don't leave home without it

[rama]

so i went to our monthly ceili/set dance this afternoon. looking foward to having some tunes with old friends. i got on stage greeted by the fiddler, box player, banjo player and a couple others. opened my flute case and started to assemble my flute. the foot joint didn't fit. it was from a different flute, the one i left at home! the fiddler was watching me attempt to assemble the darn thing, she didn't quite know what was wrong, but by the expression on my face she could tell something was not right. i must of looked mighty pained.
anyway someone was kind enough to loan me a tin whistle, something i rarely play anymore. at first i struggled playing tunes on it, it was as though the fingering was off for some reason. later, after i got adjusted, the fingering came back. but i found my approach on tunes was different.
after an hour i found i liked how i was playing yet it seemd so different than how i played tunes on flute. i felt very lucid, the tunes - very fluid, kind of a mesmerizing effect it had on me.

does that happen to you? does the way you play a tune on flute differ from the way you play it on whistle, or does it pretty much come out the same. different techniques or use of them?

[Jayhawk]

I play differently on whistle, for sure. I started on whistle, but rarely play it these days except when killing time waiting for a bus or if I'm really tired at session.

When I do play whistle, I find I can play what seems like forever without taking a breath (obviously I need to work on my flute embouchure). Because of this, my phrasing on tunes is different.

Eric

[sbfluter]

I can't say I'm very proficient on either, but when I try to play whistle it takes me a while to remember how to play it. It's like I can remember where to put my fingers when it's a tube sticking out to my right but not down in front of me. But recently I realized why it's hard to remember: it's actually that I have to remember how to hold the darn thing so it doesn't fall. Then all the memory seems to come back to me.

[Congratulations]

Yeah, I play them pretty differently. They're completely different instruments, to my mind.

[Gabriel]

I hardly use my tongue when playing the flute, but I use it a lot when playing the whistle. Triplets also work much better on the whistle. I guess that is because whistles normally are more responsive than flutes.

I tend to learn tunes on whistle exclusively and move to the flute as soon as I know how to play the tune on whistle. It really helps me to get my technique right this way. The other way round doesn't work as well for some reason.

[mutepointe]

i can play faster and livelier on a whistle. my flute always sounds sad or calming.

[Cubitt]

I once showed up to a gig to play flute and whistle. Good thing I had the whistle, 'cause the flute case was empty. Never even checked to see if I'd put it away.

I play whistle differently, and when I do a tune that I normally do only on flute, I find my kinetic memory of how the tune goes gets squirrely.

[scheky]

Never left my instrument behind, but when I was young and played in a ska band, we once showed up for a show missing our rythm section. They passed out in a cow pasture about 30 miles short of the town we were playing in...way too much whiskey in my opinion.

[ImNotIrish]

Just last night while playing at a lovely, small new session, I took out the whistle for the forst time in a long while...and low and behold, it felt very uncomfortable in my hands. Took me the better part of a three tune set to get the 'feel' of it again. It happened to be the only time I played it all evening, but it got me thinking that I really should put some practice time into the whistle as well. I always use it as a back-up when I am feeling tired, or had a few too many pints.... not really doing it justice I suppose.
Arbo