I'd say definitely play the slower stuff if you're wanting to impress... I use to date a girl who enjoyed my whistle playing, and actually had me teaching her the whistle at one point, but she always loved the slow stuff, and always thought how "pretty" it was. So leave The Bucks of Oranmore in the bag I guess, although actually if you can play that reel fairly good, might not be a bad idea, since it's probably the best composed reel in ITM IMHO.
Move the thread to the stringed instruments forum and play her "Romanza" on the guitar - it's a cert.
Whistle, I'm not so sure. The lower the whistle the better, I agree. An Phis Fliuch is the obvious tune...
...but a slow air is better. Or even a waltz. I'd suggest Kathyrn Tickell's Roly Gentle or the Rose Waltz.
It wasn't a whistle but a recorder that quite literally brought me the love of my life.
I had a nice bass recorder that I wasn't using much so I put it up for sale on eBay. I was living in Troy NY and a woman from Michigan emailed me to ask some questions about the instrument. We took to IMing then phone calling. She bought the recorder and we continued to communicate. To make a short story even shorter, she's now my wife of 5 years and the recorder proudly hangs in our living room.
A low whistle should generally be more impressive. Tin whistles look toy-like to people who don't know them. And fast tunes, even though they might be impressive for players, often are not quite impressive for listeners since most of them simply don't know how hard it is to make them sound good...they only judge by prettiness, and slow tunes mostly have more of it, to their ears at least.
Some tunes:
- Josefine's Waltz (has a low C, but you can substitute it somehow)
- Waltz for Pelle
- Clare's Reel (it says reel, but it's a great slow melancholic tune)
- Don Oíche Ud I Mbeithil is pretty, too.
Don't spend a lot of time trying to figure out the right tune. Just go with the flow and the moment will present itself, and the right tune will come to mind.
I was sitting outside with two friends who had introduced me to a woman from Ireland. It was dark, two candles were lit. I excused myself and went to my car to get my whistle. I came back and played "Fire on the Hearth," a slow air. The wind picked up and blew the candles out as I continued the tune. Nobody had mentioned to the lady that I played Irish music. I wasn't trying to impress her, just sharing some music.
mahanpots wrote:Don't spend a lot of time trying to figure out the right tune. Just go with the flow and the moment will present itself, and the right tune will come to mind.
True, but spend a moment to avoid the wrong tune. For example, 'I Buried My Wife and Danced on Her Grave' might be a bad choice.
Charlie Gravel
“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.”
― Oscar Wilde
Tell us something.: "Tell us something" hits me a bit like someone asking me to tell a joke. I can always think of a hundred of them until someone asks me for one. You know how it is. Right now, I can't think of "something" to tell you. But I have to use at least 100 characters to inform you of that.
Hard to beat Carrickfergus (which I played at a friend's wedding last spring and had the ladies all dabbin' their eyes) or O My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose.
Powerful tunes, these. Use them only for good, never for evil.
My wife swoons whenever I play my Bleazey Low D. I have very FEW high whistles that she like the sound of.
I would vote something slow, recognizable and on a low(er) whistle. It won't matter what the tune is if she can recognize it, especially if it is one that she has mentioned she likes a lot.
Steven - IDAwHOa - Wood Rocks
"If you keep asking questions.... You keep getting answers." - Miss Frizzle - The Magic School Bus
After listening to someone playing Carrickfergus on a whistle on youtube, it has been added to my list of possible tunes.
The list so far is
Inisheer
Carrickfergus
Beauty and the beast theme (We both like Disney's animated movies, and that song IS beautyful on a whistle)
Suteki Da Ne (A song from a computer game series named Final Fantasy, several videos can be found on youtube if you're curious)
I think the trick is being prepared for the right occasion, and then make it seem like it was "just an idea i had".
-Put on a "Cherish The Ladies" CD and let Joanie do the hard work, knowing it'll be played beautifully.
Tell your intended Joanie was booked to appear but was called away suddenly to a far-away whistle crisis and left the CD as consolation.
-Your sweetie won't buy it but may (or may not) appreciate the attempt to please. If it doesn't work its not for fault of the music.
)
