As to the "May" thing. I started working on oboe last May in hope that by May 09 I would be able to play oboe with the group. I've had weekly lessons since then and my teacher encouraged me to go ahead and do it in Sept when we began practicing for the Christmas concert. I could play the music, but my embouchure is not strong enough to play that long, that concentrated, in tune, so I still did percussion on the pieces that had uninteresting oboe parts.
I am typing this while I rest my mouth after practicing my scales, before I go on to working on my music. Barrett's oboe stuff gives me a workout every evening.
The whistle set came about when our F horn player(also plays cello) found out I played whistle. He had bought a Burke aluminum Low D that he'd not had time to play much. I told him most folks don't start on low whistle, but he did get a good one. He wanted us to do a duet and so I said sure. Then one of the violinists overheard me say that we needed a fiddler. He likes old time and such and volunteered, and invited another, so our little bunch was formed.
Our set was the Sans Day Carol, The Holly and Ivy Girl-I thought it sounded best without me on the high whistle so this was just low D with one fiddle playing the tune, one droning, then All You That in this House, and ending with Gloucestershire Wassail. All these were tunes that were from the Mel Bay Christmas book. The biggest hurdle was convincing them that harmonies are not necessary, that I don't always play what's written, and they don't have to either-loosen up and have fun. I don't know about them, but I did.
(although some one kidded me afterward that they didn't realize that my foot was an instrument too. I must have been keeping the beat a bit loud.
)oh, forgot to add that another cellist who also plays old time on hammered dulcimer wants to join in if we do it again.
Our community orchestra played our Christmas concert this weekend. After working like mad since May, I was able to do about half the tunes on oboe(my mouth still won't hold up as long as I'd like) and did percussion on others. The director always asks if anyone would do a solo, etc. Four of us got brave and threw in a set of Christmas tunes that certainly were something different than the rest of the concert-two fiddlers(violinists) and a low D and myself on high D. 
I refuse to let them get too "highbrow".
