Is it just me or do you have your good and bad days when playing your whistle?
I have gotten down the Exile’s Jig and in the excitement of getting down all the notes, I played it over and over again yesterday…almost flawlessly.
I was craving to play that tune today at work but, alas, when I get home, picked up my whistle, and played…I just plain sucked!!! I feel as if I had forgotten the notes and my rhythm was just…ick.
Anyone else get that?
I definitely have “off” days.
Sometimes the fingers just won’t listen.
My teacher at music college used to say that once you had got your head round a piece, it’s time to start on “muscle memory”. To this end, he suggested I place a copy of the newspaper on the music stand and read it whlst playing difficult pieces. This stops your brain dwelling on how tricky the piece is and frees your fingers (who already know how to play it, as they’ve done it before) to repeat the piece over and over, free of any brain-induced sabotage. Nowadays I often practise in front of some drivel on the telly.
That’s a good bit of advice chief - I used to walk round and round my house playing my guitar to learn things - I’ll give the TV thing a go - better-yet I’ll read COntraversial topics on C&F!
BTW Silverstrand - where are you sourcing Exiles-Jig? The only bits I can find online seem to be wrong - I’m using the Alan Stivell recording and trying to translate from harp. This is like THE TUNE that has brought me back to ITM and it’s been very frustrating finding versions 
I seem to have more mediocre days than great ones.
I first heard the Exile’s Jig on the album ‘Greatest Irish Songs’ and Sweeney’s Men perform the tune. And I found a similiar version on the session.org:
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/1327
Is that perhaps the version you were looking for? If not…I want to hear that other version.
I had a good day playing the whistle in 1998. That was about it.
Dale
Must be all those shots in the head from your whistle instructor! 
One of the joys of being an infernal newbie (with no instructor) is that I haven’t learned enough to tell whether or not I’m playing well - no, I don’t want to spoil it by recording myself! 
That really is good advice.
I have picked up so much good info just hanging out here at the Chiffboard. Thanks, all.
[quote=“Dale “The Undisputed” Wisely”]
I had a good day playing the whistle in 1998. That was about it.
[/quote]
Given his passion for all things whistle, I’ll lay odds that “The Undisputed” is selling himself short . . .
I have half a bad day every evening. I usually play for 10-20 minutes before I go to work in the morning and I am usually pleased with my playing. In the evening, after I have spent 6-7 hours in front of a computer my hands are shot. I’ll try to play and after 5 minutes I’ll be making so many basic, elementary goofs that I just quit for the day. In fact, I gauge how tired my arms are by how many mistakes I’m making. It’s a good thing I don’t have to make my living playing the whistle.
For me, any day playing the whistle is a helluva better day than not. insert emphatic smiley here
Dale, I like your Million Little Whistles avatar. Not to dispute The Undisputed, but are you sure you really have a million little whistles or are you just lavishly embellishing the truth to gain notoriety?
Emphatically and undeniably yes, I have good and bad whistle days, and beyond that, I have good and bad whistle months I think.
I will occasionally play a tune and say to myself “just stop now…you’re not going to play anything better than that today”.
And then something will happen, and suddenly I can’t reliably hit high notes without screwing something up, or a tune that I have had note perfect for months suddenly won’t come into my fingers.
Bad whistle days, bad fiddle days, bad hair days, bad dog days…you name it.
Nowadays I often practise in front of some drivel on the telly.
I do that, too, with the closed caption turned on. I read and play at the same time. The diversion helps my fingering to be more relaxed because I am not concentrating so hard on playing. At the same time, it makes me feel like a less serious whistler for doing so.
I just washed my fiddle and I can’t do a thing with it!
Doesn’t this kind of take any feeling out of a musical piece (both for you and the listener)? I just love it when I get lost playing O’Connell’s Lamentation or Lovely Nancy, or on a bad day playing a few songs where I can really pound that high A on my fife.
Boy, I sound like a flake.
Well, maybe during that playing of it, but the point is to commit it to muscle memory so that you can infuse the piece with maximum feeling when you truly throw yourself into it–an ability which I believe is hampered by a reliance on sheet music. A sad and unfortunate weakness of mine.
The thing is that you can get lost to your heart’s content in the comfort of your own room, and we all have to do that if we are in love with music. We also have to like our own playing if we:-
A: want to keep doing it.
B: harbour ideas of playing to anyone else.
The purpose of practice disciplines is that, if you want people to part with their hard-earned cash to listen to you play - whether live or by some recorded medium - you’d better be damn sure you’re playing very well.
A fortunate side-effect of endless practice is that you gradually acquire more and more technique, resulting in your playing dreams coming closer and closer. An unfortunate side-effect, however, is that, like infinity and absolute zero, you never quite get there.
Still, it’s the thrill of the chase, isn’t it?
I get lost in music and my motivation is doing the music justice. I do not play professionally and have no concerns about people parting with “hard-earned cash”. I just hope that others can get a glimpse into the way I feel about my music when I play as I feel.
Yes, I do realize that the search for perfection is endless, but I think you are on a different path to the same goal. I guess I was concerned about the muscle memory being too detached and mechanical, especially when you do not even pay attention to what you are playing to provide feeling to music.
Hi I.D. I think what the Chief is describing is a building block on the way to “performing” whether the performance is payed or if the audience is only your good self. In my experience on classical guitar (and whistle too I hope), the step of making the tune as mundane as scratching an itch gives the player a landscape where performance can exist - to me performance is the place where the emotions get involved and the player expresses themselves. True, there is magic in the tune, also true that there is magic in the technique, but it is the performance that harmonises these and binds-in the player(s) so the whole thing is a unit. Mind you, I fully acknowledge that the tunes and technique, by themselves, posess imense power and magic 
. I also agree that performance is a subject of focus for professional players, but it is not their exclusive domain.
I’ve had similar experiences with a whistle at the end of a long day when I’m brain drained. 
Now, I’m mostly learning flute - and I never know for sure what will be coming out. 2 steps forward, 1.6285 steps back. 