I have an interesting whistle sound discovery and would like to share it. I have always loved that song My Heart Will Go On from the soundtrack of the “Titanic”. I also, loved the high noted sounds in parts of the song that brought me to tears the first time I heard it. I always thought it was a picolo playing the sounds, until I made a visit to Gorby’s, a music store nearby where I live as I was looking for a used piano and some sheet music to help me learn the electric guitar I had just bought. Well, there was a person playing the piano in there and I was awaiting my turn to play a used piano to evaluate it’s sounds. So my friend and I went to the upstairs to the place and that is where I found an entire row of recorders lying about a countertop. I approached the counter and asked the lady if she had any picolo’s for sale. She said they would be downstairs and would be very expensive. I then told her that I was looking for the instrument that made the pretty “flute sounds” in that song “My Heart Will Go On”. She told me that was the TinWhistle. I was like “WhAHH??” A What?
“A TinWhistle”. she said.
She then told me to hold on just a sec and she left and came back with a curious-looking silver, six holed flute-like wonder with a black mouth-piece. I immediately purchased the marvelous handywork of an instrument…
To make a fascinating and long story short, I learned to play the thing in a matter of months. I feel I learned in a special and magical way. I started out playing along with music such as Michael W. Smith’s “Do You Dream Of Me” and Michael Jackson’s “We Are The World”. I even visited a psychic website on “Automatic Drawing” to see if there was such thing as “Automatic Whistle Playing” LOL!! I know it is silly, but sometimes I play the TinWhistle so well, that I was convinced I was not the one playing it. Like an ancient soul from worlds past was playing through me, through my fingers, and I would become placid and almost thoughtless as the beautiful tunes up and down in and out and within the instrument seemed to blend into reality and “lightnen” everything up. Does anyone know what I mean?
Two of my girlfriend’s cats who usually fight, would be playful with one another as I played. Friends visiting would listen and would want to hear it again and again. A friend of mine who is usually depressed was actually saying play that song “I LIKE” again. And others were telling others and now I am hopelessly addicted to the incredible little miracle I had bought for only mere dollars!!
And I am getting better…
I promise, up until about four months ago, I-had-never-heard-of-a-tin-whistle!! Now, an entire new universe of musical happiness has opened up not only for me and my friends, but for our bullied cats!! And possibly even a ghost here and there. LOL!! (I will not go in to that one just yet)
I do have a little tippity tip for all ya’ll whistlers out there: My girlfriend and I sometimes get together and hook our laptops together and work on websites. So… While I was waiting for her to set up some dial up adapters and other softwares, I began to fiddle with my little tune maker attempting to synchronize and add a little whistle music background magic to a song playing on a small radio atop our desk. That can sometimes be an up and down climb on the “tone-track” being careful not to concentrate TOO hard on the rhyming of the two melodies, so I tried just moving my fingers and tapping the whistle (WITHOUT BLOWING) almost like tapping your fingers on a table or at a bar while waiting for your next brewsky, along the holes. I just put my ear close to the mouth-piece, (where I can hear best usually) and just “tapped” the melody as best I could, along with the music, trying to tapp the right holes with the right beat. Get it? Well, I did that for about an hour. When, I finally actually started to blow in to my tinwhistle, my fingers had a peculiar feeling of being warmed up and it was a giant leap into whistledom. Uncanny and almost unearthly beautiful tones and tunes and melodies seemed to be leaking through from the world Neverland itself into this world. Alas!! Could it be Peter Pan Himself? Nah. I won’t go that far.
~DocTinWhistle
Memory, Prophecy, The Past, The Future, And The Dreaming Moment Between, Are All One Country Living One Immortal Day. To Know That Is Wisdom, To Use It, Is The Art.
[ This Message was edited by: DocTinWhistle on 2003-02-28 02:08 ]
