Top 10 Questions/Comments About Your Whistle

[pipersgrip]

Top 10 things that I recall friends, acquaintances or strangers saying/asking upon hearing me play the whistle or knowing that I play the whistle:

10. When did you start playing the Greek flute? ('member that, Eric!)

09. How do you tell all of those songs (meaning tunes) apart? They all sound the same to me.

08. Is that the same as a recorder?

07. Oh, I bet you would love this show I saw last month on PBS, it's called Celtic Woman. Have you heard of it?

06. Listening to you play makes me want to do a jig! (I was playing a reel at the time)

05. This is my friend, Johnny. He plays some sort of Irish bagpipe-thingy.

04. That's awesome! Sounds just like the Titanic soundtrack!

03. You play Irish music? What, like U2 and stuff?

02. Are those nunchucks?! (said a police officer when he pulled me over and saw two Clarke whistles sitting in my front passenger seat)

01. Dude, have you ever tried drinking Guinness through one of those like a straw?

i have been asked all of those questions, that is sooo funny.

[walrii]

Having started late in life with no previous music experience, my most common comment is "You? Music? Really?"

[Gabriel]

I usually don't play with people who don't know what a whistle is or how it is supposed to sound, so my top 10 is a top 3.

3. Is that a metal recorder?
2. Is that tin whistle made of wood?
1. It can't be a TIN whistle. It's made of WOOD!

[Brigitte]

3. Is that a metal recorder?

Having a couple of times a stand at a German Folk Festival some years ago this was THE number one question we heard, followed by "I wonder why this recorder is missing two holes?"

Brigitte

[Innocent Bystander]

My daughter just groans.

...john

Mine runs from the room and spends the rest of the day sobbing in her room (such that you can hear it anywhere in the house). Valid from 8.00 am.

Despite this I have been complemented on my playing. Not by members of my family, of course. They're making rumblings about the guitar now. Maybe I should be making plans to move out.

[breqwas]

Top-1, some kid after seeing me playing a low-D in the park:

"Mom, why is that man singing?"

I still don't know the answer.

[riverman]

1. I heard you playing outside and it sounded like a recording! It was beautiful! (from my wife --the only opinion that really counts!)

I wish I were so lucky, when I play in the house my wife shuts the door, leaves the room and turns up the TV in the next room.
Before the jokes start flying, it's not because my playing is unlistenable, she just has very sensitive hearing and doesn't care for the high pitch. She groans when I play tracks with whistle, pipes, fiddle, or accordian in the car. I often put my iPod on shuffle when driving and she's pretty much got me trained to automatically skip the track when most Irish music comes on

Yep, marriage can be a compromise! Don't blame your wife, straycat! My wife likes whistle, but let's face it, the high D and even C can be kinda rough in the high range (including on a disc). I have sensitive hearing like your wife so I generally play with earplugs in. I hardly ever play in the same room with my wife or anybody else because of this. When I play outside with my wife, she sits apart, not right beside me. She especially likes the music from far off! And before the jokes start flying, it's because of the etheral sound of the whistle when its wafting through the trees. Though I don't deny that many would like to hear me whistle from FAR off!!

[straycat82]

Yep, marriage can be a compromise! Don't blame your wife, straycat! My wife likes whistle, but let's face it, the high D and even C can be kinda rough in the high range (including on a disc). I have sensitive hearing like your wife so I generally play with earplugs in. I hardly ever play in the same room with my wife or anybody else because of this. When I play outside with my wife, she sits apart, not right beside me. She especially likes the music from far off! And before the jokes start flying, it's because of the etheral sound of the whistle when its wafting through the trees. Though I don't deny that many would like to hear me whistle from FAR off!!

Nah, I don't blame my wife. Trust me, she more than makes up for her lack of interest in Irish music with her wonderful personality, appreciation and talent for visual arts and many, many other things.
I'll admit I've daydreamed about how it would be if she were as passionate about music as I am but I can hardly hold that against her

[riverman]

I'll admit I've daydreamed about how it would be if she were as passionate about music as I am but I can hardly hold that against her

Yeah, my daughter plays silver flute beautifully, but my daydreams of whistle-flute sessions evaporated when she said she would never play in front of another person. I said, "But you played in school band!" And she said, "Yeah, but there's lots of people playing." Besides, she has no love for IT music. *Poof!* There go the dreams!!

[lordofthestrings]

Top-1, some kid after seeing me playing a low-D in the park:

"Mom, why is that man singing?"

When I play Low D, people often say the reverse: "Why isn't that man singing/doing anything besides playing that tube/getting a job"

[A-Musing]

Well...
If we're speaking of the "comments" of our spouses/partners/better-halves/families.....

My wife's "comments," at this late date, are SILENT. Yes, fellow whistlers, I KNOW when, where, and how to whistle, vis a vis her whereabouts. This ain't rocket science...

Distance makes the heart grow fonder? sigh...

Whistle on, Garth...

[Daleth]

"Hey, can you play anything from Zelda?"

And the ever-popular, when I'm playing my low D - "Where's the snake?" IT LOOKS AND SOUNDS NOTHING LIKE WHAT SNAKE CHARMERS PLAY!

And of course, much like any other whistle player has heard time and time again "You play that recorder really good."

[PallasAthena]

I make a point of not playing in front of people. But occasionaly I do.

1 *strange looks*

2. Your playing sounds good.

3. Can you play something else? (When it occured to me that I was playing THe Blackthorn Stick way too much and I should probably find some other jigs I liked...)


Comments 2 and 3 come from friends and family.

[MaryC]

I introduced "Be Thou My Vision" by playing it once through with organ accompaniment last month.

After the service, I was asked by 5 or 6 parishioners to play at their funerals,

You'll have to get 'em to die at times that suit your work-schedule and suchlike

We have one gentleman who wants "When the Saints go Marching In" - I'm hoping that his wife outlives and over-rules him!

[dfernandez77]

I hear that people walk around the streets in Ireland playing those all the time.

Um... well...

Yes. Everyone does there.


( sorry, I couldn't help it. )

Funny!

Reminds me of the walking tour I took in Co. Kerry last year. Some of the tour-mates twisted my arm to play a couple tunes on the minibus to a trail head. The Irish minibus driver said, "Not bad, you should go busking in Killarney." I might have gained a coin or two from tourists because I would have been the only fool on the street playing one.

Then I spent a day at the "World Bodhrán Championship" in Milltown, Co. Kerry. A whole entire day - and not a bodhrán to be seen.