When I started to learn whistle by myself，i found some articles，they said ，in irish，people study whistles just for Higher Musical Instruments： irish flute ，and Uilleann pipes。
in traditional irish folk band，No special whistle player，Often is the others play it part-time。and if someone want to study irish flute，he often began from whistles for introduction。


Why whistles are disconsider？ just because of the simple structure？

i asked a very skilled chinese whistle player from BEI Jing，he told me， He thinks the expressive of irish wooden flute be more stronger than whistles，so if some one learn whistles，at last，he Have to change to irish flute or uilleann pipes，or else，Can't dig more potential from play whistles。


but ，i just like whistles ，and is not going to play flute or pipes。 i want be a whistle player（Master Grade）。

those ideas from articles make me worried。


What should I do？ still play whistles whole my life，or have to play irish flute or pipes？

what is the “expressive” between whistle and flute？

are you familiar with the term "can of worms"?

the meaning is……？

Most instruments have their quirks. It's part of its character. Art is done through a medium and people have preferences on how they want to make it. Does one look at a charcoal drawing and wonder why they didn't choose a color medium like oil painting or the precision of a photo? Is pencil drawing just something one does only to lay the groundwork to "real" art like watercolor or sculpting, or an art in itself? It seems the same with instruments.

Whistles, were indeed considered second class instruments for a very long time, or at least strarter instruments.
I believe that Mary Bergins first album 'Feadoga Stain' changed that, at least to some extent.
http://www.amazon.com/Feadoga-Stain-Mar ... B000000E5Z

Many now feel that the whistle is worthy of a lifetime of effort and study.
Become a master, the whistles full potential may never be realized.

That said, many who whistle also play other instruments.
Its all good, and its great fun too.

Quite a few people would be happy to just play the whistle for musical satisfaction. Playing with others or for dancers however the whistle is easily drowned out and for that reason there's a move to other instruments, notably the flute.

Don't worry with that my friend!!! Play what you what to play!! Don't give up just because someone says you must do this or that, do what you want to do.

Want to play The Whistle for the rest of your life?! So play it!!

Be your self and be proud to be a WHISTLER!!!!

Can of worms = Many different opinions (some of them may be hostile ) with no perfect answer.

No interest in worms. The whistle should be Ireland's national instrument!



Yes, there is more power, subtlety, flexibility, projection and chromatic with the wooden romantic flute (including simple system and Irish flutes). These aren't good enough reasons to look down on the whistle though. My guess is that marketing makes flutes more attractive. Personally, I prefer the sound of wooden flutes over whistles though.

Cai - the Irish whistle, is more complicated to make than the chinese dizi bamboo flute. Keep playing the whistle if you like pop music

Denny, can of worms? too confusing. Hoffman is trying to convince he'll trade worms used as organic fertilizer in trade for some tea (1:45).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNw1PwlN ... re=related



cai-shao-yang, everyone will differ on what they think about this. play your whistles and have fun, then play your whistles again! enjoy!

Dear Friends,You give me clear direction and now I'm confident, thank you!!

I agree-- play what makes you happy. If you only play whistles forever, that's fine. You may want to learn other instruments and that's fine too. Plenty of GREAT whistlers play whistle and only whistle.

Well I live in Ireland, play regularly in a large session and know lots of musicians so I think I can give you some input into your question. What you heard is correct to a certain extent but those articles you read must not have explained everything properly. Here in Ireland many children start off playing tin whistle in schools because for a start they are a cheap starting instrument, they introduce the child to basic scales and they are very easy to learn a simple tune on, so the child doesn't get bored when they realise they can play a tune very quickly.

It's true that most of these children will either stop playing music altogether or move to a different instrument entirely. However at that stage they will not have reached a high level of whistle playing, they will only have learned the basics. If they decide to move to a new instrument it's not because they are dismissing the whistle as a toy, they would be fully aware that they could continue on with it to a much higher skill level. Very few do because there's so many other choices of instruments used in sessions, so it's simply a matter of choice.

Of all the musicians I know over here in Ireland, I can't think of any that don't also know how to play a whistle to a certain degree, because they all learned it in school. However they wouldn't necessarily be much good at it because they never stuck with it.

It's very true though that knowing how to play a normal whistle will make it easier for you to also start playing low whistles, flutes and pipes if you so wish to expand. These other instruments are of course much harder to play so it's up to you if you want to take on the challenge. I started with normal whistle, then the low whistle and now I'm learning flute. Even if I ever do become any good on the flute that doesn't mean I'll stop playing the normal whistles, it will just be an extra instrument to bring to the session. It's a normal progression and I think you should also consider it. I think in time you'll find yourself wanting to try these other instruments and you might be surprised that they aren't as difficult as you first thought once you have that solid whistle background. I think it would be a shame to play only a whistle for 10 years of your life and not try another instrument that you might have been able to learn much more quickly because of it's similarities.

You can maximize the potential of the whistle by Making your own compositions and incorporate it with your whistle.

I have made a song using a whistle. But I still need accompanying instruments.

Its Rock and Operatic... a bit weird...like me hahaha

Cai, whatever you decide for yourself is the right answer for yourself. I play an assortment of instruments, none very well. Some songs I play, I can make sound better on one instrument than another instrument. Some songs that I play, I can only play on some instruments but not all instruments. Some songs I need to sing, so whistle is not an option. I like keeping my options open.