Precisely.

From long, long ago...

I'm curious if you painted over Whistling Billy. Of course y'know that you can get a Sweetone in black. I wonder if anyone else has customised their whistle. Occasionally I paint the holes with a drop of black paint...

I am tempted occasionally by the idea of anodising my aluminium whistles in some fancy colour, like a bright metallic blue or yellow, or maybe just a matt grey, but life's too short.

Quoting someone else quoting me is not quite kosher.

Yes, Peter can make a stock Generation others would struggle with sound lovely. However, Peter has been playing for decades. I have observed that the advanced players tend to come around and tell the new people "It's the player, not the whistle ... ." I don't feel this is altogether fair to a new player.

In my experience, it isn't necessary for a new player to have to struggle with the whistle, wonder whether it's them or the whistle causing the difficulty. People come to me at events or send email saying they had purchased a whistle years ago, tried to play it, became frustrated and put it down. They say if they'd had one of my whistles then, they wouldn't have given up. MANY of the top whistle instructors in my region recommend my whistles for beginners, ask me to attend teaching events without charging a vendor's fee, etc. so my whistles will be available to serious whistle students. And based on the fact that at last count, at least seven All-Ireland champions play my whistles (not exclusively, of course), please don't try to say my whistles have been compromised in some way so beginners can handle them.

I had intended to stay out of this discussion, but having been cited by someone else, I felt I had to respond. If I have offended anyone, I apologize.

Best wishes,
Jerry

Ok - apologies if I've offended you with the second-hand quote. Oops - now I'm quoting you quoting me quoting Peter quoting you!

The reason for sharing the story was to illustrate that a whistle regarded by Jerry (who is rightly well-respected in the whistling community) as "unplayable" (and ok, that's Peter's side of the story, not from the mouse's mouth) could sound playable in the hands and mouth of someone else. That was in no way meant to imply anything negative about Jerry's whistling or whistles or about his mouse.

My personal experience is that I found a whistle described by Peter as "unplayable" to be playable in my hands, although this in no way implies that I'm anywhere as good a whistler as Peter is. Perhaps "playable" to me is just a cover for my lack of refined taste when it comes to whistle acoustics.

I've not been playing whistle for decades, and I'm acutely aware of my limitations, but I've found that when I'm presented with a whistle described as "unplayable" or "difficult" or generally "not very good" or "cheap" where "cheap" is used as a shorthand for "poor quality" by a beginner, or sometimes even by someone with more experience, then on every occasion I've found it playable. Maybe not great in some cases, but certainly playable. Another example is a Susato that Dr. Phil passed on to me, but that's another story.

If every beginner and teacher finds that Jerry's whistles take away any potential for the excuse that "it might be the whistle that's the problem" then that's great. I have no personal experience with these whistles, but I've never seen a bad review for one, so they seem like a good bet. But what I'm wary of is when other people (not Jerry) suggest that a Freeman whistle is an instant solution to problems caused by inexperience and poor technique.

I cited your mouse ...and implied some unnatural relationship with a parrot. So I guess I should apologize to the parrot. Sorry.

Uh-oh - common sense. Someone call a moderator.

You can say what you like about my mouse and my mouse's friends, but don't bring the children into this!

Best wishes,
Jerry

To be fair, Jerry, I don't think Mike even suggested that.


But I do (and like the ones I've got)...


And also completely agree with that.

I've heard that they even have the holes pre-drilled!

I've been playing Gens for 30 years, but not seriously playing. I began playing whistle seriously 12 years ago, however.
I'm not good by the standards I aspire to meet, but I'm not incompetent.

The Gens have gotten
worse through this period, quality control slipped. I go into a local, friendly music store and play
all the gens, occasionally. Occasionally one is good, many are barely playable and just as many
are unplayable--though probably somebody very good could play them somehow.

I think we do
noobies a disservice when we tell them its the player, not the whistle in circumstances
like these, where there is a real possibility that only an expert could play the whistle.

Jerrry's whistles are surely the way out of this conundrum. The noobie has something that plays.
We can say with confidence that the problems, if any, are the player's technique.
With a store bought cheapie, there is a substantial possibility we are mistaken.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFG5fG-y2S0

And I think we do them a disservice by telling them a Jerry Freeman whistle will solve everything when we haven't actually seen or heard what they're doing with what they've got.


They're one way, for sure, but you make it sound like there's only one way when there are many and Jerry's by no means the only maker offering consistently reliable whistles at modest prices.

Just get a Dixon, or other quality pvc type whistle. No warm up needed, not excessively expensive, and noob (and non-noob) friendly.

Incorrect, as it happens. The whistle was marginally improved by the tweaks but still an impressively poor instrument.