What got you started playing?

[Bridges-PdP]

What got me interested were all the LADIES!

or not. If fact, my loving wife once pulled out the D-word on me for practicing my whistle...that's right Dork.

I wasn't raised in a musical home, but I've wanted to make music all my life. Seems like every instrument that was interesting was also very hard to learn. I have a hard time learning languages(spoken, written, computer) and music. When I entered the mission field, everyone seemed to have some musical background. I felt left out. Then, seeing how much music can impact people of different cultures (that may not understand anything else about each other) really pushed me to try again. My requirements were that the instrument had to be simple and durable (we're short on luthiers and instrument repairers and reconditioners) and it had to be something I could perhaps teach myself, something that traveled well and something that doesn't require electricity. Simple woodwinds fit those requirements and the whistle/flute best of all.

Not sure I'll ever amount to anything from an ITM standpoint, but that's okay. Incidentally, finding C&F was the result of internet searches for simple music that I could play with a recorder. I've learned so much here; mostly that I have so much more to learn.

BTW, it's always spring or summer here.

[Tia]

My mom's irish so I grew up listneing to it, and I took irish dancing, It was only when I started actually liking it about 9 or 10 years ago, and saw that they had tin whistles at the feis's, so I saved my pennies and made the huge investment. I picked it up pretty quick, but only had a small book with tunes, and it became forgotten for about 5 years, when after I became really interested in celtic music and started listning to it alot, and heard the cottars, teens that could play this tin whistle, and actually used it often. So I bought another book and found lots of tunes on line and am loving it

[AlonE]

I started my interest by music celta, by one band called floggin molly, soon investigates that type of intrumento was the one that tapeworm that so beautiful sound, after some joins money to buy my first whistle, original Clarke D, soon it listens to The dubliner and it loves as Barney touched whistle, I have gotten to cry with some of its songs like Fields of Antherny, that beautiful song. All this makes months back single ..........

[airbender]

Hope my story is interesting enough ...

About a year ago, my wife took up piano lessons again and we have two small children that have been running around with their kazoos and such and I felt left out. I've never tried to play any instruments, but I have always hummed and whistled along to songs on the radio.

This is the weird part ... I wondered if people whistled professionally (ie. with their mouths and not an instrument). So a quick internet search later and I found that there was an instrument called a whistle. I remember saying to myself "No way! Really?"

The rest is history. I haven't played for very long, but enjoy the whistle very much. I'm not a hardcore ITM player, but enjoy the music. I just like the sound of the whistle.

I'm now finding myself afflicted with Whoa, but that's a good thing, right?

Thanks for listening,

Scott

[shadeclan]

I was never interested in music much - that's what makes this whole thing so . . . odd.

I would, from time to time, hear songs on public radio that touched me somehow, and it wasn't that it was ITM, and it wasn't even that it was a particular song, but it was something in the song that I couldn't identify - sounded like a flute, but different somehow.

Then the infamous "ressikan flute" episode came on and I was able to match the sound to the instrument. "Wow!" I thought - "I think that I could be persuaded to learn how to play that!". Several years of collecting the odd Celtic CD later, I found myself in a music shop in Bennington, VT where I saw a display of Generations. I picked up a blue top "D" and started teaching myself. Then I started searching the internet for information on how to play and that's how you all got stuck with me!

[gregdidge]

I played GHB alot quite a few years ago. I work second shift so making it to band practices was out. I like Irish music and the other day at church we had a guy playing tinwhistle. That got me thinking about the Chiff and Fipple website I had seen before. I tracked it down again and decided I needed to learn to play. I bought a Sweetone whistle in D and found a copy of Bill Ochs book and CD "Penny Whistle for Beginners". The main reason I wanted to learn the wistle was to play the song " The Parting Glass". So I am going thru the tutor and working on Parting Glass and having a wonderfull time. I keep finding more tunes that I want tolearn to play. It is great to have an instrement that you can just pick up and play, NO REEDS!!!

[Roger O'Keeffe]

I realized immediately that the whole purpose of my life was to play the tinwhistle. So I sold everything I owned and bought a sweet-tone on the internet for $2.95, and the rest is history.

The quote as edited above deserves to feature on the C&F home page. While WhOA is fun, it provides a very valuable reality check.

In my case, it was hearing Seán Potts (senior) playing Casadh an tSúgáin at an early Chieftains concert in Castletown House circa 1970. I had a rough idea of the market value of the instrument, and the fact that he could produce such evocatively gut-wrenching music from such an instrument in such an environment made it all the more moving. I came away thinking "I want to play music like that". The dance tunes and even the pipes came later.

[FractalSquirrel]

I've played in a 'folk / drinking music of the world but mostly Irish' band in the past as an accordion player.

I had a friend, who is an excellent uilleann piper and excellent whistle player, over in the past when he left behind a Feadog D, mark III. Or so I thought. I called and told him, but he insisted he had all his whistles.

I can't help but mess with a musical instrument just sitting there, so I picked it up and quickly started playing Inner Light from that Star Trek episode. Amazed how easy it was, I played some O'Carolan and some Jigs and Reels since I already knew them on squeezebox.

Everyone seemed amazed at how much progress I made in just a few months. I decided I needed a C-whistle, and got a generation, but gave it to a 11 year old kid who was so poor his mother didn't have TV or video games, and he really appreciated the gift, and managed to learn to flip octaves and the scale in about half an hour!

Needing a new whistle, I went to Lark in the Morning, only to come home with a sweetheart fife instead! I kept hearing how hard transverse flutes were hard to get a note out of, but I could play it fine when I first picked it up at the store. My tone was a little airy, a little squeaky, but I had no problem making a solid note.

I've made a lot of progress since then, approaching a week of playing it.

The mystery of the extra whistle has been solved, turns out this friend gave the Feadog to another who left it there, without even realizing it because he never played it anyway. Since I did, it's now formally mine!

At a SciFi/Fantasy convention, I picked up a few $1! bamboo whistles that seem to be tuned somewhere on a quarter tone between b and b flat. I also picked up a $20 plastic Tribal Earth Low D, that had dead notes in the second octave, but I fixed it by sandpapering out plastic machining curly plastic pieces out of the windway and fingerholes.

Thanks in part to C&F, I've got WhOA and FOA as well. Have to get one of those Tipple flutes pretty soon!

[Mitch]

It was a dark and stormy night.

I was wandering the moors with my old dog Smokey who enjoyed chasing rabits and generally enjoying bounding in and out of the the fog like a loony ghost.

There was lighting flickering all round the horizon. I was counting each flash and trying to guess how far away each was by the number I had counted when the booming thunder startled Smokey back out of the fog to be at my side. Such a brave hound.

We were nearing Dead Man's Peak, which was always the turning point in our walks. The wind-blasted gallows-tree would soon be in sight. As we approached. A great fork of lightning illuminated the tree.

Silhouetted there I saw two men. In the instant of the flash I saw something raised then another flash. This was no lightening although the double-barrelled boom mingled with the thunder clap. In the reddening after-glow I saw the other fall and halted stock still.

Smokey whimpered to my side as we both crouched to silence. I could hear a voice growl "And that's fer tha maid behin' tha baaaaarrrrrrr".

Smokey pressed in close and let out a small whine before I could get a hand on his muzzle.

From the peak i heard a click and another boom accompanied by a flash that surely must have revealed me and the hound. Pellets whistled into the grass to the right hissing and clacking. I was sure the next round would find us so I pressed down flat, hard and to the right, rolling the dog tight beneath me under my cloak. We held our breaths.

"Stand up and le'me see ya" the voice grinded. I kept very still. Smokey seemed to get the drift and held himself rigid.

This was a bind indeed. I knew the asailant would search the hill for us, we dare not move for fear of discovery, and when he found us at last, it would be the end for sure.

I needed a tool, some kind of weapon or method to even the odds and, at least grant me a few more breaths. My hand started searching the ground for a rock, a stick. Anything.

My questing fingers found something round and rod-like. An old brass pipe. At only a foot in length and not very hefty it would not afford an effective missile so I had to think hard.

In my desparation, my plan was this - I would tie my white handkerchief on this pathetic stick and stand to waive it shouting "I surrender". Hopefully this ruse would distract the villain long enough to get close enough to get a grip on his fiendish neck.

I fumbled my hankerchief free and silently tied it. Then stood up.

I only had time to shout "I ..." when the flash and boom hit my senses. The half-raised surrender flag took the full brunt of the blast and spun me round. In my fright my sphincter tightened nearly as hard as my hand. I felt the poor flag crush beneath my grip as I rolled down the hill.

Alive still. Smokey had got the better part of valour and was scuttling away bravely down the hill abandonning me and my tatterd strategy.

The villain pumped 3 shots after Smokey as he escaped, leaving me to divine my next move.

All I had left was an old brass pipe full of holes and trailing shreds of cloth with one end crushed still beneath my gripping hand. What could I do?

I examined my palfry weapon to see if there was, at least, a sharpened edge, but all I found was a collection of neat little holes where the shot-pellets had done thier work. There was nothing left for me to do.

Quickly I stood and puffed the tube. For sure the notes rang true and I started up the Silver Spear (which I'd never played before, let alone on a tube-with-holes-in-it)!

At this the assailant drew forth with double-death aimed at my scone shouting "no no No! you got it all wrong! the roll is on the up beat you fool! Le'me show you how it's done!" He dropped his aim and whipped-out a Feadog.

Jim and I still go to sessions. I never asked who that was on the moor and Smokey still howls whenever he hears the Silver Spear.

[Denny]

[gonzo914]

From The Gonzo Papers -- My first post here, posted originally on May 20, 2002, four days after joining.

I'm very new to this, and it was a series of random and unconnected events -- the caprice of fate, if you will -- that led me to whistles.

1. Two years ago -- I was in a toy store to get my kids some of those sticks that you clack together to Beethoven, and I saw a display of Clarke whistles. I didn't have a clue as to what they were, but the history intrigued me, so I bought one. I took it home, looked at the finger chart, decided it was too complex for me, and shoved it in a drawer.

2. Last January -- I enrolled my kids in an Irish dancing class because they needed some kind of physical activity and, like their father, they absolutely sucked at sports.

3. Last month -- The whole family went to a party at the Irish dance teacher's house, where a collection of Irish musicians -- including a whistler -- played out on the porch for about two hours. I had never heard Irish music before, except in "The Quiet Man" and "War of the Buttons," but I was taken by it. I even talked to the whistler, but I decided what I really wanted was a hammer dulcimer.

4. Three weeks ago -- Found out how much hammer dulcimers cost; got the Clarke whistle back out of the drawer and found I could almost find all the notes to "Danny Boy."

5. Two weeks ago -- Kids wanted to learn to play the recorder, so I dug out two that had been in a box in the garage for about 10 years and found that the reason they had been put in the box was they were full of puppy chews. My wife wanted new ones for them. Did you know that if you search on "Yamaha recorder" on google, your third hit will be The Whistle Shop?

6. Last week -- A box of whistles, instruction books and CDs (along with two Yamaha recorders) arrived UPS.

And now I can play two tunes. One of them sounds a little like "The Galway Piper," and the other one doesn't.

By way of an update --

7. About a month after posting this, I went to a Natalie MacMaster outdoor concert. We got there 2 hours early and sat right in front of the stage. The Irish dance teacher referenced in items 3 and 4 danced with the band, and my kids ended up on stage dancing at some point. The wind was gusting, and you could tell which way it was blowing from the direction the whistle player was facing. This concert thoroughly hooked me, and Natalie Macmaster's Live CD, which features the sets she played at that concert, is still my favorite. (And, yes, I know it's not really trad, but neither is Mahler's First, and I like it, too, so the trad snobs can kiss my furry blue ass.)

8. The dance lessons are sadly no more, as the dance teacher pcked up and left town a few months after this was written, but not before I got to play Swallowtail Jig for the beginner class at an exhibition.

9. The Whistle Shop is no longer the third hit when you google "Yamaha recorder."

10. The one tune that I said sounded like the Galway Piper didn't sound much like the Galway Piper because it was really the Rakes of Mallow. I can play many more tunes now, and they no longer all sound like either The Galway Piper or the Rakes of Mallow. Now they all sound like Ten-Penny Bit.

11. I have never seen the Ressikan flute episode and am not even sure I spelled it correctly.

12. I have yet to learn a reel.

[shadeclan]

Mitch, I must agree with Denny:

Mitch, I would like to reiterate - if you ever write a book, let me know . . .

[Kamin]

"The Inner Light" has to be my favorite hour of television in all of televisiondom. Researching that led me here, and this site led me to buy a few whistles. I may never gain much proficiency, but if can play "Picard's Air" reasonably well in a few years I'll be happy.

Star Trek

Am I the only one?

____________________________________
Live long and prosper

[straycat82]

Spider Stacy was my first introduction to whistling. Although I have Irish heritage, the music was somehow lost in prior generations and I had no idea what I was missing... actually didn't even know of my heritage until I went searching. Having grown up listening to punk rock, bands like the Pogues, the Dropkick Murphy's and Flogging Molly made a nice smooth introduction to Irish music. That led me to (what I thought was "trad" at the time) the Clancy Brothers, the Irish Rovers (neither of which I can listen to anymore), the Dubliners and eventually to the Chieftains. The Chieftains gave way to the likes of Planxty, the Bothy Band and the music of the various members of those bands... so on and so forth, and I'll always be searching and learning.
I bought my first whistle, a Clarke original (which I played exclusively for about four years) and learned by ear. I played simple melodies from the Pogues and Flogging Molly for years before I discovered traditional tunes and I never felt the urge to purchase more whistles until I stumbled upon Chiff&Fipple. I may have gone through a short period of WhOA when I discovered how many different types of whistles there were but I'm over it. I tried most of the different makes that I was curious about (I never was curious about wooden whistles) and I resold most of what I bought (in D anyways) when I found myself always reaching for the Gen or Feadog. If Gen and/or Feadog were available in more keys (A, for example) then I'd probably have no high end whistles at all.

[polishlady]

About seven months ago my oldest son started to play recorder in high school. And so did I (only not in high school but in the bathroom, when my youngest son was having bath). While googling about recorders i found a lot about tin whistles,so i went to local music store to look for them.The guy in the store had only one bright yellow Polish whistle and didn't know how much did it cost. Well, he sold me it for 4$. Now i have two whistles and going to buy more, and three soprano recorders-and going to buy an alto, and going to buy clay ocarina, and some Polish folk wooden whistles, and dwojnica(a burdon whistle)...