Chiff and Fipple Forums

After figuring it would arrive on Tuesday, I received my new Feadóg whistle this morning. Much to my surprise, it also came with a book. Compared to the book that came with my Walton's Irish Whistle, the book that came with the Feadóg seems to cover technique a little more in-depth, and having lyrics printed underneath some fingering diagrams are helpful. (However, the book that came with the Walton's has diagrams that are easier to read and contains more traditional Irish tunes.)

The two whistles have a quite similar sound, though the Feadóg is a bit more mellow. It's also a lot more pleasant when hitting the second octave (for now, anyway...or maybe my breath control is improving). And, best of all, after studying the Feadóg book, I picked up a tune in one day...even if it is something as simple as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!" And now I'm more motivated to get some extra practice in.

So, all in all, today was quite a successful whistling day for ol' Dan A.

It certainly was a good day! You are aware, that your whistle collection will grow and shrink, grow and shrink, but mostly grow for years, right?

Tyler DelGregg wrote:You are aware, that your whistle collection will grow and shrink, grow and shrink, but mostly grow for years, right?

Yes, almost acutely so.

I love your post- and know the feeling quite well. Thanks for sharing it on this deathly cold winter's day!

Honestly I've been pleasantly surprised how easy this has been for me. I've struggled off and on to learn lines-and-spaces music notation and guitar for years

With the D whistle it just "clicked" in a way it never did before. BAGFED

Now I can look at a sheet of music and play songs without tabs. This is something I have NEVER been able to do before on ANY instrument.

So far it's simple tunes like Twinkle Twinkle, London Bridges, etc. Though I have recently learned Abide With Me. But I should be able to crack open our church hymnals now and try any song - at least where the soprano range is within two octaves.

I hesitate to use the phrase "this has changed my life" because that seems so cliche, but it has definitely opened up the world of music performance to me in a way nothing else ever did

Chifmunk wrote:I love your post- and know the feeling quite well. Thanks for sharing it on this deathly cold winter's day!

Glad you liked that post! It's rather cold here, too...17 degrees Fahrenheit as of this post.

westonm wrote:Now I can look at a sheet of music and play songs without tabs. This is something I have NEVER been able to do before on ANY instrument.

I'm not at that point yet, but it is an eventual goal. There is an Irish music organization in my area, and hopefully I'll be able to attend their next session, too.

Good on ya Dan. Keep up the good work.

Great feeling, isn't it? We're really lucky in that the whistle is fairly simple to learn the basics which gives pretty quick gratification, yet they player can never exhaust the instrument's possibilities.