I’ve noticed after playing low whistle for a couple of hours in a session, I’ve got a bit of a puddle between my feet. Is this a common problem or do I dribble excessively? What do others do, if anything, to overcome this?
If it is from your stein or your whistle- do not worry.
Keep your whistle pointed -away- from the pretty fiddle player next to you. 
If it’s being a problem, you could use a swab between sets. It’ll probably have to
be about that often too… I don’t play low whistle, but I certainly have this problem
on the flute. Not so much on soprano whistle, which I do play, but sometimes even
there.
-All- wind instruments have these problems… twisted up brass ones can collect it and empty
it all at once. Straight instruments, it just runs right out. That’s why stage performers
are kept back a fair distance from the audience, and pubs with sessions are kept dim.
Which is one of the main reasons people don’t use sheet music in traditional Irish music sessions. I have to be careful when I’m playing whistle and hammered dulcimer at the same time. 
It happens with flutes too. I think it’s just a common condition. If it helps any, most of it is not direct spit. It’s condensation. Maybe it amounts to the same collection of microbes, but at least it’s a little less gross.
Jennie
My whistle dribbles. It might not all be spit, but, and I will spare you the details of my uncontestable (sp) evidence, quite a bit of it is. I think it happens with all wind instruments. I’ve seen trumpet players shake out their trumpets, etc.
Hmmm… name change possibility… the Chiff and Dribble Poststructural Whistle site? 
My bag pipe instructor told me that every one drools a differant amount.
Some have more, and some have less.
I like it!
Jennie
Between your FEET? That’s not too bad. I was piping along cluelessly in Central Park last Fall with the whistle pointed at my lap (oops). I won’t elaborate. I haven’t wished for invisibility since I was in elementary school but that afternoon, I came close. …Fortunately I was in New York.
Six months later I still have to keep reminding myself to point the whistle UP.
Maybe we have an idea for a colorful new Bat Man super-villan: THE DRIBBLER! (“Robin, Look! He’s playing traditional Irish music AND robbing the bank…I’ll stop him!..oh wait…EEEEEW!”)
On a serious note, I just got a Clarke D and it seems to spout most of its’ moisture out the top. Are some whistles less prone to “end dribble” than others?
Yep. There’s a tradition amongst brass and reed players for emptying their instruments out all over the folks in the front row.
Thanks guys, some great replies there. It’s definitely not from my stein as I usually drink Guinness and it wouldn’t be clear 
. (It’s also too expensive to dribble! ).
Jennie, I play dulcimer too and normally hide the bottom of the whistle behind it. The last couple of weeks I only had my whistle at the session with nowhere to hide.
I’ve also had that little problem with the whistle over my lap and, of course, no one believes you 
!! Uilleann pipers often have a piece of leather over their lap and I thought about something like that. I somehow think having a wet sponge on your knee wouldn’t have the same appeal. I do have one low whistle that puts the dribble out of the top of the whistle but this is even worse as it then runs down and wets your fingers or drips of onto your shirt, making it look like you’ve been drooling. Maybe a u-bend at the bottom of the whistle is needed, 
and a glass to empty it into now and then.
Hee hee I’ve found out how to add emoticons :roll: .
This is starting to remind me of the sickeningly funny “Drool Bucket” episode on Saturday Night Live years ago.
“Drool Bucket” Now there’s an idea.
How about an attractive brass spitoon?
Make it “Vintage”, and you can sell them on eBay!
Maybe they could bring back the brass spittoons and rename it a dribbletoon.