Having just been relegated to a CLOSET!!! in the far upper reaches of my house to practice my whistling I got to thinking-
where does everyone practice? Now granted I was getting a little loud, have been working on Give Me Your Hand and knew that I had loaned my CD with it BUT I found my old vinyl lp(green at that) of the Chieftans with James Galway that has the tune so I dusted off the turntable,cranked it up and was happy as a clam playing alongtill the rest of the household decided they did not enjoy it. How it could interfere with study for national board exams I don’t know but it must have cause I got sent to the closet to practice. I guess next I’ll be sent to the barn.
[ This Message was edited by: cowtime on 2002-01-10 20:08 ]
[ This Message was edited by: cowtime on 2002-01-10 20:09 ]
Practice? Who’s got time for that, what with all the whistle shopping, there’s no time left for actually playing the things. Come on man, get with the WhOA…
Loren
P.S. Bob P., this is my solution to avoiding the Techno-Crap trap.
My family hate me playing. I get chased out of one room after another trying to avoid everyone … it’s horrible.
The only solution I can suggest, and the one I’m working on, is move the family into a new how that will have an acoustically insulated room just for you to play music in.
Same thing happened to me…one after another my family members told me how much my whistling irritated them. So I finally decided to fix the problem…kicked 'em all out. Now I can play as much as I want!
Just use the complaints to justify getting some more whistles - quieter ones like a couple of Hoovers, a laughing whistle, a silkstone (goldring or something is supposed to be quiet, I think)…
You could start a donation fund…“Save the Ears! Donate to the Quiet Whistle Foundation…”
I’d prefer to pratice in the den, as it’s MY room, complete with computer and comfy chair . . . but my conure doesn’t like to be disturb. She does not like my playing and lets me know.
However, my mother DOES like to hear me play, so I usually sit on the couch, pull up my music stand, put on some MST3K on the TV and just sputter away. Occasionally, she’ll remark that she thought it was the tutorial tape playing and not me praticing. That makes my evening. Moms are great!
I do a large percentage of practicing in the car. (stopped at lights, never moving) We have a severe gridlock problem in the DC area, so it gives me something to do besides fume at the situation, plus it gets a lot of either funny looks or smiles from other commuters.
At home, I mercifully don’t have the same problems as many. My wife plays the flute, and our seven-month-old beams that wonderful toothless grin as soon as she sees a whistle in my hands. So I do a lot of playing along with discs and practicing reading music when she’s awake. She is a budding young bodhran (and baby xylophone) player.
My wife ignores me on the first octave of the little D whistle. I get evil looks on the second octave. My dogs are sometimes interested in both. Two lab mastiffs less than a year old.
They will take up flanking positions right next to me while I practice the didjeridu or the whistle. If I get a good drone on the didj or hit all of my intended notes on the whistle they sit quiet. If I screw up the drone or squeak out a bad note the ears go up and the singing starts.
When they sing they sound like two drunks. A 100 pound and a 90 pound animal singing a low groaning growl/howl. It continues long after the bad drone or note, so it is an incentive to get it right.
I can’t figure out why they don’t sing when I get it right. Maybe the correct key for canine music is off key?
I guess I am fortunate to have a wife who can devote 100 percent attention to me when I am sane (That is not playing a didj or whistle), or 100 percent tune me out when I’m doing my goofy hobbies.:roll:
What is it with families and whistles??? Do wwe really sound that bad? A great place to practice is at the laundromat. I do it all the time…people either smile or move closer to the sound of the driers… Gm
New York City offers a variety of good practice places. I live in a high rise apartment building with two separate, spacious (though unheated) garages. The accoustics are great–I get a lot of echo. I can see out, but passersby cannot see in, and it is a joy to watch folks stop and look around for the source of the music.
The sweet spot of a favorite venue–the tunnel of Chambers Street Station on the proverbial “A Train” line–is temporarily under a lot of rubble due to you know what (9/11). I look forward to the day when a few dozen whistlers assemble there to exorcise the bad mojo. Central Park and its lesser known cousin, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, both have some great underground walkways a few dozen yards in length which also provide some fine natural reverb.
New York City–The Whistler’s Paradise.
If anyone wants a photo of the ‘new view’ of lower Manhattan, drop me a line (tomdowl@aol.com). I got a new digital camera and have captured some decent shots of the injured tip of Manhattan at sunrise. The view is not the same as the one on the bottom of the front page of C&F.
Cowtime,
Thanks for starting this thread. I had no idea of all the fun and interesting places people practice!
I, too, do the practice at the traffic light thing, especially if I have just gotten a new whistle and can’t wait to try it out as soon as I leave the store. Luckily, at home my family doesn’t (at least not yet) mind my practicing.
I practice in my room mostly. My mom doesn’t get too bothered by my playing even when I practice outside, but she sometimes thinks that the old Irish trad stuff I turn on when I use the computer is noisy and irritating.
Like they say, “All is not music to the whistler’s mom” (or something to that effect)
[ This Message was edited by: Eldarion on 2002-01-11 01:15 ]
While visiting over Christmas, my 3 year old niece (who loved the whistle at first) made me put my whistle away because I played with it more than I did with her. So we painted together and I did a wonderful picture of my new Hoover whistle. I told them it was a quiet whistle and they should be glad that I hadn’t brought my others. I proudly put my drawing on the fridge and when I woke up the next morning they had drawn the “no whistle playing” symbol around it.
So I was banned from playing in the house…and on Christmas morning my niece was the proud owner of a high G whistle!
On 2002-01-10 21:53, mamakash wrote:
I’d prefer to pratice in the den, as it’s MY room, complete with computer and comfy chair . . . but my conure doesn’t like to be disturb. She does not like my playing and lets me know.
Another person with a bird who can out shriek the worst whistle! My caique ‘grew up’ next to a jenday conure, and learned that hideous, piercing call which she uses with devastating results when she decides enough is enough. The macaw usually tolerates my whistling fairly well.
Where do I play? In the kitchen mostly. I like the acoustics, and can clean a little, play a little, cook a little, interact with the birds. After birdie bedtime I move upstairs to Tyghre’s computer room, but only with the A or lower. He doesn’t have enough hair to spare .
Back in '91 when I took up the whistle my cat would seek me out and bite me!!!
She hated it. Now the dog would just go to another room. Back then we rented a house and it was a very cozy house. Not many places to practice. My husband never complained (although he would laugh at me when the cat would make me stop.)
Well since then… sadly the cat has passed on. (I hope it was not my whisling… ) The dog is going deaf.
We own a house…well the bank still owns it
I do all of my playing in my room. Have not heard any complaining from the family. Every now and then the kids start doing a jig. Not sure if they are enjoying the music or just making sport of me. They are teen-agers. Sometimes it’s hard to tell exactly their motives.
I too have found that the car is good - you don’t even need to drive anywhere. If you can’t change venue you can maybe change whistle - either a quieter make as has been suggested (Hoover, etc), or a lower key. Also since no one’s mentioned it yet, I’ll add that whistle mutes are possible - search the board with keyword “mute” and you’ll find a couple of pertinent discussions.
