What got you started playing?

[tin tin]

I've been playing flute since I was 11, but my interest in Irish traditional music began about ten years ago, when I was given a Feadog by a friend who spent a semester studying in Galway. I learned to play the Road to Lisdoonvarna poorly, and then killed the whistle trying to tweak it. (Better, better, better, ruined.)
Then five years ago I saw Cherish the Ladies (Father Charlie Coen opened for them), and I decided it was a waste of my life not to learn Irish music. The past several years have been the most musically satisfying of my life.

[markbell]

My late, beloved father-in-law brought me a Clare D, as a souvenir from their trip to Ireland, back in 1987 or 1988.

Mark

[chrisoff]

I was thinking about taking on a second instrument to give me a reason to learn sheet music and maybe give me a different perspective for playing my main instrument, the guitar. I saw a locally produced photography documentary one day, where the photographer was taking a picture of a guy about my age sitting on calton hill in Edinburgh playing a tin whistle. Dunno what he was playing but it sounded great and didn't look all that hard.

One quick trip to my favourite online instrument shop had aquired me the bill ochs book and a clarke D package. Just wish I could put my guitar down long enough to play the thing...

[mmccabe]

So I sold everything I owned and bought a sweet-tone on the internet for $2.95, and the rest is history.

Well...I have Irish blood and this has always facinated me

My Grandfather on my dad's side was Irish. I have lived in England all my life so I’ve never really been surrounded by Irish musicians. I do remember celtic music being being sort of in the background, like when I was younger I remember watching Riverdance whenever it was on T.V!

My interest grew when I started listening to The Corrs. I always found that out of all The Corr’s albums it was their instrumentals that I loved the most.

Then recently I found YouTube and starting searching for random artists that I liked, I typed in The Corrs and noticed Andrea Corr played the Tin Whistle. I thought it sounded awesome and did a search to find out more about them. I also did and search ‘Tin Whistle’ and found that there were lots of people who had uploaded videos of their playing, this really inspired me

I've always wanted to learn an instrument. I've 'dabbled' with a keyboard on and off but could never really afford lessons and never really thought about teaching myself. The past few months I have been listening really intently to all kinds of music wishing I could play an instrument. The Tin Whistle seemed perfect for me! It's small so I can take it anywhere! I can just pick it up and play it, It's not an instrument that takes effort to set up (I’m lazy like that).

I've been playing for two weeks now. My mum used to play the guitar and I suppose you could say I've inspired her to pick it up again! She's teaching my brother to play too! We’re currently learning Scarborough Fair.

[izzarina]

BTW, where in the world is anyone where it's spring!? In Michigan it's still pretty frigid.

It seems that spring never comes to the vast, frozen tundra of upstate New York

I've been "musically inclined" for most of my life. I started out with voice...all the training and whatnot that involves that. I was actually going to go to college for it (even more formal training, perhaps operatic type stuff), but in the end went for Biology I also played flute for a few years, but I was never all that good at it. I would love to try an Irish flute.

I've always had a passion for Irish music, even when I was young. I've just gotten more passionate as the years wore on. I bought my first whistle about 4 years ago, and now I have 5. Unfortunately, time doesn't allow me to practice nearly as much as I'd like, so I too would more than likely be considered a beginner. My A rolls stink too

[mutepointe]

i am part of the folk group at my church. the keyboardist's son-in-law was visiting and was a guest musician with us. he played a brass whistle with a green top. i loved the sound. you folks taught me how to play. thanks.

[anniemcu]

Sheesh... we're still waiting for the trees to get 'fuzzy', and needing a fire in the woodstove! Spring is is as elusive as a March Hare.

The subject of what got us started has been broached before, and there are some great stories, but I can't seem to find the proper search words to locate the thread(s).

I got hooked waaaaaaaay back in the mid 1970s after hearing recordings of the Chieftains, Battlefield Band, Boys of the Lough, etc. My mom set me up for it though, by making sure I had a very broad base of music to listen to as a child, and especially Scottish Pipers. Unfortunately, the drive to actually practice did not arrive at the same time as the desire to play... so, although I 'started' some 30 years ago, I have actually been concentrating on playing and technique for only a few years.

[Adrian]

BTW, where in the world is anyone where it's spring!? In Michigan it's still pretty frigid.

We are well into spring here in Greece. Blossom is falling and trees beginning to leaf. Today I watched sparrows nesting. It was warm enough to wear shorts.

[emmline]

My brother was an oddball instrument geek growing up (as well as a map-drawing, language acquiring, etc...geek.) He had a concertina, and a jaw (jew's?) harp, and a small steel drum.

So, in the yearly quest for interesting Christmas gifts, my mom ended up giving my brother and me Gens (he got a C, I got a D,) and a copy of Robin Williamson's Penny Whistle Book. Roughly 1979, I guess. (my sister wasn't so musical, but I scratched around with piano and viola and that must be how I merited the pennywhistle. Can't remember what my sis got instead. Probably a book.)

I lost that red-topped Gen sometime in the years of decluttering baby paraphernalia. Later bought myself the Ochs book and whistle, which I never liked too well. (the whistle that is.)

Cannot for the life of me remember WHAT possessed me to go on eBay and bid on an Overton low D. A very strange non sequitur as far as I can tell. I'd never heard of Overton. Got the Overton. It was in researching Overton, and what the heck had I bought(?) that I stumbled across C&F.
Here I is.

[Tril Bluejacket]

I loved the sound of the Irish whistle I heard playing in the background of some movies, even before I knew what instrument was making that beautiful sound.

It hadn't occurred to me to try to learn to play the whistle until a couple of years ago. I bought an inexpensive Sweetone - and became obsessed. I now own a Burke brass narrow bore D, but because I smooshed most of my fingers in machinery a while back, for the time being I can't play it. Typing with 2 +1 fingers works, but trying to play the whistle that way doesn't.

[Franz]

On a trip to Ireland a few years back, I purchased a Waltons Little Black Whistle and book after attending a music show in Dublin. I didn't do anything with it until after attending an Irish music concert here at home where I was quite impressed with the whistle players ability. I then dug it out and started playing around with it. On a musical ability scale of 0-10, I'm about a 1, so I will never be very good, but I have progressed much further than I ever thought I would. I really enjoy my whistles and I can count more of them than tunes I can play from memory.

[CountryKitty]

Blame it all on my brother.

He gave my kids The Ocarina of Time, and after 3 years of kicking their butts on it I got a Lark of the Morning catalog and wound up getting 3 ocarinas for us all.

Then I saw a zholomiga on eBay for $10 bucks, and my WhOA kicked in with a twist---I was hooked on ethnic whistles as a form of playable folk art. Thanks to a pair of teens, a nightshift hubby who needs to be kept on schedule and my entry into nursing school, I'm learning very slowly----I have more whistles then I know songs to play on them.

I have the Bill Ochs book, a Clark (high D) which I can play near silently to avoid disturbing him, and a Whistlesmith (low D).

[Charlene]

When I first saw the Irish Rovers in concert back in 1970, I loved their music and Will Millar made the whistle look so easy. A few years later I bought a whistle and book, and got the most god-awful squawks out of it! Kept trying off and on over the years but never really learned how to do a whole lot. About 5 years ago I decided I wanted to try it again but couldn't find that whistle. Then I was at a folk festival and someone was selling Megs for under $3, so I bought one, figuring if this was just going to be a toy there wasn't any sense spending a lot of money on it. Actually managed to get some songs out of the Meg, then stumbled across C&F. Asked my husband for a good whistle for Christmas a couple of years ago and he got me a Clarke D. I also have a C now but I use the Clarke more. Still not good enough to let anyone outside the family hear me, and I'm terrible about practicing. Somehow after I get home from work around 7:30pm and have supper, I don't feel like "working" at anything - I'd rather just get on the computer and relax. Besides, if my husband is watching TV in our small house any other noise bothers him.

Maybe I'll get more practice time in when it gets warm enough to be outside in the evening - that should be, oh, around August 15 up here!

[anniemcu]

...he whistled and he sang till the green woods rang . . .

"... and he won the heart of a Laaaaaaaaaady..."

Yup, them too...

[bubbledragon]

I started playing flute when I was 6 or 7. I played through high school and college, and was quite good, even a leader, but not 'professionally skilled,' which is fine by me. I tried joining a community band, which didn't work out so well, due to a lot of things, but mainly because some of the older members somehow managed to smoke cigars, drink beers, and play trumpets at the same time - I just don't know how. No offense to smokers, but it really set off my migraines, so I couldn't stick around for long.

So I was trying to find an outlet for music, and I'm not opposed to learning new instruments, and I was intrigued by the fifey sounding instrument in Flogging Molly. So I found out it was a pennywhistle - figured it's got the same semblance of lifting the fingers to go up the scale as the flute did, so I could associate similarly.

So last week I trotted on down to the closest session I could find (only 1/2 hour away, closer than my office!) I think it'll be fun. Though my hubby'll be out of luck for musical outlet - the trombone doesn't exactly translate so well, I'm afraid. (Edit: I know lots of sessions are in bars, but I'm fortunate that the one I found is at our Irish center, and as far as I can tell, it's non-smoking. Not to mention that I believe that the local county is trying to pass one of those smoking bans... for better or for worse.)