I heard someone compliment a whistle player the other day by saying, “Pretty soon he’ll be playing out of the side of his mouth.”
What does that mean?
I’m not certain, but it may refer to ‘graduating’ to the flute. Not necessarilly a compliment, if that’s the case.
Edit: It might refer to pipes as well (pipers use the corner of their mouths, flute players don’t) but my feeling about it remains the same. I don’t think it’s a compliment but a snide remark about playing a ‘real’ instrument.
Don’t know what that meant but I do know that I often play out of the side of my mouth, and I know why!
Edit: posted and forgot to add why!
If I play out of the right side of my mouth my arms are in a position that enables my shoulders to be the same height with less tension.
And if I smoked I guess I could leave the cigarette in the left side (see thread on being Irish)
Oh, I blow my whistle to the side too, when I need to get close to the mic. But I still don’t think that’s what it meant.
What the whistle compliment meant I don’t know, but it reminds me of this:
“talk out of both sides of your mouth”, is an idiom in the anglo-american language and involves
saying different things to different people about the same subject. “How can we trust him when he talks out of both sides of his mouth?”
The native americans had a different idiom for the same thing: “Speaking with two tounges”.
- They know a really good player who plays out the side of his mouth, so it’s an inside reference
- Kenny G reference?
I’ve seen quite a few session players who play from the side of the mouth, I think so that their whistle is closer to one ear and they can hear themselves better in larger sessions.
Perhaps this was an indirect way of saying that the player is now session-ready?
–James
More information needed John, I heard someone compliment a whistle player , who was it who said it? Was it another musician, if so what instrument did he play?
No idea what the ‘compliment’ means apart from the guesses above.
I’m with you James. I play out the side just to hear myself better when things get loud. Now it’s a habit. Best, Cyril.
See, I don’t really know the guy. He was sitting in session drinking and listening. I don’t know if he plays. But I know it was a compliment because he said it twice and it was part of a nice, but rather drunken, longer compliment. The player even said he doesn’t know that particular comment means but the guy didn’t elaborate, mainly because he was feeling absolutely no pain.
It seems from the responses here that it might be something that this one guy has invented and not a universal saying. It just sounded like some sort of folk saying type thing.
Perhaps it means he had no idea what he was talking about, but was too bombed to know it. 
I guess a compliment is a compliment, whether it makes any sense or not. Some of us will take what we can get!
Tom
Hi FJohn# :
Paddy Moloney has always played out of the side of his mouth.
Mr. Moloney is a pretty famous tinwhistler. The general public knew who he was long before they heard about Jonnie Madden, even Mary Bergin, along with many others, I’d say. Not necessarily Ireland; I’m talking world-wide.
Who would be a more famous whistler than Paddy ??
Paddy, also a noted piper, has sort of a trademark on the side-of-mouth posture with the whistle; my guess is that the compliment could very well be based on a reference to the Paddy Moloney model, a high standard, indeed. Congratulations on harvesting that compliment. You must be pretty good !!
I noticed Paddy’s style, long ago, and, convinced that it was OK to do, adopted the side posture myself. I found it comfortable, as well as hearing myself better in sessions.
Hope this theory is helpful, Best wishes, Lloyd
This makes sense. But the compliment wasn’t for me, alas. I’m not that good.