I thought I’d go ahead and introduce myself thoroughly, then ask a couple of questions. (Warning: It seems to have gotten rather long, so you may want to just stop reading here.)
My name is Mike Wright. I’m 61 years old, retired from the US Army in 1982 (with 20 years in, and as an MI MSG for those who might care), now a sort of self-employed (AKA unemployed) Mac programmer. I was born in Texas and partly raised there, as well as in some other Gulf Coast states, but have been in California since my retirement. I speak a bit of Japanese and a couple of Chinese languages, but no Gaelic.
I’ve played guitar for about 40 years, mostly flatpicking Bluegrass and fiddle tunes for the past 30. That includes only a handful of Irish tunes, done in a style that surely no ITM player would find acceptable. I’ve also played mandolin, 5-string banjo, and bass in Bluegrass bands, and even a little fiddle, long, long ago. (If you’re interested in flatpicking, I have a Web site on the subject. Check out my tablature and sound files at http://www.coastalfog.net/flatpick/tablature/tab_main.html )
I’ve played a bit on Chinese bamboo flutes and wooden whistles over the past 30-some-odd years, but mostly just Chinese and Appalachian folk songs, with no particular ideas about style or technique. I also have a little all-cedar pentatonic whistle, a Choroi, from Sweden, given to me by a friend about 25 years ago. I’ve spent a fair amount of time with it.
None of my flutes and whistles are much in tune. The Choroi is pretty unstable if you blow hard enough to bring it up to pitch. (It’s tuned D E G A B d e, and I can hit g–sort of, and something that vaugely resembles F#. Half-holing works, but I’m not very good at it on any but the slowest tunes.)
Finally, I owned a standard silver flute for a short while, but didn’t like it much. The higher octaves got too weird.
I can read standard notation haltingly for guitar and mandolin.
I’ve seen cheap pennywhistles in music stores, and thought about getting one, but never followed through, not really knowing much about them. Then, about a week back, I went to a Web site to check on building my own CR-123A batteries for my Nikon speedlight, noticed the there was a page on tin whistles, clicked the link, saw a Copeland, and it was all over. I searched the Web, found this board and some other sites, and read for hours and hours.
So, now I have three high D whistles on their way (Feadog, Clarke original, Dixon tunable [but not with the brass slide]), along with L.E. McCullough’s “Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tutor” w/CD, and Walton’s “Ireland’s Best Slow Airs” w/CDs. I expect all but the Clarke to arrive on Jan. 6, and the Clarke by the 9th.
In the meantime, I’ve been visiting Web sites, listening to lots of music, and reading instructions–just to get my mind in gear. Based on what I saw here, I read through Brother Steve’s site, and that led me to the Sessioneer’s site. I used my Choroi to try out a few things, but the fingering is so different that most of it didn’t apply.
My last point is that I am pretty much house-bound. My wife is bed-ridden (from a stroke over 5 years back), so I seldom manage to get out of the house, except when my son can cover for me–and he tends to be pretty busy. I have some friends who come over occasionally for Bluegrass-oriented jam sessions, but don’t expect to get involved with other whistlers at all.
As a result, my main interest is in slow airs. If I get really comfortable with the whistle, I may branch out, but I don’t have much interest in sitting around playing jigs and reels by myself. I know most of the tutorials on the Web will concentrate on those, but I can live with that.
So that’s my situation–now for the questions.
Does anyone here use thumb rests? I’ve ordered one for my Dixon, but they don’t come small enough for the Feadog or the Clarke. I’m sure I could fabricate some for those two. I suppose my real question is whether there are any arguments against using a thumb rest–other than “real Irish musicians don’t use thumb rests”.
Are there any tutorials that concentrate pretty heavily on slow airs–printed or on the Web? I’d guess that the airs tend to be a bit less defined than the other forms, so perhaps they’re hard to generalize for teaching purposes?
I think the Walton’s CDs will provide me with a lot of listening. Is there anything else that I absolutely should have in that style? I don’t mind if there are a few other types of tunes included.
I hope to restrain my already growing WAD (whistle acquisition disorder) for several months while I go though tutorials and learn the whistles I already have, but it’s probably hopeless. Given my preference for slow airs, which whistles would y’all recommend? My taste runs to mounful with, maybe, just a touch of stridency.
I want to play things that will make people cry (but not from terrible tone). Although I assume that a really advanced player can do whatever he or she desires with about any whistle, I’d prefer to start with something that I don’t have to fight with to get the sound I want. (All this is assuming that my brain is not alread too petrified to learn a whole new instrument.)
Having few other vices, I’m not too worried about price, but it seems that I’ve seen it mentioned that some of the higher end whistles can be quite a bit harder to play, so just getting the most expensive may not be the way to go at this stage in my (lack of) development.
Sorry for rambling on, but I figgered I might as well be clear about what I was asking, and why. Thanks to those who have read this far. I’ll try to be briefer in future posts.
. They have been great in support and every time I read more postings, I learn more valuable information. My birthday is fast approaching and hitting 60 this month. Also just moved here from Sacramento a year ago. They also warned me about WHoA. And try as I might, I still caught it 
