So, I’m poking through various songs on session.org and the tuneget webpage looking for things to play on my whistle to practice since I’m still quite amateur.
I get to one song that’s only available in A and I only have a couple cheapy D whistles… but I really like the song. So.. I break out the tenor sax and play through it a few times, then get into it so I play the sax for about an hour.
My lips start to get tired since I’m way out of practice on the sax so I get the whistle back out and start flipping through music again.
I couldn’t hit ANYTHING in the low octave at all lol. I just couldn’t hold the breath back enough and I was hitting every note in the third octave without really trying (much to the chagrin of my pets). After a few minutes I managed to rein in the breath but I’m still puffing out half a lung of air at the end of every section.
Reminded me of when I played bass for a band for about a year at a little club, I never really touched my guitar the whole year since I was busy working on bass and our guitarist was WAY better than me. When I finally picked the guitar back up I could hardly play it for the first hour without looking at the finger board, my fingers were just so used to such a larger scale that I’d end up a fret or sometimes 2-3 if I was low on the board past where I was supposed to.. on the plus side my reach got dramatically better heh.
Lance,
I was learning to read music from a music major at my daughter’s college. She brought her clarinet so that I could try it out. Even with the “beginner’s reed,” I about blew my cheeks out trying to make music. And I was sure glad to switch back to the whistle!
Yep, I know what you mean. After I play flute for awhile; then switch to whistle, I have to pull way back on the puff. Or play mandolin and go back to guitar, I feel like I am on a freeway … I wish more whistles had some back pressure.
I actualy got my hands on a low D at a faire and I was able to hold a note on it about twice as long as the guy that owned (and played the hell out of) it.
Been playin sax about 15 years now and I play the tenor and was an avid marching band geek so I’m used to playing hard, loud, and under strenuous conditions heh. That’s sort of why I’m hunting for a whistle with some back pressure and that can take a serious puff. I wanna be loud and clean
I haven’t posted here in awhile but the issue of switching instruments caught my attention. Today in church on various worship songs I played a Hoover B whistle, Yamaha wind synth (with a violin patch), alto sax, Bleazy Bb whistle, flute, trumpet, and a Susato Hi E whistle. I have found that a moderate amount of practice on the woodwind instruments and whistles keeps me pretty able to do this kind of switching. I find there is a lot of similarity in the woodwind group so there are carry over skills from one instrument to the next and focusing practice on the areas where they differ. Only the trumpet requires regular daily drill for me. I learned to do this back when I was teaching music. I also sing & play keyboard. Upside - I get to play in a wide variey of musical settings. Downside - I get to carry almost as much gear as a drummer and really wish I had more time to practice each.
I feel you there! When I was still in school, and shortly after I was obsessively playing anything I could get my hands on. In one song for a little “open mic” jazz group I put together I started on piano, swapped to sax, then guitar, then the upright, then my soprano, then back to piano and did a little back and forth “duet” with myself on soprano and piano. Since then I’ve been limiting myself to 3 instruments in any professional setting so I can actually take my wife with me instead of making her drive herself cause theres some instrument case sitting in the passenger seat, backseats, and trunk O_O
I haven’t figured out how to do those white boxes of copied text that begin “Someone Wrote” but I want to reply to Lance saying he now limits himself to 3 instruments so he take his wife along. Me -I got a minivan so I could still take all the gear and she can help me carry it. Pray for wife!
PS: I just got an email from someone I met at a conference I played at. She wants me to consider learning to play the duduk and go to Israel to work on a recording project. I had never even heard of this instrument but it does sound interesting. I can’t believe I’m even thinking of looking into it to see how hard it would be to learn.
Downside - I get to carry almost as much gear as a drummer and really wish I had more time to practice each. 