My Magical Whistle Sound Discovery

[DocTinWhistle]

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.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: DocTinWhistle on 2003-02-28 02:08 ]</font>

[Daniel_Bingamon]

Automatic Whistle Playing? We call that 'Jamming'.

[spittin_in_the_wind]

Ah, you're hopelessly in love....

R.

[DocTinWhistle]

Ahhh, I love to find her in the snow...

... http://www.angelsinlove.com

[Martin Milner]

Hi Doc and welcome to C&F!

Is your whistle an Oak, but any chance? Just curious. We like to keep tabs on these things...

It's always fun to hear what brought people to whistles and C&F. Sometimes it's a film or TV soundtrack, sometimes hearing one played on a CD or live on stage. Sometimes it's just seeing one in a shop, and realising how cheap & portable they are. I'm amazed the lady in the shop even knew what a tin whistle was - she must probably be a whistler herself!

[brewerpaul]

Welcome Doc--- the whistle does seem pretty magical from time to time. Piece of tubing with a coupla holes, and out comes music. It's gotta be just about the simplest instrument to initially learn, but there is literally no end to it's versatility.
BTW-- are you really a Doc? I'm a Podiatrist in my day job.

[DocTinWhistle]

[Thread revival. - Mod]

ive missed you guys ..

[fatmac]

......you can also get a side blown keyless high D (piccolo), so that you could/can indeed play that tune on a piccolo....

[ytliek]

Welcome back. Here's the version I like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKEv1bG4pek

[RoberTunes]

Black and silver; my guess it's either an Oak or a Feadog Pro.
Less likely > a Walton's Guinness photographed using infrared film, possibly a TWZ, a Clarke (silver-tint version of a Sweetone), and maybe even a Howard, and least likely as a random purchase, a Galeon. Maybe even an Anak?

The idea of practicing by just using the fingers to hear the tone and go through the motions has lots of merit, you can practice for hours and practice one skill at a time and really develop expertise under controlled and closely monitored conditions, rather than being distracted by "the music" at every turn. We all love the sensation of the music, but sometimes the other side of things is where our attention should go. The only drawback to that, is that each proper note has to be accomplished by landing a "hit" of the finger onto the proper tone hole, to make a sound of that frequency, as quiet as it is. So it can almost double your finger motion when using notes higher than the one you just hit. Never the less, the merits outweigh the drawbacks and every musician aught to know how to use quiet practice for such opportunities. On whistle, I've been practicing trills and some ornament work on just a few fingers, I've found that cuts and pats are far more natural and capable on some fingers than others. For instance, the fourth finger, seems like the less agile, compared to fingers #2 and #3. That's just me.

One band I was in, our best ever practice, where we tightened things up and clarified our strengths and weaknesses very fast, was when we had to practice in a very small space together, so we had to keep the amps way way down, almost to a minimum, almost off, a whisper, you could hear the electric guitar and bass almost as quiet as unplugged. By doing so, we could actually concentrate 100% on working through the music itself, and none of the "performance level" concerns, very little of the aesthetics, the sensuality of volume and tone, were involved, and it was clear as a bell, very reassuring when working through the music as a group and hearing each other, I loved it, it was astonishing how clear and certain everything felt.