Any tips for someone just cutting his teeth?

Whistle
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First of, Let me say hi to the online whistle community:

hi.

I’m Aaron, a young American living in Copenhagen for some unknown reason (soon moving to Belgium, Go figure). So, I’m 20 now. I started playing the Electric guitar when I was 16, mostly blues (but that’s another story. It’s very depressing. I actually had a reason to play the blues at 16, not that I was any good, but… enough about that). From there I branched out, and can do cheap imitations of most styles of music. Along the way I started playing the Bass, with at little banjo strumming, and a bit of piano plunking. I read some stuff about classical and jazz theory at some point (didn’t help my playing much, but it wasn’t bad for my writing).

So somehow, I’ve more or less turned into a heavy Rock guitarist with a blues background, that can pull cheap trick in other styles and with other instruments.

The point of that was this: I know music, just not whistles, or anything with the blowing and the holes and all that (ok, and not really anything about Europian folk music either).

I came to Copenhagen last year and met this really crazy surfer guy who played all this tribal stuff on some crazy gigantic metal whistle. I thought that was pretty Rockin’, so when I went to Ireland, I decided to look into the matter. I wasn’t into the right stores apparently, because I could only find like three low whistles in Dublin. I bought a Susato Low D, and a book Steáfán Hannigan and David Ledsam simply called “The Low Whistle book”. The Susato seem pretty ok in my un-trained opinion. The tone isn’t amazing, but it plays in tune for the the most part (the C natural is a little sharp I think, and I have to finger it differently in the second octave), and it’s fairly rock’n’roll. It better be, I forked over 90 euro for the beast. The downside: It looks like gianormas suzuki recorder without enough holes.

It is frustrating for some one used to playing string instruments to have have to do backflips to get not-diatonic notes. I’ll probably end up switching to the tenor recorder out of frustration.

I also bought some peice of crap regular D whistle that has great tuning, but it pops all kinds of strange harmonics in the second octave. I don’t know what brand it is. It’s junk, but I still kinda like it.

Anyway, I’m just wondering if there’s anything I should know.

and yeah there are a few specific questions:

The book said I should anchor the instrument with the pinky of my right hand. This made fingering the fifth and sixth holes very trick (my pinky’s are way shorter than the rest of my fingers; slightly abnormal I think). Some guy who I think is an idiot told me to use my right ring finger on the sixth hole as an anchor instead (unless I’m playing an E, of course). He seemed to be write about that at least. I know some flute players do this. Is there a reason I shouldn’t?

I’m trying to learn to do Rolls. They are tricky. Is it just practice or is there a trick?

I have been learning “pop” whistle tunes by ear to this point. Titanic, Lord of the Rings, Amazing Grace; I have to learn the one from BraveHeart too, or so everyone tells me. I’ve also been working on “In the Hall of the mountian King”, Bad to the Bone, and the awesome synth intro to that 80’s hit “The Final CountDown”. I would like to learn one of the tunes in Last of the mohecian, but it’s pretty badass, and I think I have to work up to it. Please recomend me some tunes that are simple that I can learn to to further hone my chops (we say that on the guitar message boards… I don’t know if you have the same expression here).

Uh… thanks for the help and stuff.

(It’s like 4 am here, and I havn’t looked over this post. Please forgive any horrific spelling or grammatical blunders.)

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P.S. I’d like to pick up a Low E and C (so I can easily play in C,D,E,F,G, and A, which is pretty handy I guess).

Which brands aught I look into?

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Many people use their ring fingers on the bottom hole to anchor the whistle. Many other people here use their pinky below the bottom hole. It’s a matter of preference.

I’m trying to learn to do Rolls. They are tricky. Is it just practice or is there a trick?

Remembering that rolls are a rhythmic device and not a melodic device will help you understand their purpose. The cuts and taps are meant to fall exactly between the notes. No tricks. Just practice. And listen to good players play them so you can try to emulate their sound.

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Welcome to the forum(s)! :slight_smile:

My advice is to practice a lot, practice a lot, and practice a lot. In between practising, post here, stay away from Bloomfield (he’s mine), and practice a lot. :wink:

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Yeah, there’s something about practicing with guitar also.

not so much about the bloomfield though.

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Welcome! Nice to have you!

When you drive a car, do you complain that it isn’t a boat? No. It can’t be a boat. It’s a car.

Likewise, your whistle is not a stringed instrument or a re**der. It is a whistle. It has value because of it’s whistle-nature. Learn to play the whistle’s true self.

I also bought some peice of crap regular D whistle that has great tuning, but it pops all kinds of strange harmonics in the second octave. I don’t know what brand it is. It’s junk, but I still kinda like it.

It’s neither a piece of crap nor junk. It is a whistle. That’s how they are. When your development reaches that of the whistle, you will stop popping all kinds of strange harmonics in the second octave. Or, you can become enlightened to the beauty of the harmonics and work with them.

Anyway, I’m just wondering if there’s anything I should know.

Well, yes . . . this is all the way it is supposed to be. :wink:

To round out your instrument repertoire, you’ll need a flute. See the flute forum for recommendations! :party:

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Hi ninjaaron—I’m a beginner on high whistle but in the past I’ve played piano and guitar. I think the whistle is really quite hard, even though a lot of people say it isn’t. A wind instrument is just a completely different thing for me. Each note you play you can vary the pitch by how hard you are blowing, etc. Main thing is you get to know your whistle by practicing at a slow speed and really listening and eventually the weird sounds start going away because you start understanding what things you are doing with your breath are working. Here are some websites that have some pretty simple Irish tunes and/or instruction for starting out on (I know that Irish isn’t your main interest but that is the music most whistle teaching uses):

http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/index.html
http://www.whistletutor.com/
http://www.whistleworkshop.co.uk/home.htm simple tunes
http://nigelgatherer.com/whist.html Scottish tunes,simple tunes
http://www.slowplayers.org/SCTLS/playlist.html

I don’t play the low whistle so I don’t know about that. You could play these tunes on it though.

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I think it might be a peice of junk. I could be wrong, of course, but the experienced whisltel players who tried it said it was very strange. Interestingly, I’ve been able to play it less strangly than them.

My theory on this is that it might just be a really weird whislte that doesn’t respeond as a normal whistle aught, but can be bent to the players will if they are agressive about it. Maybe…

There is one thing that is troubling about it that does not change, and has not been the case with the other whisltes I’ve tried (certianly not an issue with the Low D, which rocks all the time, and only makes ugly noise when I screw up). The thing is this. In the second octave, the first octave is present below. It’s like the second octave was simply added over the top of the first. Everyone who plays the whistle finds this to be true. sometimes the sound is minimized, but it never goes away.

you’ll need a flute> .

I think your correct about this, however, your thinking traditional flute, and I’m thinking concert flute… first at least. But then, I also need a clarinet and a Cello.

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Thank you very much. I must say that I am interested in Irish music. I actually have a small collection of traditional Celtic albums, and I very much enjoy some the celtic-rock fusion going on as well. I’ve actually gone so far as to cop a few irish melodies on the guitar.

I just never really tried it seriously because I’ve never been so inspired by my instrument (does that make sense? different instruments make you want to play differently? I even experience this among different types of guitars, but moreso with other types of instruments altogether).

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Oh, yes, absolutely.

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I’m glad you are interested in Irish music because that will make playing the simple tunes much more fun.

It makes sense to me that different instruments inspire a different kind of music. I think maybe a lot of this has to do with tradition and what we have heard. A person just doesn’t think of heavy rock being played on a concertina since the concertina is so associated with traditional musics that it just seems incongruous somehow. But some instruments do show up in a lot of musics, so I don’t know.

I don’t think I have ever spoken to a heavy rock musician. :laughing: I did long ago used to listen to a lot of blues though, and tried unsuccessfully to play a bit on acoustic guitar. I couldn’t even pull cheap tricks though.

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Hi Aaron, I’m a new poster as well (meaning one who posts, not a wall hanging). I’ve been playing the whistle for about a year and a half but I have a lot of experience with playing low-brass instruments. One of the things that has helped my progress with the whistle greatly is to listen to all the recordings of whistle playing and other instruments in the trad. Irish style ('cause that’s what I’m in to) I can get my hands on. It’s one thing to read about a technique in a book and quite another to hear it done by someone who knows what they’re doing.

I know this sounds like a no-brainer but I went to school with a couple guys that wanted to play jazz and never listened to jazz. They didn’t understand the criticism they got from their instructors when they were told that even though they played all the right notes it didn’t sound like jazz. I bet an industrious whistler could make the whistle work in practically any style (even a chromatic one) but not without a clear concept of the style they’re trying to achieve, and listening to recordings can go a long way to developing that concept.

Happy whistling and good luck!

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I don’t really recomend that you start. We’re kinda surly, and we all want to be the most badass on the block. We’re not really that cool.

There are no musicians that are more competetive or talk more crap about eachother than heavy rock guitarists… except heavy rock drummers.

But I’m no better, you’ll just have to get used to me.

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My gawd, another refugee from Harmony Central!!! I got soooo sick of all the WP/Dmattrape b.s. It tends to be a bit more mellow here. The debate isn;t Yngwie vs. Cobain, it’s “Pure Drop” vs. something else, but it’s generally more friendly. Unless you go to the piper’s forum. I was jjmkm4 over on HC, mostly lurked.

I’ve gotten some Opeth solo snippets to work on whistle and flute. everybody thinks it’s Bulgarian folkmusic. :slight_smile:


If you want effortless chomatic fluidity, get a Boehm “silver” flute. You can get chromatic with a simple-system conical “irish” flute but those are really geared for playing in certain keys more than others.

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What’s up!

Yeah, I’m still over there sometimes, espcially recently. (My classes are all done for the year). It’s pretty entertaining. Some of those guys are really funny at least.

Thanks for the flute advice. I’ll look into it.

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Plankton is soo cool.

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:laughing:

My dad used to say I was surly when I was in high school. I was, and I had some reason. Now I’m old and not so surly.

Wormdiet, the UP forum isn’t the only one that has problems! In fact, they are starting to look like the United Nations to me. But you are right, people do try pretty darn hard to get along.

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Ninjaaron-My low expertise and humble skills don’t permit much technical advice to you-so I will speak to the happy task of keeping your motivation up. (which sounds high already)

-Find a few tunes you like and slog through them note-by-note once or twice apiece with the music in front of you. This will neither repel you due to drudgery nor exhaust your tenacity. It will, however, give you an enjoyable repertoire in which growing skill will be audible as you go along. This is my long-winded way of saying work on skill a little more than repertoire for a while to avoid diffusion of your energies.

-Best to you,
Brian

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Peggy’s right. If you want power and fully chromatic get a flute. But don’t get a concert flute. They’re a snore-fest.

Doc

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I’m listening…

Fully chromatic you say? is that without all of this half covering nonsense?

(ok, it’s not nonsense… it’s actually kinda cool, but it’s trip for me to pull it off when ever I feel like it… maybe something that just takes time… just like everything with this music stuff seems to).