New whistler here!

Ine_Jones · Post by **Ine_Jones** » Sat Aug 18, 2001 2:23 pm

Hi, folks!
My name's Inés and I'm from Uruguay. I've always loved celtic music, and last year I joined a band of Bagpipes and Drums, called "Riverside Pipe Band". I don't know if putting an URL here it's considered advertising, so, tell me if you want to see its page.
Well, what was I saying... right, i'm playing the bagpipe now, not very well yet, but i practise a lot. I'm good with the practice chanter, but i'm gonna need more time to play the real instrument.
About whistles! A friend of the band showed me a tin whistle. I just knew i wanted to play it. It's not easy in my country to get this kind of instruments, you know, and if you buy it on the net, the taxes you have to pay here are almost obscene! So I got from another friend who had one and didn't play it, a Feadog D, and i'm now trying to learn to play it well. I've been looking fingering charts, i think i can do it, but sometimes i get confused with the pipes fingering.

Hum... I hope this message is not too long, maybe i exagerated. I just wanted to say hi and join the group, because i found it very friendly and useful (and also 'cause i think i'll have the WHOA sooner or later).

Cya!

Inés

[ This Message was edited by: Ine_Jones on 2001-08-18 16:26 ]

Blaine McArthur · Post by **Blaine McArthur** » Sat Aug 18, 2001 2:54 pm

Boa Tarde Ines.

Welcome to the list. You can expect to find a lot of help, useful information, fun and craziness from the members of this list. In all seriousness, there are a bunch of neat people on this list; we don't all agree on everthing, and we have our share of friendly spats, but 99.99 percent of the time we all get along, and when we don't, we are pretty quick to apologize and make up.

If you haven't explored all of the Chiff and Fipple website, I really suggest you do so; there is so much information there. Info on inexpensive whistles, expensive whistles, an explanation of the different whistle keys, bad jokes, great interviews with whistle players, and on and on and on. Bugt don't hesitate to ask any questions, and feel free to contribute to any conversation - new perspectives and opinions are always welcome.

Good luck with the bagpipes. As for whistles, I just noticed a suggestion on one of the messages about if you have friends in the U.S., they can always get a whistle for you here, and mail it to you. Still kind of expensive, but not as bad as all those taxes and shipping charges can be i guess. Probably quicker too.

You should check out the "edit profile" link. You add your webpage, interests and other stuff there.

ate logo

Blaine

AnnaDMartinez · Post by **AnnaDMartinez** » Sat Aug 18, 2001 3:11 pm

Bienvenido, Inez! This is a great bunch of whistle crazies! I love 'em all!

MarkB · Post by **MarkB** » Sun Aug 19, 2001 1:19 pm

Bonjour Ines

Bienvenue to the most remarkable message board in the world. As Blaine and Anna have said above, this is the board!

There are no dumb, off topic, questions or thoughts here. There is more music, more information about whistles here than any one person could hope to digest in a life time, but we are all trying to!

I was on another site this morning listening to some flute music and I heard the tune "An Grianan" played by Michael Cronnolly- the Michael Cronnolly of M&E flutes. I went looking for the sheetmusic on Google---and low and behold I found this website in Uruguay;

http://www.geocities.com/grianan_1999/

It is by Conrad C. O'Neill and is in Spanish and English: Musica Tradicional Irlandesa en Uruguay. He has midi and and MP3 sound files of Irish tunes. Are you aware of him?

The world is becoming a smaller place. Bagpipes and whistles in Uruguay, I shouldn't suprised but I am. And this message board is truely global in scope.

Again welcome to the Chiff and Fipple, a great place to be.

Mark

Ine_Jones · Post by **Ine_Jones** » Sun Aug 19, 2001 3:14 pm

Thanks a lot for your greetings! About Grianan, yes, I know them, and a few of them are also in the pipe band. One of the guys is the one who gave me the whistle. They promised me to teach me some tips and tricks on the next holydays, but they're extremely busy by now.
You can check the Riverside page, i think it's very well designed; http://www.riversidepipeband.com
I'm not there because i haven't played in an official show yet.
There is also another pipe band in Uruguay, The Southern Cross (planeta.i.com.uy/southerncross)

Sooner or later a new pipe band will appear; for the moment is just a school of piping, managed by some people from the Riverside.

I'm enjoying a lot the Chiff & Fipple webpage, congrats Dale!

By the way, I saw your "welcomes" in portuguese and french =) I just wanted to say my mother tongue is spanish, but i also speak portuguese and english (as well as i can)

I have a question: does the whistle has the same popularity with both woman and men? I know the bagpipe is more a typicall "male" instrument, at least here (we're just two girls in the band, the others play the tenor drum).

Well, i'm glad to see people so kind here, see ya!

Ines

Blaine McArthur · Post by **Blaine McArthur** » Sun Aug 19, 2001 10:01 pm

Hi Ines,

As far as I can tell, the whistle is an equal opportunity instrument - no gender bias here.

I was looking at the Riverside website - Is there a lot of interest in Scottish music and culture there? I noticed the logo is based on Scottish clan emblems. My own roots are Scottish, and I participate in a few of the local Highland games, but in all honestly, I like Irish music better.

BTW, I figured your 1st language was Spanish; I'm not even sure why I threw in a greeting in Portugese. I might just as well send one in German. I have a good friend from Paraguy who has blonde hair, blue eyes and speaks excellent German (she is Mennonite). I also have a number of friends from Brazil who speak Japanese better than Portugese. I guess S. America is as crazy mixed up as we are up here.

Let us know when you debut with the pipe band so we can all rejoice with you.

Blaine

Ine_Jones · Post by **Ine_Jones** » Sun Aug 19, 2001 11:09 pm

Hiya Blaine!

Thanks for answering.

About your question, Uruguay doesn't have a generalized interest in celtic music, although I'd say it's growing faster and faster. Most of the "celtic-fans" went to a bilingüal highschool and learnt about scottish and irish culture (not my case). Actually, the first pipe band here appeared thanks to the British School.

South America is, in fact, a bouillabaise (did i spelled it right? lol). We mix up easily. Specially in immigrant countries as Argentina and Uruguay, where indian cultures were almost exterminated by the Spanish Conquerers (no rancour; it's all in the past

) Brazil was luckier; there you can find a lot of interesting cultures all getting something from the others.
I went to New York once, and felt very familiar with the city, talking about people (i really can't compare ny with Montevideo, not worse or better, there's simply no comparison).

So far, i'm starting to think you'll figure out i'm a chatter box...

so i'll be around, checking posts every day... as soon as i become a Piper you all will know!

Cya!
Ines

[ This Message was edited by: Ine_Jones on 2001-08-20 01:10 ]

MarkB · Post by **MarkB** » Mon Aug 20, 2001 8:27 am

Hi again Ines

This is just a quick note before I go to work. There is a young female piper by the name of Ann Gray from Calgary, Alberta, Canada; that several years ago wowed the world in piping.

Annie won the world's top honours in piping at an international competition on the Isle of Skye. She was the first North American and the first women ever to win the highest prize in Scottish piping.

I have one CD in which she plays on, I will try and find it after work tonight and send you the info.(Edited section) Ines there is a lot of websites on Google about Ann Gray.I searched keywords: Ann Gray bagpipes. She is amazing also is the list of instruments that she plays including whistle.

There are pipe bands in the Windsor/Detroit area that many women pipers. It is not an odd thing anymore.

Mark

[ This Message was edited by: MarkB on 2001-08-20 14:16 ]