The search for "the holy whistle grale".
Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2022 2:10 pm
The topic for this post might be a bit vague, but that’s because I don’t have a specific question, nor something I would like to write about. Rather, I would just like to share my whistle journeywith you, and perhaps some of the topics addressed will evoke discussions along the way. First, let me excuse my English in advance. I come from Norway, and so Norwegian is my first language.
First, I need to thank many of the people writing on this forum. You have been an immense resource and source to knowledge throughout my whistle search.
A bit of background about me: I work freelance as a professional singer, and I’m also educated as a music therapist. Music has been a huge part of my life, on many levels. I love it, and hate it. Especially training as a classical singer made me question if music really was something that I wanted to do professionally.
So, in 2018 I found myself in a music store, wanting to buy a pan flute. Being a musician, and having played a bit of this and that, I thought I could make the flute work at once. However, that wasn’t the case at all, and after a couple of seconds I realized that this wasn’t an instrument I would want in my life, nor would it want me. I asked the store owner if he had any other interesting flutes or whistles, and he gave me my first low D. It was a Tony Dixon tunable model, and I knew from the moment I had it in my hands that I had found my instrument. I could barely make it sound at once, but just knew I needed it. So I bought it, and it didn’t take a lot of time before I could play on the whistle. I had been playing The recorder earlier, and this wasn’t very different. However, it didn’t take me long before I realized that I had started at the wrong end of things, at least according to many people. So, I bought a high D clark, and found myself diving headfirst into the Irish music.
It took me two years to realize that there was a world of whistles out there, and when the pandemic hit the timing was perfect for me to start looking around at other instruments.
One thing which might be a bit different with me is that I was much more interested in finding the right instruments, rather than learning so much about the tunes and the playing technique. I love the Irish traditional music, but really, I play everything on my whistles. Although I do music for a living, finding the whistle, and especially the low whistles, seems to be more like a therapeutic, spiritual thing for me, rather than the professional musician thing. So there I was, buying a lot of instruments. First, many low D’s. Chieftains, Kerry, mk, McManus. The journey of getting the different instruments, trying them out, comparing them, and departing from them was a very fascinating adventure. Which is maybe one of the reasons I’m writing this text here, because my family and close ones don’t really understand. However, having read a lot on this forum, I’m sure many of you do.
Backpressure was the word that I came across very quickly, and something I took on board as being a very important thing. I used to play the trumpet back in the day, and so I was looking for the whistles that had the most back pressure. However, I soon realized that this wasn’t important in the way that I thought it was. Getting to know the actual instrument, and discover what it can and cannot do, seems to be much more important than finding the perfect back pressure for me. I have been playing gigs on my Goldie low D medium hard blower, still managing to make the whistle squeak, because I pushed too hard. On the other hand, I have been playing gigs on my mk low C, which has no back pressure whatsoever, compared to the Goldie, but the whistle didn’t squeak at all. I’m not telling this to compare the two whistles, only to say that for me it seems much more important to adapt to the actual instrument.
When I started ordering whistles directly from Colin, I thought that I wanted to find the perfect number, so that I could have all my whistles with the same back pressure. However, both through playing his instruments, and through talking to him, I have learned, and I’m still learning, that the whistle is a much more complex instrument than I ever thought. And that there are so many different aspects to what makes a whistle great. One time, while I was talking to him on the phone doing ordering, he said that finding your perfect whistle was kind of like finding your perfect magic wand. I truly agree with that. It seems to me like it is a combination of knowledge, and being clear on what I want, but also some sort of magic. It’s hard to believe in, because you need to experience it before you can really trust in it.
So, coming back to the title about the holy grail, is it possible to find it? I don’t know anymore. Searching for the perfect whistles has left me realizing that it’s all about compromises. Almost all about compromises I should say.
For a few years, I have been very interested in the different musical keys. Not just because they sound different in pitch, but also because of the symbolic meanings hidden in all of them. I’m posting a link at the end here, that takes you to a page where this is briefly discussed. I’m mentioning this here, because for me when it came to finding the perfect whistle for me, considering the key became important. I think maybe we can use different categories when we talk about perfect whistles: the perfect whistle on the stage. The perfect whistle for sessions. The perfect whistle for relaxing and chilling out. Etc.
With that in mind, I will actually say that I have found the whistle that feels kind of like my personal magic wand. It’s rarely a whistle I take to gigs, because it’s a very rare and unusual key, but it’s a whistle that always brings peace to my soul.It's a Goldie C# mediumblower. A few years ago, I would try and figure out why this feels like the perfect whistle for me, but now I’ve just given up on that. It just feels right. Playing it and experiencing it is way more important than thinking about it and trying to figure out why it works.
But, it’s funny, because I have other whistles which also feels like perfect whistles for me. It all change from day today, depending on my mood, and what I want.
before I finish I will just briefly mention that parting with my whistles has been an important part of my journey as well. When I started buying a lot of instruments, I thought I would always keep them all. But, I realized after a while that having good instruments hanging around that I never played it was a shame. So selling them to someone that actually uses them is a very nice thing I think.
Thank you for having read through this. And thank you for all that I’ve learned on this page.
Thomas
https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html
First, I need to thank many of the people writing on this forum. You have been an immense resource and source to knowledge throughout my whistle search.
A bit of background about me: I work freelance as a professional singer, and I’m also educated as a music therapist. Music has been a huge part of my life, on many levels. I love it, and hate it. Especially training as a classical singer made me question if music really was something that I wanted to do professionally.
So, in 2018 I found myself in a music store, wanting to buy a pan flute. Being a musician, and having played a bit of this and that, I thought I could make the flute work at once. However, that wasn’t the case at all, and after a couple of seconds I realized that this wasn’t an instrument I would want in my life, nor would it want me. I asked the store owner if he had any other interesting flutes or whistles, and he gave me my first low D. It was a Tony Dixon tunable model, and I knew from the moment I had it in my hands that I had found my instrument. I could barely make it sound at once, but just knew I needed it. So I bought it, and it didn’t take a lot of time before I could play on the whistle. I had been playing The recorder earlier, and this wasn’t very different. However, it didn’t take me long before I realized that I had started at the wrong end of things, at least according to many people. So, I bought a high D clark, and found myself diving headfirst into the Irish music.
It took me two years to realize that there was a world of whistles out there, and when the pandemic hit the timing was perfect for me to start looking around at other instruments.
One thing which might be a bit different with me is that I was much more interested in finding the right instruments, rather than learning so much about the tunes and the playing technique. I love the Irish traditional music, but really, I play everything on my whistles. Although I do music for a living, finding the whistle, and especially the low whistles, seems to be more like a therapeutic, spiritual thing for me, rather than the professional musician thing. So there I was, buying a lot of instruments. First, many low D’s. Chieftains, Kerry, mk, McManus. The journey of getting the different instruments, trying them out, comparing them, and departing from them was a very fascinating adventure. Which is maybe one of the reasons I’m writing this text here, because my family and close ones don’t really understand. However, having read a lot on this forum, I’m sure many of you do.
Backpressure was the word that I came across very quickly, and something I took on board as being a very important thing. I used to play the trumpet back in the day, and so I was looking for the whistles that had the most back pressure. However, I soon realized that this wasn’t important in the way that I thought it was. Getting to know the actual instrument, and discover what it can and cannot do, seems to be much more important than finding the perfect back pressure for me. I have been playing gigs on my Goldie low D medium hard blower, still managing to make the whistle squeak, because I pushed too hard. On the other hand, I have been playing gigs on my mk low C, which has no back pressure whatsoever, compared to the Goldie, but the whistle didn’t squeak at all. I’m not telling this to compare the two whistles, only to say that for me it seems much more important to adapt to the actual instrument.
When I started ordering whistles directly from Colin, I thought that I wanted to find the perfect number, so that I could have all my whistles with the same back pressure. However, both through playing his instruments, and through talking to him, I have learned, and I’m still learning, that the whistle is a much more complex instrument than I ever thought. And that there are so many different aspects to what makes a whistle great. One time, while I was talking to him on the phone doing ordering, he said that finding your perfect whistle was kind of like finding your perfect magic wand. I truly agree with that. It seems to me like it is a combination of knowledge, and being clear on what I want, but also some sort of magic. It’s hard to believe in, because you need to experience it before you can really trust in it.
So, coming back to the title about the holy grail, is it possible to find it? I don’t know anymore. Searching for the perfect whistles has left me realizing that it’s all about compromises. Almost all about compromises I should say.
For a few years, I have been very interested in the different musical keys. Not just because they sound different in pitch, but also because of the symbolic meanings hidden in all of them. I’m posting a link at the end here, that takes you to a page where this is briefly discussed. I’m mentioning this here, because for me when it came to finding the perfect whistle for me, considering the key became important. I think maybe we can use different categories when we talk about perfect whistles: the perfect whistle on the stage. The perfect whistle for sessions. The perfect whistle for relaxing and chilling out. Etc.
With that in mind, I will actually say that I have found the whistle that feels kind of like my personal magic wand. It’s rarely a whistle I take to gigs, because it’s a very rare and unusual key, but it’s a whistle that always brings peace to my soul.It's a Goldie C# mediumblower. A few years ago, I would try and figure out why this feels like the perfect whistle for me, but now I’ve just given up on that. It just feels right. Playing it and experiencing it is way more important than thinking about it and trying to figure out why it works.
But, it’s funny, because I have other whistles which also feels like perfect whistles for me. It all change from day today, depending on my mood, and what I want.
before I finish I will just briefly mention that parting with my whistles has been an important part of my journey as well. When I started buying a lot of instruments, I thought I would always keep them all. But, I realized after a while that having good instruments hanging around that I never played it was a shame. So selling them to someone that actually uses them is a very nice thing I think.
Thank you for having read through this. And thank you for all that I’ve learned on this page.
Thomas
https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html