Chiff and Fipple Forums

Hi everyone.

I have been playing (messing around mostly) the guitar on and off since I was 14 (I am now 76) . For the last 10 years I have been playing a 20 key Anglo concertina. I have also, over time, played a flute and a saxophone. A couple of months ago, I picked up a tin whistle which I am enjoying playing enormously. However, I am looking for tips as to how to improve and I thought that I could post a short sound file (The Mewrmaid) here for anyone to comment. Is that OK?

David

There are Facebook whistle sites where people frequently post sound clips. They are fun groups with players of varying abilities and background.
Here they are:
Tin Whistle/Pennywhistle Resource
The Irish Tin Whistle
The Irish Whistle
Slow and Steady Whistles

These are very friendly groups with thousands of members.

Why not post here? Nowadays (especially since the pandemic) I don't do FB anymore. Also -- there were some members in those groups (posting a lot) who often didn't really know what they were talking about. So advice was often plain wrong or at least biased to some type of "modern playing style" that is not everybody's taste. I remember many arguments about this in the groups. Highly annoying in my opinion. Or YouTube-"influencers" asking people how to quickly learn a tune only to then "teach" it on their channel a day later. Ridiculous.
I avoid the anti-social media as best I can. I'd rather read the posts of 3 people here than the posts of 100 people on FB.

Sedi wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 1:45 pm Why not post here? Nowadays (especially since the pandemic) I don't do FB anymore. Also -- there were some members in those groups (posting a lot) who often didn't really know what they were talking about. So advice was often plain wrong

You hope it will be different here? Careful what you wish for.

The forum has steered away from this in the past. Wisely, I think.

I'm thinking there are more well informed members here than in those groups honestly.
But in the end -- the best advice is probably to "listen a lot and play a lot". Or get a teacher well versed in the musical tradition one wants to learn.
But getting good advice on FB? No way. Yes, some might give good advice but who's to judge who those people are? You'd already have to know a lot to even find out which advice is good or bad. Unless one searches for a good teacher and there are many that offer online teaching.

There are two issues at play. One is that you're asking a relatively anonymous group of people for comments, without necessarily a means of weighing which advice is coming from people who, for lack of a better term, know what the heck they're talking about.

The other is that some people are reticent to give critical advice because deep down, people don't like being criticized and can get defensive when issues are pointed out. I posted clips on here somewhat early in my whistle playing. I got some good advice. Some of it actually led to concrete, significant improvements in my playing. Most of it was critical, which was exactly what I was looking for. A little while ago, on another forum, someone posted a clip playing a tune where they were adding an extra beat every time they took a breath. They asked for feedback, I tried to gently point this out and got a lot of pushback. This makes me less likely to give feedback again.

All of this to say, I don't think you should shy away from posting clips, but A) take everything with a grain of salt and B) don't take anything personally. The only way any of us learn is from hearing criticism, however hard it is to stomach.

Yeah, not to be discouraging in general, but posting clips here isn’t likely to be terribly helpful as we have many of the same issues listed regarding other places.

One thing in particular is that there is a culture of being overly complimentary. This happens for a variety of reasons, some best not stated.

My suggestion, if you want truly useful feedback and advice on your playing, is to avail yourself of an instructor, at least occasionally. There are plenty of good teachers doing zoom lessons and such now, so one’s physical location is no longer a barrier. Just make certain you are dealing with someone who has a real foundation in ITM (if that’s what you’re interested in) as well as being someone who can both play and teach well. Shannon Heaton is one such teacher, if you need a recommendation.

Loren wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 2:52 pmShannon Heaton is one such teacher, if you need a recommendation.

She plays the flute however. But most of it would probably be transferable. I come up short with whistle teachers myself. But Conal Ograda and Brendan Mulholland also offer Skype-Lessons.
Conal (who is also a member here) also offers tin whistle lesson, as I just read on his homepage:
https://www.conalograda.com/music-classes

Sedi wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 4:33 pm

Loren wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 2:52 pmShannon Heaton is one such teacher, if you need a recommendation.

She plays the flute however. But most of it would probably be transferable.

Sometimes I just…….don’t even know how to respond to posts that people drop around here.

Like most (all) ITM flute players, Shannon is quite a capable whistle player. She plays at least a couple other instruments and she sings as well.

Loren wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 5:02 pm Sometimes I just…….don’t even know how to respond to posts that people drop around here.

Then maybe you just ... shouldn't! Or maybe not sound as condescending as you do in about every 2nd post.
BTW -- I have subscribed to her channel on YT -- never saw her play the whistle on her channel nor offer lessons. And there are well regarded players like Brendan Mulholland, who claimed in an interview that he never got along with the whistle.
So no -- it is not a given that I should know that. But thanks for enlightening me in your all-knowing wisdom .

And there you already have it. Tempers rise and we aren't even posting critical comments about other people's playing yet, just talking about it.

True -- but it has nothing to do with the topic of this thread. Good that there is an ignore list on this forum .

Sedi wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 5:06 pm So no -- it is not a given that I should know that. But thanks for enlightening me in your all-knowing wisdom .

Well there’s the thing, I’m hardly all knowing, so I try to keep my mouth shut on subjects I am uneducated about.

This forum would be more useful if people quit saying whatever came to mind regardless of the accuracy of the content of their words.

Don't bother quoting my posts, Loren. I put you on ignore.

Sedi wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 5:37 pm Don't bother quoting my posts, Loren. I put you on ignore.

That’s fine, but perhaps just consider the arrogance of your post and attitude: I made a suggestion to the O.P. that you immediately assumed was inaccurate. Why would you instantly assume I was wrong, rather than correct? Simply because you never saw Shannon play a whistle on YouTube? No benefit of the doubt given based on my experience or the fact that I live in the same area and possible have first hand experience? No, you just feel comfortable contradicting others with zero thought or research into what the facts are. And then I’m the bad guy for pointing this out.

Apologies to the original poster, but yeah, as others mentioned, we have some problems around here….. don’t mind the shenanigans too much though, most folks here are trying to be helpful, including Sedi.