I’m interested to hear from folks how they manage to juggle their practice schedules for multiple instruments. Since some folks will be accomplished musicians, even professional, and some folks will be amateurs, I expect that there should be a wide range of responses. Besides keeping specific instruments (different whistles for example) at proficiency, there is also the aspect of keeping different types of instruments (wind, string, free reed, etc.) at proficiency.
Schedule? We don’ need no steenkin’ schedule!
I tend to play whatever strikes me as fun when I get a chance. Instrument loudness is another deciding factor depending on time of day and who’s in the house at the moment.
Or badgers!
I’m with Paul. I play a lot of instruments besides the whistle and flute, mostly strings but also some, keys, buttons, skins, etc. Just play the music. That’s the objective anyway, isn’t it?
Now, when I pick up a new instrument (the dobro of late), I do concentrate on it for a while until I get my legs, so to speak. But if you have the tunes in your head, just play them. Keep the other instruments handy and you’ll keep up your chops on them too. All instruments have the music at their heart.
Feadoggie
My lunchtimes in the park allow me to practice my wind instruments.
I always start off with the overtone flutes. My recent discovery was that it is possible to play “The Star of the County Down” on overtone flute. How could I have missed that?! Well, to be honest, it’s not in my repertoire, and someone at the Folk Club started it and forgot the words, so I thought I would mug up on it, then began to wonder… I’ve reached twenty-five tunes now, that aren’t in the tutor book. Including “Look What they’ve done to my Song”, “Norwegian Wood” and Peg Ryan’s Polka.
Then there’s a quarter of an hour or so murdering the Pipe and Tabor. I may be getting the hang of it. I manage to hit the tabor more often than not, now… The impressive thing, at least to me, is the way the drum makes the whistle resound, just by playing it near the skin.
Then it’s whistle practice, high and low. That’s getting a bit neglected since I’m concentrating on the Pipe and Tabor.
In the evening, if I’m not fashed or exhausted, I try to do an hour’s guitar practice before tea. I don’t really get to practice the dulcimer. If I have something in mind to play, I will. The most recent tune was a Scots version of John Barleycorn, you know, for Lammas. In the event, the performance was a capella. But I actually manage guitar practice maybe three times a week. 
Great topic!
Since music is my career (private teaching) I try to incorporate many instruments into what I do every day. Not only does this keep my brain working, it exposes students to other instruments. So I might sight read some cello bass cleff music and play it on a low whistle, or record a bouzouki track with a piano student.
When I’m home, I usually play just quiet instruments, like ocarina and low whistle.
great question - i’m a recently retired instrumental music teacher - my main instruments are piano, flute, accordion and I just started to play the whistle this January. I tend to practice the instrument that i’m going to play on for the upcoming gig. It seems to works best this way - although i must admit the whistle has taken over the majority of my practice time for some reason
It’s a GREAT question! I think about this a lot.
My pattern is to binge on one instrument for five years or so — until I feel semi-competent. Then I try to balance it out, and give them all some attention. When I learn a new tune, I try to transpose it to other instruments. For ITM, that’s usually flute, whistle and mandolin. For American traditional, it’s guitar, banjo and mandolin. For blues and jazz, it’s guitar, mandolin and chromatic harmonica.
I’m OK with being multi-instrumental. What I sometimes regret is being multi-genre. (But mostly, I regret nothing).
Yep. Every whistle tune gets tried on the guitar first. The process does get a bit challenging with the Overtone Flutes and the Tabor pipes, though. Not to mention the NAFs. The only tune that comes out on all of them reasonably well is Peg Ryan’s Polka. Oh, and MacCrimmon’s Lament.
Thanks for recognizing the epic status of this question.
I wondered about this question because I recently had to cram on my silver flute to play a song that required it’s range. The first time out, I accidently memorized the song in the Key of D, instead of C, so everyone transposed for me but we really needed to get it back into C for my wife, the vocalist. Everything went fine.
Also, I don’t normally learn all songs on all instruments. After years of playing a particular song on a whistle, I had to play it on a guitar because I needed to sing it. I told everyone, I don’t know this song. They didn’t understand, so I had to explain, I’ve never once paid attention to the words. I have no idea what the words are.
I’ve also had to give up the keyboards, the piano was my first instrument, because my wife is a major keyboard hog and she’s short so the keyboard sits a bit too low for me to be comfortable. It’s no big loss. If I had time on my hand and had a need to play again, I would re-learn the keyboard.
I’m on hiatus before I learn a new instrument. I haven’t had an instrument choose me yet. Instruments tend to come my way.
What I’ve continued to do, as I get older, is cut down on number of instruments I need to keep up on.
I started out on Highland pipes, then learned (at more or less the same time) the Irish flute, whistle, uilleann pipes, and bodhran.
But then I got into Andean music and Bulgarian music and into various bagpipes, getting Bulgarian pipes and Spanish pipes and Cornish pipes and Northumbrian pipes (all of which have different fingering systems).
As I slide towards my mid-50’s I’ve been continuing to jettison instruments and genres and get back to where I started, Highland pipes, uilleann pipes, and whistle.
I don’t practice nearly as much as I used to, nearly as much as I need to, and I tend to woodshed for upcoming gigs as somebody has already mentioned.
What you get out of an instrument is directly proportional to what you put into it. If your instruments are pretty similar (like violin and viola) then it only takes a fairly small bit of extra effort to maintain the second, but if they’re different, like guitar and whistle, then there’s little overlap.
I primarily practice highland bagpipes. When I’m going to be playing smallpipes, then I get them out a week or so in advance and spend a little time working on them. Same thing with whistle, although I’ve started to put more time in on it. I used to play guitar quite a bit, but I was never any good, and I stopped it completely when I started pipes, but I’ve recently started working on it again, because of a charity gig where I’ll accompany others.
I always start with an hour on the piano first thing in the morning, Woodwinds come next, then Autoharp.
However with the woodwinds I tend to drag one out whenever I feel like it, There’re so handy in that respect. 
Whistles especially are really easy to pick up when you have ten minutes to spare. Although sometimes, not so easy to put down again when the ten minutes are up.
It is interesting to hear about all the instruments that people play. I play silver/orchestral flute and whistles (neither very well). My favorite whistle gets most of my practice time these days. I think because it is easier just to pick the whistle off the shelf rather than get out the flute and put it together. 
I have big plans for all the instruments I want to learn to play, so maybe someday I’ll be a multi-instrumentalist like some of you all.
I keep a guitar, banjo, mountain dulcimer and whistles close together and switch between them constantly. I learn a new song on one instrument then try to play it on another instrument. I sometimes try to learn a tune on the whistle and find it impossible then try the same tune on another instrument and the tune jumps right out at me. Keep your musical options open… Bob.
I play a few different instruments in my Celtic rock band. As far as practice goes, I usually go back and forth between whistles, piano accordion, Irish bouzouki or tenor banjo and find myself eventually being able to pick up any of those and play the same song/tune with everyone. The only instrument I separate out is the Great Highland Bagpipes. I practice those separately for my side business as a solo piper. Though I do use them on a few of our faster punk songs…
A couple of weeks ago I decided to learn “Wind That Shakes the Barley” and “The Musical Priest”. First I learned them on the whistle which is the bigger challenge for me, and then I branched out to the bouzouki and banjo (I have them tuned the same so I don’t have to think too hard!) and then piano accordion which is the easiest for me.
I find that if I start with the instrument that gives me the most trouble (in my case the whistle) then it will be easier to play-by-ear on my stringed instruments and squeezeboxes when I’m getting the fingering down.
Matt
OMG that is so true!
Cool thing about whistles is that you can keep them in the car and practice whenever you have a spare moment.
My MK Low D is both my “axe” and my “car whistle”. I keep it in the car and because it’s always at hand it gets played every day.
Not so much the Highland pipes, for which I have to set aside a block of time at home. I have to take them out of the case, put them together, play for a while till they warm up, and after the practice session is over swab them, disassemble them, and put them back in the case. Not worth it unless I have at least a half-hour block of time. And they’re so loud that I tend to only play them when I’m home alone, which is not often.