I am new to this sight and this question has, more than likely, been asked before. So, if you are bored with the answer then don’t respond. What is the very first tune you learned to play on your very first whistle? Irish, Tin, Penny, Flagelet or Fipple flute; whichever you voted. Flagelet - FLAG’ELET, n. [L. flatus, by corruption or Gr. oblique, and a flute.] A small flute; a small wind instrument of music.
Mine was - Amazing Grace It is still one of my favorites and usually when I play the whistle that one comes out at some time. Not only because of the beautiful melody, but because of the absolute truth of the words.
Misc. christmas songs. They are easy to learn and I know them. Knowing the tune is very important to me since I cannot hear the music when I read it.
Silent night, God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen, and Jingle bells where among the first.
(If anyone knows of a place to find O’ Holy Night free sheetmusic please let me know.)
My first Irish song was the Irish Washerwoman and it was fun to learn!
The first known tune of any complexity that I learned was “The Southwind.” I heard it, and learned by ear. Later, I found out that my arrangement was a half octave lower than the original. Good thing too, because I would have never been able to hold the high notes on my Clarke C original, and may have given up the instrument.
“The Sally Gardens”
This was the first though before I already not bad played on a recorder.
Now I in hands do not take it, I am completely absorbed by whistle, and is happy with it
I would have to say Amazing Grace as well. I am pretty good at the tunes that I know what they are supposed to sound like, but I am intimidated by anything I have never heard before. I don’t read music very well yet, so I am always afraid that I will learn the songs “wrong” and will never know until someone points out that I have messed it all up.
Is there anyone else who truly cannot remember their first whistle? I came to this music and this instrument through the back door. Whistle came sometime after my first recorder, which I found in my grandmother’s attic when I was in eighth grade. And my first “tune” on that was one of the faster movements of a Handel sonata (in 6/8 time, which I had always loved, so coming close to a jig anyhow).
But I can’t remember getting a whistle, or starting to play Irish music. And that sonata was probably the first thing I’d ever memorized to play.
Something traumatic must have happened to block those memories.
The first one I learned was probably “The Sally Gardens”. Before that I played a variety of songs that I already knew–Chinese, Scottish folk, Old-timey, and blues.
