Newbie 2009 Summer Challenge

[mutepointe]

Please let us know:
1. Your newbie status.
2. The best place you whistled this summer. (Country, State, County, City, Landmark (e.g. Cave, Cathedral, Lake)
3. How good the acoustics were.
4. Did you play by yourself or with other people.
5. What song/s you played.
6. If people were present, the approximate number.
7. How did the people respond? (e.g. clap, no response, verbal comments, throw money, bleed, jump to their death.)

Southern Hemisphere people can consider this the Newbie 2009 Winter Challenge. Non-newbies attempting to enter the challenge will be dealt with as deemed necessary. I own a bamboo low D and know how to use it.

[DrPhill]

What defines 'newbie'?

I think I am one, but don't want to be on the receiving end of your bamboo flute......

[Taminka]

Definitely a winter challenge - I was in a misty sub-alpine rainforest (it was VERY cold) walking with a friend.
(Barrington Tops for those Aussies who may have been there).
There were Lyrebirds calling all around us. For those who don't know, these are Australian ground dwelling birds. Males display to thier prospective partners with a fantastic lyre-shaped tail. Their calls mimic other birds living around them - or any other sound they hear regularly.

Well my whistle came out of the backpack and I started to play - "On the Rd to Lisdoonvarna" I think.
The closest male, whom we could see through the trees threw a complete tantrum, screaming and scolding.

This new"bird" wasn't gonna have HIS lady!
A fantastic, memorable experience.

Taminka

[Taji_Sapper]

Just thought I would share this with the group. I guess my status is very untalented newbie. I picked up the whistle again after about a 20 year hiatus, and I wasn't very good then either! My environs have been very limited this summer, but the coolest place I played was on top of an Iraqi Army tank near a Joint Security Station outside Baghdad. Of course the acoustics were horrid as I was outside in 120 degree heat at the tail end of a sandstorm! But still great fun. I was playing (I use the term loosely, LOL) by myself. Attempting to get some pics of my new Busman whistle for Paul (still working on it Paul). There was an IA soldier there that I have given a Dixon trad D and whistle book, but he just watched and laughed. Ok, what did I attempt to play? You couldn't tell by listening, but I tried parts of Pady Fahy's/Sean Ryan's Jig, Raggle Taggle Gypsy, and of course Ashoken Farewell. There were about 10 US soldiers, 10 IA soldiers and a couple Iraqi Police there. Reactions? Oh, this is the best part. My people looked at me like I was insane, the IA and IP were of the opinion they should just shoot me as a favor to all mankind, and a US major walked by and told me to get my ass off the g*#damned tank before we got hit!
All in all a very favorable encounter. I must include that we were outside the wire in full "battle rattle" in the midst of a patrol! Just spreading the goodwill of the whistle throughout my little part of the world!

[mutepointe]

What defines 'newbie'?

I think I am one, but don't want to be on the receiving end of your bamboo flute......

Please tell us your story. Whatever the outcome will make my day.

[Taminka]

Hey Steve - We whistle players are an eccentric lot aren't we?

Taminka

[Shelbeeray]

Hi there, I'm a lurking newbie. Well, I WAS lurking, since August when I bought my 1st tinwhistle...11 whistles later....and I'm a wee bit better. I can't get my short, stubby Norwegian fingers to move as quickly as those dang Irish! LOL I love my low D, but my small hands and short fingers tend to ache after, but dangit, it's FUN!


sooooooooooooo...what were the questions? I always get yakking and forget...

Okay,
1. Your newbie status.
August beginning...hee, hee.... biggest problem is that the clarinet fingerings from band 20 years ago inject random interference and I end up stopping mid-song wondering what the hey that was...

2. The best place you whistled this summer. (Country, State, County, City, Landmark (e.g. Cave, Cathedral, Lake)
I live in the Pacific Northwest of British Columbia (closer to Alaska and the ocean than anything else), about a block from the Skeena River (HUMONGOUS SALMON!!) and so when I took our dogs for a walk today I thought I'd take my Elf Song Jasper D (better than bear bells or bear spray I figure, more fun anyway) and ended up sitting on a rock beach playing randomly because, for the life of me, I can't memorize a single note.

3. How good the acoustics were.
um... well, I could hear myself over the river current...

4. Did you play by yourself or with other people.
alone, with my dogs - Grace & Missy (you can see them here: http://dsrhome.com there are pics of them somewhere in the pile)
5. What song/s you played.
6. If people were present, the approximate number.
7. How did the people respond? (e.g. clap, no response, verbal comments, throw money, bleed, jump to their death.)
The dogs whined. Apparently WALKING is way more interesting for them than is my whistle playing. Normally, when I begin hitting the high notes - anything above G - they tend to try and disapear.

hmmm, 'kay. Bye..

[Infernaltootler]

1. Your newbie status.

It's nearly two years. Now I'm good enough to know how bad I am.

2. The best place you whistled this summer. (Country, State, County, City, Landmark (e.g. Cave, Cathedral, Lake)
3. How good the acoustics were.

So far I like the empty dutch barns on the farm where I live in Buckinghamshire, Uk. They echo nicely.
Not v. glamorous perched on an old tractor tire between the mouldy giant straw bales and empty fertilizer sacks.

4. Did you play by yourself or with other people.
I play on my own and with other people. A particular new friend is a talented button accordian player from Dublin who has helped me emmensely. I also went to Folk Camp and played a lot with others there.

5. What song/s you played.

Oh lots, but memorably I played the Muffin Man with my 11 yr old son on the cornet and an 80 man on a piano accordian for a dance at folk camp. When the dance was over they cheered heartily.

6. If people were present, the approximate number.
I do go to a number of sessions where there are usually between 8 and 30 people. I'm ok as long as it isn't one of those sessions that forces everyone to take a turn because then my nerves destroy me and I can't get through a tune. I vow never to return to such a one.

7. How did the people respond? (e.g. clap, no response, verbal comments, throw money, bleed, jump to their death.)

People generally murmer or politely ask what the name of the tune was (it was the Blackthorn stick, couldn't you recognise it?). I have been told several times that I'm getting a lot better which is encouraging.

[caedmon]

1. Your newbie status.

2 months.

2. The best place you whistled this summer. (Country, State, County, City, Landmark (e.g. Cave, Cathedral, Lake)

My living room. USA, Oxford, Ohio.

3. How good the acoustics were.

They suck. I have a hard wood floor.

4. Did you play by yourself or with other people.

With 3 other people: a fiddle, flute and guitar.

5. What song/s you played.

Suo Gan.

6. If people were present, the approximate number.

3. My wife and two children.

7. How did the people respond? (e.g. clap, no response, verbal comments, throw money, bleed, jump to their death.)

My wife smiled and applauded. She had to.

These answers may change by the end of the summer season if I can convince my group to play at an open mic night or festival.

[DrPhill]

1. Your newbie status.
I am definitely a newbie.... Started serious whistling last November.

I will do two places here - for amusement sake.....

2. The best place you whistled this summer.
In my garden. Its peaceful (when I am not playing ), surrounded by nature with the forest on one side and views towards Wales on t'other. On a good day you can see the Black Mountains, on a bad day you can see my grumpy neighbour

3. How good the acoustics were.
Neutral (until the wind blows)

4. Did you play by yourself or with other people.
By myself

5. What song/s you played.
(a) Lots - I like 'An raibh tu ag an gcarraig', 'An Speic Seoigheach', 'Lamment For Staker Wallace', 'Lamment For The Wild Geese' amongst others.

6. If people were present, the approximate number.
Few or none. Sometimes the dogs, sometimes the neighbours.

7. How did the people respond?
Dogs ignore me, grumpy neighbour looks miserable and goes indoors.


2. The best place you whistled this summer.
A very local pub - at a session!

3. How good the acoustics were.
Just like a pub

4. Did you play by yourself or with other people.
With others

5. What song/s you played.
'Stanns Reel' too often and 'too much like a hornpipe'. A couple of hornpipes (which I muffed, but at least they didnt sound like Stanns Reel). Fanny Power which worked better (these were on different days).

6. If people were present, the approximate number.
4-8 Session players iirc, maybe a dozen innocent bystanders (and once my grumpy neighbour going for a quiet drink to get away from that annoying whistle next door )

7. How did the people respond?
The session guys were very tolerant (respect is due to them) and they even made some supportive comments. My grumpy neighbour looked even grumpier .

[Makar]

You need a definition of newbie methinks - I posted in the non newbie bit but only cos I imagined newbie to be very newbie rather than quite newbie...
I'll contiune to be a newbie to every new tune I learn and with new whistles I buy etc. But I can play a few tunes, some with reasonable speed and a good few at grade three - cover all the holes well on a high d and add some cuts and other ornamentation, sometimes not so well at speed on the low d. I have made a tune sound good - rather than just playing it through successfully - but not that often. I've only been playing for 10 months. I am inexperienced and still creeping about the beginner end of all things woodwind but probably not a 'newbie'.

I vote that 'newbie' be struck from the vocabulary of C&F unless it is adequately defined

[mutepointe]

Dear Makar:

I have a very special definition of newbie penned in very tiny lettering on my bamboo low D whistle. Don't make me show you.

Life isn't exact.

mutepointe

[Makar]

Life isn't exact.

mutepointe

Hmmm... compulsive obsessive thinks life needs to be as exact as possible and you're not trying hard enough in your exactness - old world punishment or no...

[mutepointe]

I'm compulsive too. My compulsion is focused on wanting to use my bamboo Low D whistle. Other things I'm not so compulsive about. I think my medication is working.

[chris_coreline]

1. Your newbie status.

Whistler for 20 years, (with a 19 year hiatus in the middle)

2. The best place you whistled this summer. (Country, State, County, City, Landmark (e.g. Cave, Cathedral, Lake)

a) Landshaftspark nord (http://www.landschaftspark.de/en/lage/index.html)
b) The local session at the Chimic on Wednesdays in Leeds

3. How good the acoustics were.

a) Landshaftspark – played into a massive underground void which used to be part of a steel factory, awersom!
b) Traditional pub acoustics

4. Did you play by yourself or with other people.

a) three of us were there
b) loaaaads!

5. What song/s you played.

a) that bit from horsalips 'in early spring…' slow aire thing.
b) just about everything

7. How did the people respond? (e.g. clap, no response, verbal comments, throw money, bleed, jump to their death.)

a) they were probably quite embarresed, being hardcore industrial-goth-techno types they were there to oogle the decaying architecture and contemplate Nitche, when I started on the folk they stayed silent and changed the subject quickly afterwords!
b) everyone was very kind, but I do make too many mistakes. Sometimes the audience gets into it, sometimes they try to pretend we arnt there, sometimes they all leave and we have the room to ourselves!