mamakash wrote:It took me a long time to find chiff and fipple and the message board. Dale inadvertantly scared me away when I read through his website and talk of the Crystal People. I thought he was into some weird new age religion.
Yeah, I had the same reaction to that part of the site when I first stumbled across it.
Why did I learn the tinwhistle?
I've always wanted to play music of some kind. I learned recorder in the third or fourth grade, then started saxophone a couple of years later. Played sax in junior high, but was only so-so (and we had a large sax section) - when our band leader was trying to find anyone willing (gullible?) enough to play oboe instead I volunteered. Bad decision. Traditionally, the devil is shown playing a fiddle - but if he were to play winds, he'd probably pick the oboe. Not hard to finger, but that @#%$ double reed requires much more in the way of embouchure than a sax does, then rewards you for your hard work by splitting (itself, and your lip!) in the middle of a concert. I ended up with enough of an aversion that I dropped out of band altogether.
Fast forward a few years - I was in college, and still playing recorder a little, but I wanted to try a new instrument - ended up with classical guitar. I actually got reasonably decent (could play pieces listed as "intermediate" level) but had two problems. a) I broke my left index finger as a child, and it's still weak today - makes playing bar chords difficult, and even playing classical pieces (melody, harmony) ends up hurting after 15-20 minutes. b) If you play a guitar, people expect you to *sing*! From the Welsh part of my ancestry I inherited a fine, LOUD voice; unfortunately, I didn't inherit the range and control to go with it. I may not have the control needed to shatter glasses at the bar, but I can sure rattle 'em. Pain (my own, and my listeners) persuaded me to drop the guitar.
Fast forward many years more - I'm over 40 now, and still playing a little recorder (maybe a couple of times a week), but not really thrilled with the available repertoire (seems like most sheet music is either baroque or pop); even though I enjoy listening to classical music, I spent far more time with folk and folk/rock (Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Martin Carthy, the Clancy Brothers . . .) - not exactly Irish traditional, but with some overlap. And I was noticing those nice, flute-like sounds in the background more and more. Then two more things happened: I discovered Chiff & Fipple, and got sent to my company's Irish facility for 3 weeks.
So I've been moderately obsessed with tinwhistles for 9 or 10 months now. I don't have too many (well, only 16 at this point - Eb, D, C, Bb, low D), and nothing higher end than a Dixon Low D, but I probably spend around an hour a day practicing - not great, but getting better. Don't have a huge repertoire yet (maybe 40 tunes I can play well from memory - around half from the Bill Ochs book, the rest from here and there) but I'm adding to it at a tune or so a week. I've got a LOT more Irish trad CDs (and non-trad things like Flook or Phil Hardy's Whistleworks). And I almost never play the recorder these days (I suspect with a couple of days to practice I'd be better than I've ever been, though - even with the different fingering, a lot *does* carry over).
Long-term goal? Improve my playing, increase my repertoire, and maybe find a local session to join. And, perhaps, pick up the Irish flute, too.
