It's just a tinwhistle, it ain't that hard to play! (RANT)

[TelegramSam]

Hey andreaz54, your capslock is stuck!


:roll:

[Chuck_Clark]

Heck, ain't no thing to playin' drums. All ya gotta do is hit 'em, right? And a mountain dulcimer has to be easy with only three sets of strings.

Honestly, for me ALL instruments come slowly and hard. OTOH, why worry about what someone else thinks? Ain't like you're in it for THEM, after all.

[JayMitch]

I think when we talk about how hard or easy an instrument is we are talking about how much time and effort it takes until we can play something that is not painful to listen to. In that sense, a whistle is certainly easier than, say, an oboe or a violin.

Another way to look at it is to ask how much time, effort and talent it takes to completely master an instrument. I don't believe anyone has ever completely mastered any instrument. Now when I listen to, say, Mary Bergin, it may sounds pretty much perfect to me, but I'm sure it does not to her. She would not have reached that level if she were not constantly looking for ways to improve.

So, every instrument is infinitely challenging, and no instrument is "easy".

--Jay

[Cristóir]

Easy to begin, difficult to master. Sort of like the saxophone that way.

Maybe easy to get a "sound" out of it... sort of. But most newcomers to saxophone are in immediate need of some tutoring to get a decent sound, appropriate emboucher, and good intonation. It takes time to get a good emboucher, time to get the fingering to be smooth (no slight hiccups between Bbis and C, high C - palm D, etc).

Woodwind players say brass instruments are easy because they only have three keys; brass players say woodwinds are easy because they don't have to worry about all those partials. Neither of them know what they're talking about. Sort of a microcosm of society.

I started out on saxophone in middle school after having played around with my dad's cornet as a little(r) kid. Then started playing flugelhorn in high school and trumpet a bit afterwards. I found saxophone easier to progress on, easier to control, easier to speak with. I'd never say brass is easy—IT AIN'T!

But music is about love and craft. As Wm. Blake wrote:

<blockquote>
Prayer is the study of Art.
Praise is the Practice of Art.
Fasting &c., all relate to Art.
The outward Ceremony is Antichrist.

...

Without Unceasing Practice nothing can be done.
Practice is Art.
If you leave off you are Lost
</blockquote>
from <em>Laocoön</em>
<a href="http://www.blakearchive.org/cgi-bin/nph ... ive.org</a>

Cheers,

[TonyHiggins]

Prayer is the study of Art.
Praise is the Practice of Art.
Fasting &c., all relate to Art.
The outward Ceremony is Antichrist.

...

Without Unceasing Practice nothing can be done.
Practice is Art.
If you leave off you are Lost

Part of that went over my head, but the practice part made me think about how a few days of missed practice can throw you off for another day or so. I had the flu and didn't get much practice time in for a few days. Coming back to it was daunting. It felt really clumsy, timing was way off. I hammered away hating how I sounded, and the next day, things were back to normal (hating how I sound, but less so.)

I originally played whistle just to get the tunes memorized so I could work them out on 5-string banjo (3-finger picking). Eventually, I realized I could play a lot more tunes a lot better on whistle than banjo and decided to focus on whistle. Finger picking ornamentation is workable on some tunes (in G), much more difficult to play tunes in D. (Don't ask me about Dorian and minor keys. )

Lance Weekender commented at his house the other evening that the whistle is a more direct connection to the music as you are able to avoid a lot of playing technicalities. I'd agree with that, though it's more entertaining to disagree with the guy.
Tony

[Jeferson]

Put me in the easy category...you know what I mean. Yes, there's a valid point to be made about the difference between playing simple tunes and playing more complex stuff well, but the basic task of using this instrument to play simple tunes from the get go is a relatively easy one.

My example is the class of 29 ten and eleven year olds I teach. We started on Sweetones two weeks ago yesterday, and now have a repertoire of ten simple tunes. The day I handed them out, we played around with them for an hour. I assigned the task of learning the D scale and one simple tune that evening. We made a list of titles (mary had a little lamb, three blind mice, row row row, etc. with a starting note for each one) and I gave them a basic whistle tab sheet that only showed how to finger each note of the scale and the Cnat, which I pointed out was necessary for anyone brave enough to take a stab at Happy Birthday.

The next day the proof was in the pudding. All but two kids had a song to share, including a dozen versions of Mary had a little lamb, three playing Happy Birthday (complete with Cnat!), two playing the latest Shania Twain hit, and one who played a halting yet courageous version of Amazing Grace. Our tempo is approaching half the speed I'd like, but hey, we've come very far in a short amount of time.

As for playing complex stuff, our aim is tunes like Inisheer with a roll or two by the end of May. For these kids, that is what I'd consider very complicated, and we're quite a ways away from that goal. We'll play in class three times a week for 30-45 minutes throughout April and May, and we'll practice at home for at least 40 minutes a week. We'll do it. Well, most of us will, although I suspect we'll have two or three holdouts who sit there and fake it, but that's a sad reality, I think. We'll see.

I can't imagine we'd have accomplished this with many other instruments.

Jef
PS this year's neat story came from the chap who came in with a home made whistle case to show me. "Hey, look at what my mom made for me!" he proudly proclaimed as he handed it over for my inspection. Nice case it was, although I could feel something foreign in there. "It even has a set of earplugs inside," I said. He was surprised and said he hadn't noticed. I'm pretty sure they belong to his mom.

[FJohnSharp]

One thing about a piano is that when you press the C key, a perfect C comes out. It's the playing of several keys at once, and in perfect time, that makes it hard.

Drums: now THOSE must be the easiest, because there are no notes, per se, only beats. Of course, as a classically trained drummer, who plays symphonic and concert band music, I know better. But a lot of people--musicians included--tend to belittle the lowly drummer as a musician. For a concert of Dvorak's "Carneval" overture, I played tamborine. I mean, come on, tamborine? Like Josie and the Pussycat? People weren't impressed, until I played the part, which requires a lot of shake rolls and double beats on the hand and knee. When we rehersed with percussion only, we got a lot of surprised and impressed looks.

As such I bet the bodhran players get abuse too. After all, it's just ONE drum, played with ONE hand. Right?

[Nanohedron]

Just to give Gunnar his due, trad flute is easier for me than whistle. Granted, I never touched a whistle until I was well along in my flute playing (I'm contrary like that ), but the wee beasties terrify me. I have respect for good whistle players.

Best,
N

[DaveAuty]

StevieJ wrote:

The whistle has to be one of the easiest instruments in the world.

Someone said that to me once, many moons ago, now I am coming up to old codger status and still think “when will this become easy?”
Not that I mind, that for me is the joy of whistle playing. Firstly the ease of getting the initial notes, then the effort of getting them into a reasonable sounding order.

Dave.

[kevin m.]

The Whistle is deceptively EASY only if you are EASILY pleased!
Yes,I know my postings on 'Tinwhistle tunes' are crap-but I have no shame! And many miles to go.

[chas]

Well, I admit it, I do play whistle and mountain dulcimer because they're simple. I actually took the whistle up after a few years toiling with the lever harp and learning maybe a couple of tunes with two hands. So, yes, for me, they're certainly easier than harp.

I hacked at the dulcimer for probably four years before deciding to learn how to play it. But once it hit me, I was really bit, and I played before crowds several times and even made a few bucks at it. (And, playing traditional Appalachian style, you fret one string and the other two drone.) It DID take a lot of work to become good at it, but I think I was more willing to put in the work because initial progress was quick.

I think my progress with the whistle has been similar -- a few years of noodling around, then discovering Brother Steve's, slowdown software, and learning what one has to do to make the whistle sound good. Just like learning how to make the drones hum on a dulcimer.

As I said, simple isn't necessarily easy. Just ask Richard Strauss how "easy" it was to write Thus Spake Zarathustra.

[Tyghress]

Yeah, but when I tried to play fiddle it had an infinitely large number of notes.

Steve

Me too, Steve! And all of them were wrong!

I agree that its one of the simpler instruments, but music of any sort isn't easy or simple (hey, singing...no strings, tubes, valves or keys...I've had my 'instrument' for a couple of decades and still can't make it sound decent musically even though I practice daily!).

[E = Fb]

Easy to get started on. Not so easy to completely master. Most instruments are like that. Keyboards, guitar and harp are dead easy to "chord along" on, but hard to master. The difference is that the whistle is almost entirely a melody instrument right from the start...so that kinda makes it an easier instrument overall.

[Celtoid]

I was drawn to the whistle because: 1. I knew nothing about music
2. the instrument was cheap, and therefore not a huge investment in case my desire was just a whim 3. I love the music that whistles can make.

Now that I have given the whistle a huge investment in time and effort:
1. I now know much more about music 2. My whistles are getting more expensive every day, but now I know that it is a lasting love affair 3. I now love the music that I can make with the whistle.

I think that is is not so difficult perhaps as other instruments, but to play really well takes true genius and artistry, just as it does for any other instrument.

[Mike J]

Celtoid, what can I say. Ditto on all points.