My Clarke Original is evil, long

cutterpup · Post by **cutterpup** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:18 pm

I know, I know, I shouldn't blame my weakness on a poor innocent whistle but listen first to my tale of woe and then decide.
Eight weeks ago I was just a poor recorder player who's friends said they wanted to take up the whistle. Being unable to persuade them to take up the recorder instead I decided to join them. I posted to this board and received the advice to buy a few of the inexpensive whistles and see which ones I like.
Well I followed that advice and got a Clarke Original and a Meg. I have been using them both, the Clarke more than the Meg and have been concentrating on the first octave plus middle E with occasional forays into the higher notes. Today I left the Clarke at home and brought the Meg to play at lunch time.
While enjoying the Meg's slightly less breathy notes and ease of playing I realized that I should get a few more whistles in to try. After all I haven't tried one yet that was cylindrical with a plastic fipple. And maybe I should get one that is wide bore and one that is narrow, just to see the difference.
I had it all planned out. I would treat myself next month to two or four new whistles. Then over the summer I would decide which two I liked best and get those as "tweaked models" then just maybe next year I would spring for a "better" whistle in the style I really liked the best.

Well then I came home and decided to kill some time with the Clarke. Do you know what that evil whistle did? It sang out pure and clear without a hint of breathiness. It hit high notes and low notes and styed playing nicely for as long as I asked.
Now what do I do? How can I go about my plans for collecting more plastic fipple whistles when my Clarke shows me how it can really sound?
To make matters worse it occured to me that if I want to bring a whistle to the recorder group to play then I need one in C as most of the recorders we use are either C or F.
So now what do I do????? I can't see spending the money on the others if the Clarke is going to sing for me. How can I give plastic a fair trial when wood is in my heart? Do I head straight for a "tweaked" Clarke and skip the rest? Do I get one in C?
The road to collecting had been clear, now it is foggy....Can whistles get jealous? Was the Clarke afraid it would be forgotten in the heady rush of playing new whistles? Wait I know now.I left it out on the recorder stand with two of my recorders. That's it. It learned how I wanted it to sound by being near them. Clever whistle.
Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead and stick with the Clarke.

dfernandez77 · Post by **dfernandez77** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:38 pm

You just wrote the extended lyrics to The Whistler's Lament.

If you like the Clarke original you might try a Freeman tweaked Shaw.

Or if you like the idea of wood and playing in the same key as your old recorder buddies, damn the torpedoes and go for a Sweetheart Laminated Birch Pro in C. A great first step into wood, at a good price, with low maintenance. I have the Sweetheart Pro in D and it's great.

Above all, stay mystified and enchanted by whatever you choose - and have fun. I still play my first (Sweetone and Shaw) whistles on occasion.

Wormdiet · Post by **Wormdiet** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 9:43 pm

Skip the gateway drugs and hit the hard stuff. It will bring about your end that much more quickly and painlessly:

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 9:45 pm

I guess I'm just not a collector. If you have a whistle that things are working out with, I would just practice on that one. I guess if you want to play with people who are playing in keys that are difficult on your whistle, well you might have to do something about that. But I find, as a beginner, that different whistles are quite difficult to get used to. It really seems to take quite a while to get the best sound you can get, to learn the little oddities of a whistle. After I got a third whistle, I decided that the time spent in getting used to a new whistle could be better spent in actually learning how to play the darn thing. One of my three I was very comfortable with and I just work with that one. Of course, I suppose it could be argued that getting used to new whistles does involve a lot of learning and I think that is true. As far as the emotional issues your whistle may be dealing with, that I don't have a clue on

.

Tommy · Post by **Tommy** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 9:55 pm

Welcome to the journey of WhOA, with no destination in sight?

cutterpup · Post by **cutterpup** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 4:48 am

Cynth wrote:I guess I'm just not a collector. If you have a whistle that things are working out with, I would just practice on that one. ... But I find, as a beginner, that different whistles are quite difficult to get used to. It really seems to take quite a while to get the best sound you can get, to learn the little oddities of a whistle. ... ... As far as the emotional issues your whistle may be dealing with, that I don't have a clue on .

Okay, although I actually am a collector at heart I have really been going through this whistle selection process methodically. Maybe because of my recorder backround I am searching for the "style" of whistle that best fits how I want mine to sound. I consider six weeks to be a good trial period for any instrument. (and that is how long it will be between my getting the Clarke and the Meg and buying anything else) I'm sure that whistles, like recorders, sound best "When played the way the instrument wants to be played" and sound better in the hands of an experienced whistler. From what I've seen there are great differences in sound, breath pressure, ect bewteen the less expensive whistles to make it worthwhile for someone to investigate which one suits them before investing in a more expensive instrument.
As far as my whistles emotional issues I feel it is singing so much better now due to a combination of my learning better breath control and breaking in the wooden fipple. I'm treating it as I would a whistle (or a recorder with a wooden block) that cost many times what I paid for it.

Scott McCallister · Post by **Scott McCallister** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:15 pm

Stay the course. Plan your work and work your plan. The whistles will be there. Learning how they sound and what they can do is a process. Be patient. Don't over do it. Music is a lifelong discipline....

Oh, who am I kidding. Take up the next unsolicited credit card offer you get in the mail and max that puppy out on every whistle you can find.

ya, that's much more satisfying

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:20 pm

Scott McCallister wrote:Oh, who am I kidding. Take up the next unsolicited credit card offer you get in the mail and max that puppy out on every whistle you can find.

ya, that's much more satisfying

Heh. That reminds me of a skit from the previous Saturday Night Live,
featuring Steve Martin.

"You too can get out of debt with my new book:
Don't buy stuff you cannot afford!"

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:44 pm

cutterpup wrote:Okay, although I actually am a collector at heart I have really been going through this whistle selection process methodically. Maybe because of my recorder backround I am searching for the "style" of whistle that best fits how I want mine to sound. I consider six weeks to be a good trial period for any instrument. (and that is how long it will be between my getting the Clarke and the Meg and buying anything else) I'm sure that whistles, like recorders, sound best "When played the way the instrument wants to be played" and sound better in the hands of an experienced whistler. From what I've seen there are great differences in sound, breath pressure, ect bewteen the less expensive whistles to make it worthwhile for someone to investigate which one suits them before investing in a more expensive instrument.
As far as my whistles emotional issues I feel it is singing so much better now due to a combination of my learning better breath control and breaking in the wooden fipple. I'm treating it as I would a whistle (or a recorder with a wooden block) that cost many times what I paid for it.

Well, I thought the Clarke was sounding the way you wanted a whistle to sound

. I don't really have any special notion of how I want my whistle to sound other than "not real bad", so that could make life easier for me. I do think six weeks is a fair trial time---although it took 8 weeks for your Clarke to sound good so how do you explain that JUST KIDDING!!! If you want to try other whistles that sounds good--I'm not saying that is bad and you certainly do sound as though you are proceeding in a thoughtful manner. I just meant that if you didn't want to get other whistles, that would seem reasonable as well. I think I am just generally confused about everything right now

.

cutterpup · Post by **cutterpup** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 3:25 pm

Cynth wrote:[Well, I thought the Clarke was sounding the way you wanted a whistle to sound . I I just meant that if you didn't want to get other whistles, that would seem reasonable as well. I think I am just generally confused about everything right now .

My problem is that I was looking forward to trying the others, but if the Clarke is sounding how I want my whistle to sound there really is no need for me to buy any others until I decide to spend the money for something like a tweaked Shaw. So, my Clarke is evil because it has put the brakes on the "need" for more whistles. It just sits there smugly on the recorder stand like a teacher's pet. I may, however, get "just one more" in the meantime. I have the Clarke and I have the Meg, I just need ( I think) a cylinderical one to complete my "testing". also this will give me one for the house, one for the car and one for the briefcase (they don't fit in my purse)

riverman · Post by **riverman** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 4:45 pm

Dear Cutterpup,
You perfectly described WHOA, and Cynth descibed the cure.
...but can you TAKE the cure?
Most of us have WHOA because we WANT it!

cutterpup · Post by **cutterpup** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:49 pm

I'm just wondering if maybe it's not already too late. Can anyone who has ten recorders stop at only two whistles? Of course I can justify all of them and play four of them regularly, if not daily. Maybe if I found some poor homeless whistle somewhere and gave it shelter I wouldn't feel so guilty about it all. After all, three of my recorders came from owners who suffered from buyers remorse within a month of purchase.

River Otter · Post by **River Otter** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:05 pm

cutterpup wrote:Can anyone who has ten recorders stop at only two whistles?

I believe the penalty per recorder is five whistles, so you've got 48 whistles still to buy just to bring you into the black! So get cracking, time's a-wastin'.

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 8:31 pm

don't forget to buy a flute.....just to see. don't inhale and if someone asks, tell them it must have fallen out of a friend's backpack or something. and practice saying, "i can quit any time i want to." with conviction.

cutterpup · Post by **cutterpup** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 7:07 am

mutepointe wrote:don't forget to buy a flute.....just to see. don't inhale and if someone asks, tell them it must have fallen out of a friend's backpack or something. and practice saying, "i can quit any time i want to." with conviction.

Won't work. My family knows that I can't play a flute. Can't even get a note out of an empty soda bottle. Just never got the hang of it. My daughter likes to taunt me by trilling away on a miniature panflute. I take it and get nothing. My only revenge is that she can't get a decent note out of a recorder.