Low d whistle or flute

[MTGuru]

I do have special whistling trousers

How annoying. Do they have a mute button, or do they whistle only when it's windy?

[Denny]

good thing ya didn't mention that they only know one tune, eh, Mike!

be even worse if he knew which one

[mutepointe]

I do have special whistling trousers

How annoying. Do they have a mute button, or do they whistle only when it's windy?

now why would hoopy's pants have a mute button, it's not like i gave him the pants. what's up with you guru.

[hoopy mike]

I do have special whistling trousers

How annoying. Do they have a mute button, or do they whistle only when it's windy?

Many have searched for the mute button

[riverman]

don't listen to hoopy mike

no one does

[riverman]

I WISH I had the choice between the whistle or a flute--the choice was made by my inability to make any decent note on a flute. My daughter the fluteplayer only laughs when she sees my attempts--and says kids who tried flutes at school who performed like me were quickly shown the clarinet!
That being said, I like the sound of whistle more than any other instrument in the world. And, even in recordings, I can tell the difference between a flute and a low whistle, and prefer the latter. There's a brightness there, a crispness, that flutes cannot match.
Though you've probably made your own decision already, I agree with those who say you should buy both. They are different instrments.
(The only things I really envy about flute players is the respect their instrument gets and their ability to play high notes softly).

[hoopy mike]

But, hey, I think there's an albeit limited market out there for whistling apparel. Like a jacket with pockets to fit a set of Generation whistles in, so it'd be easy to switch keys. And the whistles would be pre-warmed.

[WARD1066]

After reading this I am tempted to try a flute, but until this I have been toying with the idea of getting a low d sweetheart whistle. (It usually has positive reviews).

The sweetheart whistle also comes with a flute head - if I were looking for a "good" flute as recommended above, would the sweetheart flute head for the resonance whistle fit the bill?

[jim stone]

I WISH I had the choice between the whistle or a flute--the choice was made by my inability to make any decent note on a flute. My daughter the fluteplayer only laughs when she sees my attempts--and says kids who tried flutes at school who performed like me were quickly shown the clarinet!

Nowhere written that you must play flute, and the difficulty you have making a decent
sound
on a flute is almost certainly a matter of practice. Many people have one heck
of a time producing tone on flute at all, and then a heck of a time producing
a decent tone, then a consistent tone. This can be very tough, it was for me, but if you
persevere you will get it--if you wish. Took me months, came
online at about nine months. Wrote despairing posts
to the fluteboard, etc. You have a choice. What they do
at your daughters schools isn't what you have to do,
and initial difficulties are no indication of how you
will sound in a year--sometimes the best people at something
hard have the toughest time inititially.

Great facility is not always a blessing, it turns out. The most
creative people at many artistic endeavors aren't always
the ones to whom it came easy.

[sbfluter]

Why choose? Play both. Start with the flute. It's much easier to play than low whistle.

Incidentally, I think low whistle sounds more expressive on slow aires than flute.

[MoonMind]

I know it has been said in this thread before, and I'm just a beginner on the whistle and the flute alike, but speaking as such, I'm really happy I was able to get a dual head whistle/flute from Dixon (both high and low). The Low D is fairly easy to play with the whistle head and sounds nice enough (I have the aluminium versions, not the polymer), and while it's still very hard to play with the flute head for me at the moment, I've had some encouraging success lately with the high body using the flute head. Bottomline: You get a decent (not high end) instrument with two great options for building up experience. I started out like riverman (or worse, possibly - no sound at all), but now I'm quite keen on proceeding - both with the low whistle, which I didn't doubt before, but also with the flute.

I've also seen praise for Sweetheart instruments - maybe someone who owns those with dual head could comment on them (using the flute head, of course, the whistle qualities are documented thoroughly).

IMHO, for true beginners like me, those payable options are a blessing and worth owning, even if one might (and possibly should) go on from there later.

M.

[pipersgrip]

Just my 2 cents, but I think you should start on flute first. If you learn the flute first, the low D should be a breeze to play. Both are beautiful instruments though.

[waltsweet]

We tried to make LoDs with swapable heads, but the tuning and response went to pot. Although the parts will fit up, the rate of taper and tailbore are different. They're much better as separate instruments.

Walt