This has probably been done a hundred times, so apologies for a re-play if so, but what are some of your first inspirations for picking up a whistle and playing it?
AND, what are some of your inspirations to KEEP playing the whistle?
I’ll go first: The one thing the kept me vigilantly and frustratingly going on whistles, was wanting to learn “those darned fluttery cool sounds (ornamentations) on that faster song”.
What was that tune you ask? What was that piece of inspirational whistle perfection that kept me mystified and awestruck?
A tune entitled “Dinky’s reel” by a group SADLY now defunct called “180 and the Letter G”
it’s actually Dinky’s, Otter’s Holt, and something else I’m not sure of (let me know)
So hey there Brett… You-da-man!!!
You have to understand that when I very first started out playing I was unaware of people like the lovely Ms. Madden, The Chieftains, and so many more. I first heard the pennywhistle in soundtracks and movies like Titanic and knew nothing of it’s origins until I started searching on the web which fortunately led me to 180 and the Letter G’s inspirational track they left behind that sent me headlong into my whistle future! From that point on I immediately fell in love with the whistle, found other artists, histories, etc.
I have only just now started to become proficient enough in ornamentation (after having to relearn everything CORRECTLY )to even attempt a tribute to “Dinky’s reel” as done by 180, but I’m almost there, and It’ll always be my fav.!!
I took up the whistle not as an end in itself but because I wanted to play the U pipes. If there was one person who inspired me, it was Liam O’Flynn. I quickly wanted to play whistle like him, and I still do.
I no longer want to play pipes, but I have taken up the flute. My inspirations there are probably Chris Norman, Deirdre Havlin, and Seamus Egan.
I know – absolutely no hope of playing like any of them. But it can sure be fun trying.
I’ve got an album I got for my B-day a few years ago - “James Galway and The Chieftains - In Ireland” and the version of Crowley’s Reel just drives me nuts! Someday… maybe in my dreams!!!
Between him, Paddy and Matt — oh yeah, gotta be one of the coolest multi-wind instrument tunes I’ve ever heard that was just flute/whistle.
Hi John: My band plays a medley of Flowers of Edinburgh/Convenience/Dinky’s. Its pretty much my big dang deal whistle tune. I use triple tongues instead of rolls in Dinky’s which sounds pretty crisp and reminds me of Altan or somethin. Its my favorite tune in a way because its so percussive and lively.
But, and I have stated this before, the model of playing that inspires me to this day, is Paul Mcgrattan playing Christmas Eve medley on the Frost is All Over. I still want to play that fast, that freely. Not there yet, but that’s the goal.
I grew up in NYC and attended Catholic school. We put on St. Pattys Day show every year. My HS, Power Memorial Academy (think Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), marched in the parade every year down 5th Av. All of the neighborhood bars growing up were Irish.
That was 30-40 years ago.
2 1/2 years ago, I was in St Augustine FL and hit a few Irish bars. One of them had a few people gathered in a session. None of them played a single tune on the whistle, but my hostess had a tin-whistle at here house that I “fiddled” with later that night. Getting the feel of the sound…
I decided to learn to play the tin-whistle and have been playing ever since.
Why the whistle and not Irish music on guitar (which I know how to play)? I dont know.
I came to the whistle by way of recorder, which I still avidly play. One night I heard the Chieftans on Saturday Night Live and I was hooked on Irish music just like that. Whistle seemed like the natural choice of instrument. Not too long afterwards, I came across Bill Ochs’ Clarke Tinwhistle book which was a big help, and an amazing cooincidence since I had known Bill about 20 years earlier. The final nail in my musical coffin was a performance at a local community college by Patrick Ball on Celtic harp. He was accompanied by whistler and piper Tim Britton who totally blew me away. We don’t hear too much about Tim which is too bad because he’s as good as they come.
I came to whistle via the flute. What keeps me at it is its simplicity. It is a break from the flute. A bit like walking out of work into a sunny Autumn day. Refreshing.
I was told I had no musical talent as a child by a teacher, and I resented that all my life.
Proving them wrong was my first motive, and feeding a serious itch to learn was the second. As a baby I had music, classical and strangely ITM played at me (who thru the overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s chowder…etc…) and maybe it stuck there because I love classical, and I love ITM. Talk about programing.
The Irish Rovers, and particularly Will Millar. I’d wanted to play a wind instrument for ages, but came from a poor family that didn’t have a lot of disposable income for instruments and lessons. I loved the Irish Rovers TV show on CBC and, when I saw a “little flute just like the one Will Millar plays” in a music store (at a price I could afford!), I snapped it up. Had it not been for the Irish Rovers, I might have dismissed it as a toy, but I knew the kinds of sounds that could come out of it in the right hands. Some of my first tunes came off Irish Rovers albums…particularly King of the Faeries, Rakes of Mallow and MoMhuirnin Ban (sp?).
Anyway, my first inspiration was the guy who plays whistle in Paul Simon’s Graceland album. From what i read in this site, that is probably Kwela style but what a sound! Coming from that little recorder like metal thing! That was my first time i heard and saw a whistle.
A horrible Generations made by Satan almost nipped my career in the bud, but i was saved by Sweetone and later by Tarzan himself, aka Lord Michael Burke.
I already played flute when i started with whistle: classical and bamboo flutes, quenas, zamponas, all kinds of ethnic flutes. Irish flute came yet later, through Matt Molloy’s “black album”, still for me the best flute album ever made.
I went to a pub to hear a local band (Hogeye Navvy) that plays Celtic & folk, & sea shanties. They have a terrific tinwhistle/flute player named Dmitri Alano. I’d never heard a tinwhistle played in a live venue before that, and I was hooked immediately! So, he was, and still is, an inspiration to keep working at it.
If anyone’s interested, he’s posted a set of reels on the Clips 'N Snips site. It’s a non-professional recording (Pile of Bricks/Cooley’s/Crawford’s, fifth cut down on the list) from a live show:
My inspirations are Matthew Bivins of an indie folk/rock band that used to do Irish trad., and still perform it occasionally. It’s called Jump, Little Children and they’re my favorite band ever. My first whistle, a lovely silver Overton in D, was named after him.
My other main inspiration was Andrea Corr… I know the Corrs aren’t technically Irish trad. by FAR anymore, but I’ve always been more into Celtic Rock, and I still enjoy some of the Corrs’ material, particularly their two earlier CD’s.
Actually, one of my favorite whistle sets is by a relatively unknown band called Amergin. I picked up their CD while in Ireland because I really liked their rendition of “Ho Ro Johnny,” which doesn’t have a single whistle in it! To my pleasant surprise, I found a KICKBUTT reel set hidden in the middle of that CD: Bells of Tipperary/Galway Rambler. Just a Tin Whistle, Bodhran and Bouzouki. Awesome stuff. Rolls for days
My introduction to whistling was almost 30 years ago, when I became interested in traditional music. I had the luck to attend a Texas folk music festival that featured such folks as The Boys of the Loch. I got to meet them while my then boyfriend’s band hung out and they all took turns seeing who could get the drunkest and still manage to play well… it was amazing, LOL!
Meeting Cathal McConnel was inspirational. I can still see those coke-bottle lensed eyes alternating between the face talking to him and the blue silk clothed chest that face was floating over, LOL!.. I’m sure he doesn’t remember me, LOL!, but I will likely always have that pic in my memory. He was phenominal to listen to, and I might mention that, as I recall, he won the above mentioned competition.
Anyway, I played flute and saxaphone in high school, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch to move to whistle. (couldn’t locate my flute during those migratory times) I’ve played with them (flutes and whilstes)sporatically ever since. BTW, I only very rarely attempted to find out just how far into the bottle I could go and still play (note that I’m leaving off the ‘well’ part here), and that was usually the bass fiddle, which is much handier for leaning on than most whistles.
Hey! Then I grew up! Luckily, I also eventually outgrew that boyfriend.
Boy, am I glad there’s an ‘edit’ feature here - LOL! I can’t spell worth a %&$#
You probably already know this, but Tim Britton is a member of the group Chulrua, along with Paddy O’Brien and Pat Egan. I had the chance to see them a few weeks ago at the University of Hartford. They were excellent. Tim is fabulous.
Here is a link to Chulrua’s site, for those interested.
I have listened to Irish music on and off all my life. A lot of it was of the American commercial made for immigrants type. In about 1982 I became more conscious of my Irish roots while I was living in Newport, RI where ethnic background is a matter of pride. One day I was in an Irish shop down near the Brickmarket and I saw an Irish Whistle called a Feadan. It was only about $7 and was made in Ireland so I bought it. I fooled around with it for a while but put it up and didn’t play it again until I returned from Ireland in May of 2002. I still didn’t get serious about it until I found C&F. I have been struggling along now since the first of the year and now I hope to keep Whistling.
)to even attempt a tribute to “Dinky’s reel” as done by 180, but I’m almost there, and It’ll always be my fav.!! 
almost nipped my career in the bud, but i was saved by Sweetone and later by Tarzan himself, aka Lord Michael Burke.