones i was friends wih. it definitly is why i prefer brass whistles and low whistles.