preacher wrote:
I followed a call to ministry and have been involved with worship teams at several churches and actually leading worship ministry at my last church for 10 years.
Congratulations and thank you for following your calling and helping facilitate worship.
preacher wrote:
I was introduced to whistles when I heard Robin Mark from Belfast in concert... I got to play with Robin in a few tour concerts... How cool that was.
Congrats again!
I've only had the opportunity to do that once, I did a tour with Keith and Kristyn Getty playing whistles and uilleann pipes. It was an amazing experience.
preacher wrote:
The music style is Contemporary Christian which means loud and passionate. Amazingly I have found that whistles fit in beautifully on many songs... I currently have Reyburn which I enjoy but chiffiness (is that a word?) doesn't seem to blend as much as I would like. Mostly I want loud and pure. Any thoughts?
In my opinion your best bet might be
Michael Burke whistles, both for the high and the low. Over the years in doing session work and church gigs and orchestra gigs I've found time and again that "legit" players (sightreaders from the orchestral/church/jazz/pop worlds) love Burkes due to their big sound, clean pure tone, great tuning, and butter-smooth voicing.
About Reyburn whistles, every one I've played has had that unique Reyburn sound, which to me is reminiscent of Native American flutes. Reyburns and MKs are probably the opposite of what you're looking for, being dirty/foggy rather than pure/clean.
BTW I've performed several of the Robin Mark songs from his
Revival In Belfast album on whistle and uilleann pipes.
To me the uilleann pipes sound great in those songs! It was the closest I'll get to being a jazz sax player, screaming on the highest notes of the chanter while the band was blasting out Shout To The North and Lion Of Judah. It's probably the best times I've had playing the pipes.