Flute back to whistle?

BillG · Post by **BillG** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:45 pm

With a little over two years working the flute (wooden, keyless D) I'm edging back toward the whistle for more practice and play time. Seems the low Ds have attracted me full force. I seem to get much more feeling out of the them. Am I fooling myself simply because the whistle is "easier" to produce tone? I feel so much more comfortable with the clarinet, down the front, angle of play and ease of holding.

Anyone moving back to the whistle for more play? Anyone want to comment on "Is he getting lazy and looking for an easier way?"

I'm ready to sell some flutes to buy some more top end (Copeland Low D) whistles to satisfy my "I don't know why" mood.

I'm beginning retirement and wonder if I REALLY want to spend so much time in getting "acceptable" (intermediate) on the flute.

I'd appreciate anyone's reactions to this post.

BillG

ErikT · Post by **ErikT** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:57 pm

You're not being lazy, Bill. There's no lazy in realizing that you don't want to take the time to learn a difficult instrument. I've wanted to play the piano for years, but don't want to take the time and effort to learn; there are other interests that I have that can fill that time better... at least at this point. I'm also not learning the pipes, accordian, fiddle, sax, and clarinet - all because the desire/sacrifice ratio is not high enough, not because I wouldn't enjoy playing them.

Play what you enjoy playing and are willing to devote the time to

Erik

livethe question · Post by **livethe question** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 7:20 pm

So weird to see your post....the timing that is.

I had actually typed a new topic offering to sell my Seery so I could get a three piece Copeland or trade for one but was so undecided I deleted it before it was posted only to return to the forum to see your message. Just too undecided to "go for it" right now.

I'm not giving up flute all together but have developed a "want" for a Copeland three piece low D. I like the flute but the Copelands I've played are special. I can see myself eventually getting to the same place you are talking about. I'm not there yet, but there are days.

Good luck

jim d

Hiro Ringo · Post by **Hiro Ringo** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 9:11 pm

I am choosing whistle because in Japan almost nobody knows what it is. This means, at least in Japan,whistles are not exposed to biases on their roles and articulations. So people here in Japan are supposed to hear music itself more than whistle as an instrument. In this way,I never play Recorders in Japan.

So if I lived in Ireland,I might be choosing flutes instead of whistles(or playing whistles as sub-instrument).As long as I think both instruments good.I guess whistles in Ireland are like recorders in Japan. I always try to let them hear music,not instruments.

Whistles mouthpiece is very convenient.It can make the instrument the easiest to play in the world for noblemen(like the old time case on Recorders) and at the same time it can make increase the capacity of expressions by making the instrument more difficult to play.Sometimes this convenience causes misunderstandings as if whistles/Recorders didnt need developing embouchure.
Once 'Johann Joachim Quanz' after all abandoned playing oboe because he came to the conclusion that embouchures between flute and oboe were different and to complete his playing style on flutes,playing both was imcompatible.I agree with Quanz.

Hmm,actually everything depends on what you really want. So if I,I try to know what I really want first(but thats extremely difficult way).

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 9:20 pm

COMPARE

BillG wrote:................working the flute ...............

WITH

BillG wrote:.........the whistle for more play........

All work and no play
takes away the passion
from the flute session

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 10:41 pm

Well, I wouldn't say whistle is an easier instrument, anyway...I'd say it's a different instrument, requiring a different approach entirely.

That said, work you do on one will benefit you on the other, so I wouldn't look at this so much as leaving the flute as adding back the whistle.

--James

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 11:25 pm

Nah, whistle is easier, but different.
A fellow at our local session has just given
up the flute and switched to whistle.
Said he never could play the flute.
Has my sympathy. I"m trying to
figure out how to steal his flute. Best

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 11:37 pm

jim stone wrote:.........
A fellow at our local session has just given
up the flute and switched to whistle.
Said he never could play the flute.
Has my sympathy. I"m trying to
figure out how to steal his flute.

WARNING!!!!
It may just be a lovers' quarrel.
Don't even try to steal a kiss.

Jens_Hoppe · Post by **Jens_Hoppe** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 2:30 am

BillG wrote:Anyone moving back to the whistle for more play? Anyone want to comment on "Is he getting lazy and looking for an easier way?"

I do so ever so often, when I get frustrated with the flute. Then again, I actually do prefer the sound of the flute to that of the whistle, so the flute draws me back every time...

/Jens

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 2:41 am

BillG wrote:I'm ready to sell some flutes to buy some more top end (Copeland Low D) whistles to satisfy my "I don't know why" mood.

I'm beginning retirement and wonder if I REALLY want to spend so much time in getting "acceptable" (intermediate) on the flute.

I'm not ripe to retire yet, but the green is gone with arthritis, and glasses to read. Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita...

Jean-Michel Veillon's playing convinced me. In a few years--three to five, given my average practice, less than an hour a day--I'd develop one acceptable embouchure and sound. Now, he has many while I'd go a long road to... mediocrity.

In the same time, I'm confident I'll get to play the low whistle well. The road is long too, and has no end, but it is more rewarding.

On the way, I learnt that expression and articulation are different, but there in their own way. They should be different, too. A mistake is to try and get the same from the whistle. Thinking this way, you end up believing a mandolin is "inferior" to a guitar...

Also, some may develop a complex because the whistle sounds apparently "automatically" compared to the traverso. So what? for that matter is the piano an inferior automated cymballom?

So I stick to whistles, high, alto and low, and that's the added magic of a truly transposing instrument. I mean practically, not theoretically.

Also, like Hiro, I have the luck of living where the low whistle is a little-known instrument, so it doesn't get labelled as "bumpkin's flute" and I can get away by describing it as "flûte irlandaise".

GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 2:44 am

Ah the wheel turns...

It's odd, I've just taken up the flute! But fank gawd for whistles, which provide much relief and joy when the stupid lip muscles start flapping like pork-chops in a stiff breeze...

Personally, I wouldn't sell off the flutes. Certainly not all of them anyway. Who knows how you'll feel in six weeks, months, years? Besides, a change is as good as a rest.

pixyy · Post by **pixyy** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 4:03 am

It's just so important to play your music on an instrument you flare with! I have played different instruments since I was 9 years old. When I started on the whistle it was exciting. When I started on the flute I was thrilled (not at the sound I produced, mind you) - something clicked. It's a tough beast to wrestle with, but well worth it IMO.

If you feel you and whistles are a match, then why keep flirting with the transverse beast

I do pick up my whistles in regularly (mostly Overton A and Low F) and it's always great fun, different creatures; friendly....

cheers,
Jeroen

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 1:21 pm

Want to trade Hoover whitecapped Clare 2 piece whistle for boxwood Casey Burns flute. Please PM me if interested in a straight up trade...

Eric

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 1:42 pm

Jayhawk wrote:Want to trade Hoover whitecapped Clare 2 piece whistle for boxwood Casey Burns flute. Please PM me if interested in a straight up trade...

Eric

Pity you don't own a red 1970 BSA Rocket III 750cc: I have this superb Briggs & Stratton lawn-mower, used only a thousand miles, which I could have sacrificed...

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 1:58 pm

Jeroen, I take your point, but I would like to add that when you've only been playing a few years you may not really know what instrument you really have a "flare" for yet.

A handful of years is not a long time in terms of learning the music.

--James

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