Whistle AND recorder??? For beginner?
Whistle AND recorder??? For beginner?
Hello,
Is there a problem with someone learning whistle and recorder at the same time? The fingerings are so similar. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad.
My office phone number is similar to my home number and I keep putting the prefix of one number with the suffix of the other. (Please don't hate me if your number is 654-0082, but now you know why the Subaru dealer keeps calling to say the parts are in.)
Dwight
Is there a problem with someone learning whistle and recorder at the same time? The fingerings are so similar. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad.
My office phone number is similar to my home number and I keep putting the prefix of one number with the suffix of the other. (Please don't hate me if your number is 654-0082, but now you know why the Subaru dealer keeps calling to say the parts are in.)
Dwight
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Re: Whistle AND recorder??? For beginner?
It depends.Dwight wrote:Hello,
Is there a problem with someone learning whistle and recorder at the same time? The fingerings are so similar. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad.
Dwight
If you are later going to want to play both, then I think learning both, though likely to prove initially a little frustrating, may be a good thing.
Playing more than one instrument tends to make you think in terms of notes and not so much just using muscle memory, which I think makes you a better player in the long run.
There are some pretty substantial differences between recorder and whistle, though, so do expect some initial frustration and confusion.
--James
- brewerpaul
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Re: Whistle AND recorder??? For beginner?
Probably not a great idea. Soprano recorder and D whistle fingerings are close, but NOT the same. For one major thing, the recorder has that thumb hole. I would suggest starting with the instrument whose music you tend to favor, learn that fairly well, and then add the second. As one who plays both recorder and whistle avidly, I would say that whistle is probably a bit easier to start learning.Dwight wrote:Hello,
Is there a problem with someone learning whistle and recorder at the same time? The fingerings are so similar. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad.
Dwight
I already KNEW recorder, and had to drop it entirely in order to learn whistle. Going back and forth was making it impossible to learn the new fingerings, pressure control, etc. I haven't picked it up since.
Someone with more musical skill than I have could do it, I'm sure, but I wasn't able to.
Someone with more musical skill than I have could do it, I'm sure, but I wasn't able to.
Remember, you didn't get the tiger so it would do what you wanted. You got the tiger to see what it wanted to do. -- Colin McEnroe
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not to toot my own horn, so to speak, but I switch back and forth between recorder and whistle all the time. Between C and F recorders too. After a while, muscle memory takes over and it becomes instantaneousTyghress wrote: Someone with more musical skill than I have could do it, I'm sure, but I wasn't able to.
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I'm certainly not in Paul's league (I played recorder in an amateur group over 20 years back) but I'd second what he said. It does take me a couple of minutes to make the switch, but after that it's easy - no harder than switching from a C to an F recorder.
I don't play recorder much any more, but a lot of the breath control skills carry over; I could probably be as good as I've ever been on recorder (OK, but far from great) with a day's practice.
But the fingerings are just different enough to mix you up if you're learning both at the same time (though I discovered that it sometimes sounds better to overblow the second octave on recorder rather than rely on half-holing the thumb hole).
I don't play recorder much any more, but a lot of the breath control skills carry over; I could probably be as good as I've ever been on recorder (OK, but far from great) with a day's practice.
But the fingerings are just different enough to mix you up if you're learning both at the same time (though I discovered that it sometimes sounds better to overblow the second octave on recorder rather than rely on half-holing the thumb hole).
Here are the difforences I see from from my beginner's perspective. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Recorder has one big advantage. It plays wider variety of music, including anything a whistle can play.
Whistle has several advantages. It is easier to learn. It's even more portable than a recorder. It has more voices because each manufature uses difforent materials and constrution methods. It's almost impossible to spend a lot of money.
So- I deffinitely plan to play the whistle. It's a great instrument and I am way too far into "whoa" to turn back now.
Still- I wonder what I am missing out on by not learning recorder. I'll soon find out. I have ordered a couple of music books that are not intended to be for the whistle. I'll be happy if half the songs are in keys that I can play on the whistle.
Dwight
Recorder has one big advantage. It plays wider variety of music, including anything a whistle can play.
Whistle has several advantages. It is easier to learn. It's even more portable than a recorder. It has more voices because each manufature uses difforent materials and constrution methods. It's almost impossible to spend a lot of money.
So- I deffinitely plan to play the whistle. It's a great instrument and I am way too far into "whoa" to turn back now.
Still- I wonder what I am missing out on by not learning recorder. I'll soon find out. I have ordered a couple of music books that are not intended to be for the whistle. I'll be happy if half the songs are in keys that I can play on the whistle.
Dwight
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I used to think that too... But it's not true! It's not true I tell you! Even if you're strong enough never to buy a whistle costing more than 10 clams, it all adds up...a whistle in every room, a whistle in every key... a whistle in every key in every room...and don't forget the car...For this is WhOA, and this be your doom. Doom, I tells ya.Dwight wrote: It's almost impossible to spend a lot of money.
"It might be a bit better to tune to one of my fiddle's open strings, like A, rather than asking me for an F#." - Martin Milner
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- BillG
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So I guess I fit into both. I find it easier to play some of the Chanties I like on the recorder - chromatic - than on the whistle - changing whistles and fingerings.The Weekenders wrote:I would switch between the two but it makes me feel cheap and dirty.
Both make make music and THAT'S what I play.
BillG
BillG
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My latest 'want' is a Bass Recorder in low 'F'-imagine the finger stretch on that baby if it were a Whistle!
I must be crazy-I already have a housefull of Whistles,several Flutes,and an Uilleann Pipe Practice set (which I should be practicing on,rather than surfing the net for Bass Recorders,and posting messages like this!).
I must be crazy-I already have a housefull of Whistles,several Flutes,and an Uilleann Pipe Practice set (which I should be practicing on,rather than surfing the net for Bass Recorders,and posting messages like this!).
"I blame it on those Lead Fipples y'know."