Trouble Deciding Which Instrument to Pick Up

[tcpercussion]

Hi everybody. First off I’d like to say I’m really happy I stumbled upon this forum just as I made the decision that I wanted to pick up a wind instrument. I’m an experience percussionist (drumset, African percussion, and a bit of Middle Eastern frame drumming) and I’ve always been fascinated with the various wind instruments I’ve encountered in different kinds of world and folk music. I’ve been doing lots of internet “research” including browsing through some of the informative discussions on this message board and I’ve narrowed the list of instruments I’m interested in (for now) to pan flute/zampona, ocarina and tin whistle. Does anyone have any recommendations as to which I should start with? A lot of my musical endeavors involve improvisation in small groups, so I’m probably looking for something that cooperates decently when it comes to holding a pitch, but I guess I’m also interested in finding an instrument that sounds nice just on its own to play for relaxation. I know this is really abroad but I’d appreciate any bit of advice that could help get me going in the right direction.

[Kypfer]

Just my thoughts on your potential choices ...

i) a pan-flute is likely to be limited to one key, it's range will be limited by it's size.

ii) an ocarina (except for an expensive two or three-chambered instrument) has a limited range

iii) a tin whistle should have an easily-usable two-octave range , can be encouraged to play in a range of keys and a reasonable-quality instrument can be comparitively cheap to buy.

Might I suggest a fourth option ... a recorder. It is almost as easy to play as a tin whistle, is fully-chromatic so can be played in any key, has a two-octave range and a good-quality (plastic) instrument can be found second-hand very cheaply and easily ... indeed nice second-hand good-quality wooden recorders aren't difficult to find at a reasonable price with a bit of diligent searching

[maki]

Really depends on the kind of music you want to play.
Improvisation? Recorder, clarinet, Bhoem flute?
If you get good on anything you could make it wail, I'm sure. What calls to you?

Many wind instruments are not too expensive.
So trying many different types is possible and great fun.
I've been through, clarinets, oboes, recorders, flutes, ocarinas, quenas, and settled on tin whistles and Uillean pipes.
That doesn't come close to covering the wind instrument universe.

[onewheeldave]

I've just got a Native American Flute. Limited range, but, easy to play, and, IMO, of all the 'fipple flutes' (e.g. tin whistles, recorders etc) it's by far the nicest sounding in terms of easy-to-produce tone.

If you're interested, check out this recent thread-

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=89715&p=1086104#p1086104

[tcpercussion]

Thanks guys I appreciate the insight. I'm glad to know experimentation is encouraged. I think my main fear is getting too much into collecting and trying new instruments that I don't truly learn to play... Have you ever found learning one instrument to inhibit your abilities on another instrument?

[I.D.10-t]

The whistle has several things going for it.
Portable, low maintenance, inexpensive (yet playable), 2+ octave range, and often tunable. Between breath control, half holing, and forked fingering, many accidentals can be hit.

Breath control and fingering can somewhat transfer to the flute. Cannot think of much of a reason why learning one instrument would harm things much like using a keyboard doesn't harm my handwriting.

[Tim2723]

You've hit on a Great Truth: folk woodwinds are easy to collect without ever learning. But that's part of the fun too. I have pan flutes, ocarinas, whistles, recorders, and a few others that seldom see the light of day, but they're all fun to play with.

As to one interfering with another, only in having enough time to enjoy them all. Most of the folk woodwinds are easy to start with but can take great dedication to master. The fipple flutes, like whistle and recorder, use similar skills and can cause a little confusion in fingering sometimes. Others like the pan flute are so very different as to be separate instruments in their own right. As for ocarina, until just recently only the limited range instruments were available inexpensively, but STL Ocarinas is now offering an extended-range triple instrument in plastic that looks very promising for those wanting to try a real capable instrument without spending hundreds.

http://www.stlocarina.com/doandtr.html

[Stan]

@kypfer. Why are pan flutes limited to one key ?
Mine isn't. "Accidentals" may be achieved by using
several techniques. Listen to some works by Zamfir.

[Kypfer]

@kypfer. Why are pan flutes limited to one key ?

... I did write "likely to be limited ..." which, in my experience, they may well be, but no doubt someone, somewhere, will have made a fully chromatic three octave pan-flute ... it's just probably not the sort of thing someone who is looking for ideas about what to try is looking for ... the OP writes "recommendations as to which I should start with?"

As others have pointed out, they're all fun

[maki]

Kevin Crawford playing a Susato C: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9DLP4PobwY

From this thread;
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=86689&p=1059984&hil ... o#p1059984

... Have you ever found learning one instrument to inhibit your abilities on another instrument?

Inhibit? Probly not.
Master? Maybe.

[bogman]

I suppose it really depends what type of music you want to play as maki has pointed out. If it's traditional Irish or Scottish music then the tin whistle is the obvious choice. Accessible, cheap and easy to find good examples of playing to aspire to. Wooden flute and pipes are obviously other contenders but are much more involved and you'd really need a teacher unless you have reasonable experience playing another traditional lead instrument. You'd struggle to find any good trad players playing the other instruments mentioned but maybe it's not traditional music you'd like to play.

[Tor]

Have you ever found learning one instrument to inhibit your abilities on another instrument?

No. Quite the opposite really. I learned the recorder when I was young, for the last decades the guitar has been my main instrument. I also play a bit of harmonica. The combination meant that when I picked up a whistle I could a) find the notes easily (it's nearly recorder fingering. But I don't think it would have mattered much if it was more different), and b) play a melody by ear (due to playing the guitar and harmonica). I also fiddle with other instruments, and I find that I'm basically able to pick out a melody on whatever it is if I can technically play it (there are wind instruments, for example, where you need to first learn how to make a sound in the first place).
However:

As to one interfering with another, only in having enough time to enjoy them all. Most of the folk woodwinds are easy to start with but can take great dedication to master.

So true.. I'm not a master of any instrument, well certainly not the whistle, it's easy to play melodies but I don't think I have years enough left to learn to play ITM. I definitely don't want to give up the part of my free time which is dedicated to playing other instruments.

-Tor

[JackCampin]

STL Ocarinas is now offering an extended-range triple instrument in plastic

Unfortunately it's not a good instrument, especially for the money, IMO.

Ocarinas work best if you live with their limited range - a single-chamber ocarina has a wider range than a bagpipe, and there's plenty of repertoire for those. All bagpipe tunes work well on ocarinas.

Better to get a GOOD single-chamber one. I have some information about them on my website:

http://www.campin.me.uk/Music/Ocarina/

[maki]

Nice ocarina page Jack!
Quite extensive.
Any opinion on the Mountain Ocarina? I didn't see anything at your site.
Thanks!

[tcpercussion]

So today I went to the store (Andy's Music in Chicago, really cool place that I get drums from sometimes) and checked out what they had to see if I could eliminate shipping costs and get to play the instruments (or at least squeak like a true beginner)before owning them. First I checked out the ocarinas. They only had 6-hole ones that felt nice but are made by a Pakastani distributor that has some good products I know of from my percussion experience but also some sketchy ones, so I passed on that. I've been thinking about getting a 12-hole one from STL or Songbird, but seeing Jack's in-depth site it sounds like there are advantages to the harder to get 10-hole italian type.

I moved on to the panpipes, which is definitely my favorite sounding instrument of the ones I'm interested in, but also requiring more technique which made it hard to determine if the products were good. I was hoping they would have something similar to the product on www.panflute.net (I heard that Andy's carried the same brand from an archived post on here) but they didn't have it. They did have some cheap (around $50) Bolivian and Peruvian zampona double row types and some pretty expensive single rows, but I felt without a teacher it should wait.

I got to play a Native American flute which sounded really nice. The low tones were beautiful and easy to get (I actually have some recorder experience--I played in a consort way back in grade school when I was jumping between instruments in the school program before settling on percussion so the basics have stuck with me). NAF was a bit more than I wanted to pay today, so I didn't get it. They also had some cuinas and other peruvian flutes that seemed nice, increasing my desire to learn proper cross-blowing technique at some point when I'm not swamped with school and percussion demands.

I ended up walking away with a whistle (generation D! all they had). I know it's probably not the best whistle but I only have a surface knowledge of itm, so I'v ejust been working on geting the clearest tones possible. Low notes are pretty easy, high notes seem to get funky pretty easily which I find to be opposite of the recorder. Overall enjoyable first step on the winds adventure.