Questions about intro vs pro and how to choose.
Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2020 5:02 pm
Hello!
I am brand new to this forum so forgive if I'm asking the same questions that have been asked a hundred times. Did a bit of a scan and it seemed best to post my own so I don't hijack anyone elses topic.
I am a musician, I have a degree in music on clarinet/bass clarinet and low clarinets. I am recently rediscovering Irish music as an adult and am feeling quite drawn to the whistle.
I have a Walton in "D" and a Clarke original in "D" that have been lying around the house for as long as I can remember that I decided to pick up for my first real go at it, but I am really have some issues and I cannot tell if it's me being new or the instrument being less than ideal.
With the Walton I feel like it's easy to blow into but really out of tune and a bit shrill. The Clarke is very breathy and perhaps a bit too free blowing, and while I like the softer tone I feel like playing it is a marathon, I am constantly running out of air, and I already have a good set of lungs very used to playing wind instruments. I can make them both sound decent enough but the amount of work that I'm putting into it really seems counter productive to my goals of learning the songs, and if I can remove that barrier by buying a better whistle I will.
After lurking this forum for a bit and looking at other web resources I find I am interested in a Paul Busman whistle. I am wondering if anyone has experience with his whistles and can speak to the kind of situation that I'm in. I'm trying to gather as much information as I can before I take the leap with a higher end instrument such as his.
I live in Canada and as such find that the selection of whistles is very slim pickings. If anyone also happens to know of any Canadian Whistle makers I should check out please let me know, although I am rather taken with both the aesthetic and sound of the Busman whistles and am willing to make the purchase despite the abysmal state of the canadian dollar and the inevitable duties across border shipping creates.
Any information or context that anyone would like to provide would be very much appreciated as I tend to find that most of the beginner whistle guides/books/videos and discussions around learning and choosing a whistle are very much geared to a person who is entirely new to music which is very much not me. As much as the greatest whistle player out there can make a beginner whistle sound good, I've always been of the opinion that a better instrument can minimize the inevitable frustration that accompanies the learning process.
Thank you very much!
I am brand new to this forum so forgive if I'm asking the same questions that have been asked a hundred times. Did a bit of a scan and it seemed best to post my own so I don't hijack anyone elses topic.
I am a musician, I have a degree in music on clarinet/bass clarinet and low clarinets. I am recently rediscovering Irish music as an adult and am feeling quite drawn to the whistle.
I have a Walton in "D" and a Clarke original in "D" that have been lying around the house for as long as I can remember that I decided to pick up for my first real go at it, but I am really have some issues and I cannot tell if it's me being new or the instrument being less than ideal.
With the Walton I feel like it's easy to blow into but really out of tune and a bit shrill. The Clarke is very breathy and perhaps a bit too free blowing, and while I like the softer tone I feel like playing it is a marathon, I am constantly running out of air, and I already have a good set of lungs very used to playing wind instruments. I can make them both sound decent enough but the amount of work that I'm putting into it really seems counter productive to my goals of learning the songs, and if I can remove that barrier by buying a better whistle I will.
After lurking this forum for a bit and looking at other web resources I find I am interested in a Paul Busman whistle. I am wondering if anyone has experience with his whistles and can speak to the kind of situation that I'm in. I'm trying to gather as much information as I can before I take the leap with a higher end instrument such as his.
I live in Canada and as such find that the selection of whistles is very slim pickings. If anyone also happens to know of any Canadian Whistle makers I should check out please let me know, although I am rather taken with both the aesthetic and sound of the Busman whistles and am willing to make the purchase despite the abysmal state of the canadian dollar and the inevitable duties across border shipping creates.
Any information or context that anyone would like to provide would be very much appreciated as I tend to find that most of the beginner whistle guides/books/videos and discussions around learning and choosing a whistle are very much geared to a person who is entirely new to music which is very much not me. As much as the greatest whistle player out there can make a beginner whistle sound good, I've always been of the opinion that a better instrument can minimize the inevitable frustration that accompanies the learning process.
Thank you very much!