What was your inspiration?

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 1:15 am

On 2002-08-14 02:27, blackhawk wrote:
What's with the V.2.O.?

On 2002-08-14 02:37, avanutria wrote:
His predecessor got, um, recalled, in another thread.

It was a Crystal People thing. Though 1.0 continues to post in some threads.

_________________
Reasonable Person W a l d e n
Walden is blue at one time and green at another, even from the same point of view. Lying between the earth and the heavens, it partakes of the color of both.—Thoreau

[ This Message was edited by: Walden on 2002-08-14 04:20 ]

Caoimhin · Post by **Caoimhin** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 1:52 am

I started getting hooked onto Irish trad music a few years back, and knew nuts about the instruments. Take it this way, my assumption at that time was that there's no difference between Irish - Scottish - Celtic. Now I know the painful way...

Also heard a few songs which I only recently discovered had the whistle in it...

the low whistle has me attracted more than the high ones, 'cos they're so lovely and free flowing...or like they say, 'haunting'.

secondary agendas include the need to *play* something after staying away from the _compulsory_ recorder in school (never liked it). Tertiary, well, you needn't know.

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 4:07 am

I bought a Clarke Original pack as a gift for a friend who wanted to revive her tinwhistle playing. She is a lovely singer, but sometimes doesn't feel like singign, so she wanted an alternative to keep involved.

I loved the look, sound & feel of the Clarke whistle so much, I bought the same set for myself soon afterwards. Then a girl in my singing class told me about C&F and it all snowballed from there.

I had been playing Irish stuff on the Mandolin before that, but the whistle is just so much more convenient!

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 8:52 am

I am afraid that my story isn't nearly as interesting as some of yours!

Anyway, it all happened in Vienna, right after the war. I had come over in search of an old friend. We had lost touch, as was not unusual in those days. I was anxious. The address I still had was deserted, and I could find out nothing. It seemed that he had vanished.

I remember the days spent walking aimlessly in Vienna, passing the piles of rubble, the hungry children, and the whores. I made inquiries, but there was a strange silence surrounding my friend. The people who had made his acquaintance in the past I didn't like. Or perhaps they didn't like me. They told me nothing.

Then I received a mysterious message: I was to go to the fairgrounds. I went, and there he was: My friend. He quickly pulled me into a Ferris wheel. And as we rose and fell above the roofs of the hungry, ravaged city, he told me his story.

I will not here recall his sordid occupation in Vienna, his crime, and his attempts to justify it: anyway, he did not live.

But I remember one thing he said to me in that Ferris wheel: "Do not point your finger at me, Boomfield. Good and evil is not as simple as you think. Look at Italy: five hundered years of war, tyranny and exploitation have given us Dante, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Italian Opera. And look at Switzerland: four hundred years of neutrality and peace. What do we have for it? The coocoo-clock!"

"But what about Ireland?" I asked, puzzled.

"Bah!" he exclaimed, and threw a tin-whistle at my feet. Then he jumped off the Ferris wheel as our gondola dipped, and vanished in the crowd.

And as I rose again above the ashes of Europe, alone for all the people below me, I picked up the tin whistle.

(With apologies to G.G.)

LeeMarsh · Post by **LeeMarsh** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 9:23 am

My inspiration for Irish music has a number of sources; but, my inspiration for whistling was really C&F. I had been looking around for a melody instrument to replace a failing voice that had been my primary melody instrument for a few decades. Flute, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, all being considered. I found the Chiff and Fipple Site, and whistle got added to the list.

Whistling grew through support of the message board from my first purchase from 'The Whistle Shop' to picking up my Overton Low-D off Ebay for a steal. It fit my econonmy and needs for simplicity and portablility.

I don't think I would have stuck with it as long without the support of the folks here on the C&F message board. Here I find opportunity to share and learn with other excentrics that see the romance as well as the practicality of this little piece of tubing. I have the privilege to reflect on, not just technique, but also the spirit, heart, and love of the music. Here I can try to put into words not just what I feel about whistles, but also what I feel about what it means to me to participate in the folk and traditional music genres.

The simplicity, economy, and portablility of whistles clarify their use as a folk instruments and help me understand further the value of traditional music in todays world. Having a forum to voice those ideas and weigh the value of sharing music has let me explore its impact on my life. With whistles and C&F, I've been able to further establish how important it is to me to be connected to music; not in the sense of performer and audience; but rather, connected to the music that is shared between folk who just play for the enjoyment of the music.

This community, C&F, has given me both inspiration and forum for development.
I thank each of you for the enrichment you've brought to my enjoying my music, and hope that I have, in return, helped each of you to ...

_________________

Enjoy Your Music, Lee Marsh 

[ This Message was edited by: leemarsh on 2002-08-15 10:17 ]

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 9:41 am

But Bloomy,

Swiss chocolate, swiss cheese, secure bank accounts, leather shorts, hats with feathers!

Never coming last in Jeux Sans Frontiers!

The benefits are enormous!

And on the other hand, loud Italian tourists..

burnsbyrne · Post by **burnsbyrne** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 9:50 am

Bloomfield,
Did Orson Welles play the whistle too?:)
Your story sounds just a little like the plot of the Third Man?

BTW, don't knock Switzerland, my mother-in-law was from there. No, wait, that's not... Oh, nevermind!
Mike

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 10:06 am

Inspiration you ask?

30+ years of packing guitar gear into the trunk of a car. Half stacks, effect pedals, acoustic guitar, Les Pauls, Stratocasters, spares, duct tape, humidifiers, batteries, vacuum tubes, cables, cables AND MORE CABLES, I TELL YOU!!!! Cases, gig bags, picks. 45 minute sets with a 18 pound chunk of mahogany weighing down your shoulder. Back problems from heavy gear. STATIC ELECTRICITY NOISES. BROKEN STRINGS DURING A SOLO. Dropped guitar slide. Constant tuning. Regular string replacement. ELECTRIC SHOCK. Too many wrong notes available on a chromatic instrument! An $8,000 investment!! 20 minutes to setup your rig at a gig. Playing songs in Eb on guitar! Aaaahhhhrrrggg!!!!

"Quick Watson, the needle!" Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of Baskervilles

The whistle fits nicely in the pocket.

There. I feel better now.

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 11:15 am

On 2002-08-14 11:50, burnsbyrne wrote:
Bloomfield,
Did Orson Welles play the whistle too?:)
Your story sounds just a little like the plot of the Third Man?

I can't help it if others plagerize my life, now can I? :roll:

JimmyM · Post by **JimmyM** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 11:23 am

Once upon a time, I joined an evening class for guitar in Scots Traditional Music. Playing guitar behind Scots (or Irish) tunes is boring, unless you're advanced and innovative.

A sister class taught Beginner Whistle - an Irish girl (Eileen, I'm forever in your debt) teaching Scottish tunes - so I joined that, and got hooked, of course.

I'm constantly amazed that ace tunes emit themselves from a simple stick of brass with some holes in it. And that C+F was begat from it is inspiring - and probably inevitable (sorry Dale).

Two Aussie girl fiddlers came to our session last night - playing Irish tunes of course. We tried "Waltzing Matilda" for them (sort of ....) I never realised its a jig! Or is it a 6/8 March?

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 11:36 am

Gary and Jimmy: Dead-on.
With me, its 34 years of classical guitar, fingernails, packing music, footstools etc.
And accompaniment: other Weekender (fiddler) is always trying to get me to play guitar. Like I really want to compared to whistlin'!!

Teri-K · Post by **Teri-K** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 11:49 am

On 2002-08-14 13:15, Bloomfield wrote:
On 2002-08-14 11:50, burnsbyrne wrote:
Bloomfield,
Did Orson Welles play the whistle too?:)
Your story sounds just a little like the plot of the Third Man?
I can't help it if others plagerize my life, now can I? :roll:

Julia! I've been looking for you!

Lillian

psychih · Post by **psychih** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 12:00 pm

really OT from the OT of this post but: has anyone felt a jolt of electricity from an electric guitar before? could it just be faulty wiring or something...or do i pick up static

Dewhistle · Post by **Dewhistle** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 12:54 pm

It seems like I've always been looking for that simple (seeming) instrument I see in movies now and then... but if I had to choose the first time or place I saw and wanted to play one, it would be in The Secret Garden, colorplate on page 103, by Tasha Tudor. Caption: "A boy was sitting under a tree, with his back against it, playing on a rough wooden pipe." Something about that little tube with holes always made me want to get my hands on one and play.

Over the years I began to think they weren't available to the general public, maybe the good ones were made only by shepherd boys in Yorkshire or something. I tried crummy little bamboo pipes, and American fife (too danged hard to get a steady note) and the bought a cheap child's toy from the music section of an on-line toy shop. I tried it a bit but the sound was the usual cloying and shrill sound I'd expect from a kid's toy and I let my toddler beat it on furniture and finally it sat in her toy box for months. I still don't know how I found out the Sweetone was a legitimate instrument, but I think it came from being bombarded with Irish music... Riverdance, Irish Heartbeat, Enya... I'd really taken an interest in the pipes since hearing them from these sources but the whistle was right there and cheap. I would no longer have to practice piano at the church to get my music fix and have little old ladies nudge me and suggest I'd be accompanying hymns soon (I tend to stop when I hit a wrong note, playing piano}.

I am glad to say that where I did NOT hear it or get the inspiration is from the movie Titanic. I never saw it. I heard about the whistle being played in it after I took it up.

Edited for typo.

_________________
"Whistle and I'll come to you, my lad."

[ This Message was edited by: Dewhistle on 2002-08-14 14:55 ]

raindog1970 · Post by **raindog1970** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 1:13 pm

On 2002-08-14 14:00, psychih wrote:
really OT from the OT of this post but: has anyone felt a jolt of electricity from an electric guitar before? could it just be faulty wiring or something...or do i pick up static

It's not just you, I've had the crap knocked out of me by a guitar more than once.
Believe it or not, several guitarists have even been electrocuted by their guitars!