WhOA got me?

First post. :slight_smile:

About 1½ month ago, i decided that NOW i wanted to learn some Irish traditional music. I went on a quest to all music shops in town and searched the net for possible sellers here in Denmark.

I ended up with a cheap Meg in D and now i have a C too + a Generation F. (Mistake buy, but it sounds good, so i’m not giving it away to any friends yet, they’re all mine, my preciouss..)

Already i have fallen in love with the Burke Viper and both Sweetheart Pro and Resonance. I have begun my quest for finding a cheap low D to practice on before i try to convince my bank account to fall in love with the mentioned Low D’s.

Any advice, both on the cheap low D’s and finding a cure for WhOA before i go bankrupt? :stuck_out_tongue:

(current max funds for a cheap low D is about 40-60$)

Here is my advice (not that you’ll like it): play hi Ds and Cs for at a year or two before starting on a low whistle.

Why the wait?

I spend several hours a day having fun with my current whistles, but i’ve always loved the “low sound”, which is the reason for me wanting to get a cheap one for starters.

What i’m asking for is recommendations on the cheaper ones. I like the “pure” sounding ones. I’ll be happy for any advice people give. :slight_smile:

Why the wait? Because before you can play a high whistle, you won’t be able to play a low whistle. Every movement is easier on the high whistle.

The cheapest Low D I know of can be obtained from Daniel Bingamon. http://www.tinwhistles.us/jubilee/jubilee.htm

I’ll have to agree with Bloomy on this. Get some good chops on a D first.

Ditto, except that I’ll pitch a vote for the C and Bb whistles. They’re still easy to play, and tend to p*ss off the family a bit less. As a tinnitus sufferer, I can also attest that they put a bit less stress on the eardrum.

If the cash is burning a hole in your pocket, I’d steer you toward a really good C or Bb, (like maybe a Burke or Hoover). Low whistles are great, but flutes still rule the lower registers, IMHO.

Baah! Ignore those people with their little tooters :smiley: , If you want to play a low whistle, then play a low whistle! Welcome to the dark side! Or should I say low side? As I state on my website, a low whistle is not a high whistle, and is not played the same. The fingering is different (pipersgrip) and the air/breath support required is different. Even if you spend a year playing high whistles, you will still have to “learn” to play a low whistle. If anything, I think it would be easier to learn low whistle first, than go to high whistles, they would seem easy in retrospect! (for more of my arguments on this subject, go to http://pipersgrip.50webs.com/F.A.Q..html)

A good, pure sounding low whistle for not much money is the Dixon abs low D. They also have a slightly smaller finger stretch and smaller holes compared to other low D’s.

Ha.

  1. Should I learn the “High” whistle before I learn the Low whistle?

It is a common misconception, in my not so humble opinion, that one should learn how to play the “high” whistle before learning how to play the low whistle. While it can certainly be argued that learning to play the high whistle may be a somewhat easier task, being able to play one does not necessarily give you a leg up on learning how to play the Low whistle. High whistles are generally played using the pads of the fingertips, where low whistles are generally played using the pipers grip (see Technique section). Having instilled into ones muscle memory how to play using the fingertips, one would then have to “re-train” their fingers, compared to a complete beginner who would just learn the pipers grip from the start. Further more, not all fingering on a Low whistle is exactly the same as a High whistle, and the air requirements and breath control required to play each instrument is very different as well. This is not to say that a High whistler cannot or should not learn the Low whistle, simply that no one should feel obligated to learn the high whistle in order to learn the Low. This can most aptly be demonstrated by the fact that most professsional Low whistle players tend to be pipers first, not high whistle players.
But most importantly, if you, like myself, are drawn to the Low whistle for it’s intrinsic attributes, and maybe feel that High whistles are, well, too high (dare I say shrieky?), then why waste your time learning an instrument that you’re not really interested in playing and just go straight for the good stuff!

LOL. The pipers grip and breath support and the occasional quirky cross fingerings are the least of it. Those are easily learned, in a week or a month. What learning the whistle actually means is precision, rhythm, phrasing, ornamentation, variation. That’s the work that needs to be done and it is easier to do on the high whistle.

That said, if you only want to play low whistle, and particularly if you are going to play Sally Gardens and My Heart Will Go On, you’re right: don’t bother with the high whistle.

If the things that differentiate a low whistle from a high whistle are so “easily” learned, than why would it matter which type of whistle the rest of the techniques were learned on? Rhythm, phrasing and variation are not even idiomatic to whistles, they are basic music skills that are required on any instrument, and therefore do not apply to this argument. As to precision and ornamentation, I would again point out that finger position is significantly different on a low whistle than a high, and one would have to acclimate ones fingers (which are after all directly reponsible for creating precision and ornamentation) to a low whistle wether you’d played a high whistle or not.
And my final argument will always remain, if you want to play a low whistle, why would you waste time learning a different instrument you did not want to play first? Thats like saying you have to play a violin before learning to play a cello!

Ha yourself!

Bloomy speaks the truth,

Serious proficiency requires serious commitment.

Jumping right into low whistle as a newbie will markedly lengthen your journey to becoming Joannie Madden.

Question is how serious do you want to be.

Doc

anyone with a clue
would listen to Bloo

Answer me this then. Why are most professional low whistle players pipers or flute players, not high whistle players first?

Davy Spillane
Finbar Furey
Emer Mayock
Fraser Fifield
Brendah Ring
John McSherry

Need I go on?

Bloomfield is highly intelligent, well educated and a fine whistle player.

does that version of what I said before sit better with you? :laughing:

Oooh, way to support an argument, are we resorting to name calling now?

Ah, I see, my opinion is worthless due to my comparative lack of experience. So we’re newbie bashing, not name calling. Thanks for clearing that up. I don’t remember bringing Bloomfields credentials into question with my arguments.

naw…I was just tryin’ to be cute, eh :smiley:

errr…medit8b1 speaks the truth too.

It all boils down to dilution of effort and focus.

I’m a good whistler. The reason I’m not a fabulous whistler is because I’m also a good guitarist, mandolinist, fluter, low-whistler, piper (OK…maybe not “good” per se), concertinaist (is that a even a word?) etc,etc,etc…

In my case good is the enemy of best…jack of all musical trades, master of none. But you know, it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. I’m having a great time making music and folks clap when I do it.

Much as I love her, I will never be Joannie Madden. This is probably for the best as I really don’t look that great in pantyhose.

Take home message:

If you want a low-D get one. If you want to be a great player of any instrument focus intently on that instrument.

As for me, I’ve always considered all my various musical instruments to be my friends. I’m afraid if I get too serious with one of them it will ruin our relationship. :stuck_out_tongue:

Bloomy and Medi are both absolutely correct in their assertions. They’re proselyting two different paths. Choose the path you want.

Doc

hee hee :smiley:

getting a bag of popcorn and pulling a chair up to the desk.

I am a learner of whistling from low D to high D. I have been a learner for 3 years. Considering myself an ordinary person with ordinary learning ability, I’d still side with Bloo.

The more I learn, the more I appreciate Bloo. 2 years ago I didn’t understand his devotion to Overton whistles - now I own 5. But I’d still like to show him my Reyburns.

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Sorry I got heated :blush: , I just hate having my opinions dismissed instead of debated, which I thought was part of the function of this forum, ie. the discussion and debate of opinions and ideas. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, and I suspect that in this instance we will have to agree to disagree. It is only logical to give more weight to the opinion of someone with more experience, but I don’t think that automatically invalidates the opinion of someone with less.