How long Have you been playing the Whistle?

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 4:41 am

I hit a decade this year. Looks like I've got two choices I can go with.

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 6:10 am

Two years roughly. I still haven't gotten those rolls down. In fact I'm still not positive of the difference between a long and short roll.

caniadafallon · Post by **caniadafallon** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 7:17 am

Guess it's been just shy of about 4-1/2 years now-- I started playing whistle about six months or so before I joined the board, which was December 2000. Time flies!!

Best,
Ad

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:01 am

I'm probably the worst player in the 20+ year category. Got a Gen D in High School, lost it in the early childhood years, got a Clarke, never liked it much...the whoa started last year.

My early aptitude for music was unfortunately squandered due to lack of diligence as a youngster...and now I'm stuck with inferior neural pathways, but more motivation.

moxy · Post by **moxy** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:08 am

I'm coming up on a year (already???)

I love it. It's a great way to learn the tunes, which will make it easier if I ever pick up another instrument like fiddle or *gulp* pipes...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 4:57 pm

geek4music wrote:Two years roughly. I still haven't gotten those rolls down. In fact I'm still not positive of the difference between a long and short roll.

Dont worry I have played with it since the first time me folks kicked me out on a WrenDay saying. " get out and tootle on that ya little leperachaun and get us some money to buy more pooteen for yer Granny"

I still don't know what a roll is, or what those eejits are trying to do to the poor little tinwhistle. But I can set light to few ould cuens when I have a few jars in the bin.

Since CCE by insisting on empty rolls in competiton has 'Arabised' the beautiful music that is nearly gone; perhaps you might like to listen to fairly recent players like Paddy Cronin or even older examples like Morrison. Listen to them trying to mimic birdsong. Another great example is Ciaren Collins ( dec ) on TW.

SilverStrand · Post by **SilverStrand** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 5:08 pm

I've HAD my first whistle for at least two years, but when I first started playing, I stopped after a month!

Once my freshmen year of college was over and done with, I got back into my groove and actually started understanding more and more things about the whistle (I've never played an instrument before so I was pretty much starting from scratch).

I started out playing simple solos from Corrs' songs, and expanded on that. Now it's easier for me to learn new songs that actually AREN'T Corrs' songs!!

I'm really proud that I've been only serious at whistle playing for a year but I have improved so much since then. I still have PLENTY to improve at, though. Like read music for one thing among others.

greenspiderweb · Post by **greenspiderweb** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 5:15 pm

Long enough(about- wow- 9 months!)to know that I need MORE WHISTLES!

Chuck_Clark · Post by **Chuck_Clark** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 5:28 pm

I suppose the answer depends on your definition of "playing the whistle". I could either respond with:

1) Five years or thereabouts; or,
2) I intend to start pretty soon now.

whiskeylvr · Post by **whiskeylvr** » Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:07 pm

Greets to all.

I'm new to both this forum and the whistle, been playing for about a month or so now, and can most assuredly say I will be playing for much much longer.

brianholton · Post by **brianholton** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 2:26 am

Sandman's quote: I found it, and have posted the link under the title "Whistle Literature".

I started playing the whistle in 1972 or '73, immediately after the first visit of the Chieftains to Edinburgh. Paddy Moloney and Sean Potts just blew me away. (I had played the recorder since I was 11...) I started with Gens, tried a Clark and threw it away, and a year or so later got myself a couple of Overton low As, which I still have.

I didn't get serious WhOA until I found C&F, by which time I was living in Hong Kong, where all you can find are a few Sweetones and an occasional Clarke. It started inoocently enough when I met Stacey at the Traquair fair a few years ago, and bought 2 or 3 Albas. The rest you know, the long slide down into the tunnel of WhOA.

And I've just ordered a Burke D Aluminum Session Black Tipped....

doomed, doomed and breathless

b

Crysania · Post by **Crysania** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 4:43 am

I've been playing just about a year and a half now, on whistle at least (been playing clarinet for 20...scary thought there). I've been playing fiddle for three months now! You can...erm...imagine how could I sound on that thing.

~Crysania

Eric N · Post by **Eric N** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:14 am

whiskeylvr wrote:Greets to all.

I'm new to both this forum and the whistle, been playing for about a month or so now, and can most assuredly say I will be playing for much much longer.

Welcome whiskeylvr!

Great to have you! I have grown to love this forum in the short time I have been here. So many awesome people! You will love it here!

Unseen122 · Post by **Unseen122** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 2:32 pm

I think I got my first whistle about 15 months ago wow time flies.

BoneQuint · Post by **BoneQuint** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 4:37 pm

I've been playing the whistle for almost one and a half years (I started vaguely in the spring of 2003).

geek4music wrote:Two years roughly. I still haven't gotten those rolls down. In fact I'm still not positive of the difference between a long and short roll.

I didn't know what they were for quite a while, too! I thought they were something much more fancy than what they really are. Grey Larsen explained it to the class at Lark Camp. A long roll is a way of breaking up a dotted quarter note into three eighth notes of the same pitch, using first a cut, then a strike. If ^ is a cut, and * is a strike, a long roll on G would be: G^G*G

A short roll breaks a quarter note into two eighth notes, leading into the first with a cut, then using a strike to break the quarter note into two eighth notes: ^G*G

The cut and strike has an eighth note between them in both cases, so your fingers don't move faster for the short roll.

Does that make sense?