Has anyone ever played for a bunch of children, only to have some of them put their hands over the ears and complain?
A few weeks ago, I bought my D penny whistle to my son’s preschool to play a few tunes for the kids at Circle Time. The teacher was really into it, but a few of the little ones stuck their fingers in their ears and went, “Ouch. Too loud.” Even when I played softer, they kept complaining. Talk about an ego blow. I started thinking, ‘Maybe I should have brought the recorder.’
I should mention that I am not a bad whistle player at all – or rather, I don’t think I have a bad tone. I’m very sensitive to tone, actually, which is why it took me 8 years to find a whistle that I like. So this reaction of the preschoolers really surprises me. (BTW: when I play in public for adults, no one covers their ears!)
Perhaps even worse: I am convinced that my cat hates the sound of the penny whistle. Whenever he’s in the room when I play, he starts to howl and won’t quit howling as long as I am playing. He looks quite agitated while all this is going on.
For all the sneaky stuff cats do to humans when they’re not looking, who cares? Put the cat out if he’s not quite smart enough to am-scray when he sees the ol’ torture stick come out. I guess your kitty REALLY loves you. Some cats are kind of s-and-m anyway if you ask me.
But as for kids, they indeed hear higher pitches than us beat-up adults so its entirely possible to bug 'em. The high-strung ones are kind of jumpy anyway (just like most cats) and react more extremely where it can then intersect with control issues by them when they are used to getting attention by adults.
Don’t take it personal. I have played a lot of school assemblies with whistles and most of em enjoyed it. If you are really concerned and have litigious parents, you could warn them and tell them its okay to cover their ears for certain notes. Kind of wrecks it but at least its considerate.Heck, I;ve seen em cover their ears when I sing but that’s another story…
Signed, a cat owner and parent.
[ This Message was edited by: The Weekenders on 2002-05-22 00:43 ]
My landlady has four cats and they pay no attention to me when I play the tinwhistle. Considering the obtuse nature of cats this could mean just about anything… but I’m going to take it as approval!
Yep, there’s something about pre-schoolers (3-5 or so) that can be a bit eerie! If one gets up to dance, then soon half of the kids are doing the same thing. If one who perhaps lives in a quiet home pulls the old cover my ears trick, here we go again. If we could just somehow convince one to whip out a $20 bill…
When I started playing the whistle my dog would soil the carpet and my two year old would rip the whistle from my mouth. Now that I’ve been playing for a while and improved considerably, my wife soils the carpet and both my two year old and dog dance. I’m not sure how to take this.
I’ve never had that problem. I do, however, have the occasional person who doesn’t like it because it’s too loud with the mic. If that’s the case, I usually agree it needs to be turned down a few notches.
But when I play acoustic, I have no problem- people usually tell me to play louder.
My kid is now 8, and I’ve found that his hearing is super sharp…except when he’s asked to do something, of course. It might be the harmonics of that particular whistle. Try a quieter or mellower whistle, or a whistle in a lower key (Bb, A, G), and I think they’ll like it better.
Hey, now you have license to conduct diabolical whistle experiments on children!
The only kid I’ve ever had do that to me was a loud 4 year old whose mother was always telling her to be quiet. I imagine, much like kids will act out “home issues” with dolls, she was enforcing her mother’s “noise ban” on me
Greg
On 2002-05-22 00:18, Miami Colleen wrote:
Has anyone ever played for a bunch of children, only to have some of them put their hands over the ears and complain?
My cat HATES my whistle - in fact all I have to do is pick it up and he heads for the front door, meowing to be let out. My daughter informed me just yesterday that she saw or heard something on some type of news/documentary show that cats dislike high-pitched sounds like a whistle. My dog, however, can take it or leave it.
Susan
My cat is not overly fond of my whistle, but has shown a greater inclination to stay around as I get better… the less I squeak, the more she sticks around. She’s still not to sure about the top of the upper octave though, even when played cleanly…
One of my cats really likes the sound of the whistle. When I play, she jumps on the table next to me. Then she’ll try to get me to pet her by nosing me in the hands (which does not exactly make for good whistling conditions). Hm… Maybe she’s really trying to knock the whistle away?
I’ve never had a kid do that, but other adult musicians have, and not because I’m BAD at it, but because they were pi$$ed that my little whistle could be heard over their plugged in guitars and I’m not even plugged in! But then again, musicians around here are not very unselfish, the only way anybody get to play with anyone else is to be able to “shout” right over 1 pluuged in banjo, 6 plugged in guitars, 2 basses…well, you get the picture…do you believe I have to travel about 15M miles per year to do this?
Let it shine! Anna “Dances with Weasels” Martinez
[ This Message was edited by: Anna Martinez on 2002-05-22 20:19 ]
I have posted this before about my former cat.. now deceased… She would bite me to make me stop playing.
No my playing did not kill her.
About the covering of the ears I know I have heard about some seniors with hearing aids being effected by high pitched sounds as well. At least they can turn them off.
I guess that would not work that well if you are in a jam session with them and they needed the aids to hear the tune.
Children’s reactions to sound can be unpredictable(I don’t claim any knowledge of cats). My two older children have super sensitive hearing and would probably not have liked my whistling when they were small. I remember a music workshop I tried to give for our playgroup when they were both little - some helpful soul had brought a bagful of cheap percussion instruments to the echo-laden gym that we met in. I had to take my two home because they couldn’t stand the din.
You know what is really bad, when your fellow workers cover their ears as well.
I gave a D whistle to a co-worker and was teaching her scales. Well the two whistles were not very well tuned together and once we reached the upper octave… it clashed so bad that the those sitting around the lunch table covered their ears.
My cats like it, and when I play my new, low-volume tweaked Clarke, they’ll come into the den where I play. Last week, I was sitting by the mailboxes waiting for a ride and playing my Walton Guiness whistle, and a neighbor’s pit bull came over, sat down beside me, and startedto howl, softly but quite mournfully. When I quit laughing, we actually performed a nice duet.
My cats don’t howl, but they used to up and leave the room when I started playing. They don’t do that anymore. That’s either a compliment or their hearing is getting worse . . .
I don’t know about the whistle, but once our high school “band” I guess you could call it, sent the flutes and clarinets out to do a traveling winds chorus at Christmas. We went to some nursing homes at first, which is okay, I think the elderly are better at tuning out horrifying noises. But not little kids. We went to a daycare center and played and they all screamed and covered their ears. I would have too if I hadn’t been playing the flute.
Anyway, my cats don’t care, but whenever I play the whistle, my dog howls. It’s really pitiful.
