Greetings, all!
As this post is likely to be a ramble, I will start by asking some questions first. That way, some of you who are inclined to be helpful need not read all my blather in order to tell me what you think. BoscoBear already got some good answers to our similar questions. Thanks, especially to vomitbunny and BillChin.
How do I proceed?
Is “Play Pennywhistle Now” OK to start with?
How about Mel Bay’s “Fun with the Tin Whistle”?
How many (more) whistles should I get?
What kind of wood is the Clarke fipple made of? Does it make anyone else’s lip tingle?
As time passed, I felt a void (What kind of void? An empty void.) in my experience and education: I have never learned to play a musical instrument. (I have never learned to skydive either, but some things I’ll skip.) When I was a kid I wanted to learn the violin, but my mother had had a bad experience with a violin-playing childhood neighbor, so forbade it. In grammar school I had the usual music classes, but those consisted mainly of learning to sing (badly in my case) some patriotic and folk tunes and giving my homeroom teacher a half hour smoking break. In high school it was discovered that I could not easily tell one note from another, so I was not drafted into the band. I took music appreciation and learned some of the technical aspects of music for the casual observer and a bunch of composers names and dates. For a while I tried to teach myself how to play the out-of-tune piano that my parents inherited from a deceased cousin, but nothing much came of it but the first few measures of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.
Much later I took it into my head to try again to learn some musical instrument. I am not quite sure how I came to focus my attention on the pennywhistle. Perhaps it was the lingering effect of owning a Chieftains CD or maybe it was after a visit to the Texas Renaissance Festival, where the Flying Fish Sailors included a whistle player and Daniel Duke of Danger played two at a time while standing on his head on a teeter board. How hard could it be, right? Ten fingers versus six holes sounded like a lot better odds than ten fingers versus eighty-eight keys. How do I proceed? I somewhat rashly rushed out and bought some stuff: “Play Pennywhistle Now” came with an Acorn whistle (red and toyish-looking), a book, and a CD. How does that particular set suit the beginner like me? I thought it very important to have something to hear, since I have trouble associating a sound with one of those dots on the staff. Oh sure, I can (have to) count the lines reciting the ABC’s or Every Good Boy Deserves Fun to identify a note, but I have no idea when I put my fingers on the appropriate holes (after consulting the little chart) and blow whether I have played the correct note. The short version of this is that I pretty much can’t tell if the tune follows the written music unless I already know what it’s suppposed to sound like. I take it that this is the normal circumstance for the beginner and why they bother to include a CD. While I was there at the shop I noticed a nice shiny chrome whistle, so bought it as well. It’s an Oak.
I got all my supplies home and gave it a try, perhaps with a little too much zeal. My first several efforts to produce a note sounded more like a fight between a mating loon and a bosun’s pipe. I was blowing too hard. The red Acorn was harder to play as it required very little air. The chromed one is a little easier to play and has a more flutey and less airy sound (if that makes sense to anyone). It was obvious to me that I need help. In searching the web I found Chiff and Fipple and much useful information. It turns out that I needed a new whistle. Clarke’s whistles seem to be well recommended, so I put in an order. My black, bediamonded Clarke whistle came with Mel Bay’s “Fun with the Tin Whistle”. Oops, no CD with this one. Good, clear information on musical notation, but not many tunes that I already know. How does this book rate?
I want to learn music. I really don’t have too much preference what kind. I have notice that there are many hymns that are in right key for the D whistle, so I can try those if I already know what the tunes are supposed to sound like. There is much discussion on Chiff and Fipple about Irish traditional music. That suits me fine, too. (My great-grandmother was a Healy from county Kilkenny.) In fact, I bought some Irish music books and, yes, you guessed it, they came with another whistle. This newest one is an Irish Black Whistle, apparently this is a black Walton with a Guinness sticker on it. I haven’t tried to play it yet, but I believe that this now qualifies me for WhOA disorder. How many (more) whistles should I get?
Tooting on these whistle in my garage, I have discovered a few things–though, how to play a tune seems not to be one of them. (I am consigned to the garage so as to not annoy my family more than I do already.) The easiest of my whistles to play is the Clarke as it seems not to require as much breath control as the Oak, but it’s not really the best sounding one. The Clarke sounds “empty” and “windy” (Again, please excuse these descriptions if they seem odd. I am a base beginner with very little musical knowledge–and probably a tin ear, too.), but I am hesitant to try to modify it–especially using the stepping-on-the-fipple-to-close-the-airway method. Oh, incidentally, I have another question about the Clarke whistle: What kind of wood is the fipple made of? It reminds me of drinking from a wooden sake cup (then I get distracted from the whistle). After tooting on the Clarke for a while, I notice a tingling sensation in my lower lip. Anyone know anything about that?
I would be most thankful for any guidance.
Thanks.
miffle
