Which tin whistle should i get?

[Mr.Gumby]

I actually talk to whistle players about these things you know, I don't make it up. Most wellknown whistle players are well aware of what is available, they hold pretty strong opinions and they make deliberate choices about their instruments.

I teach the pipes but the finest whistle teachers around here are more than happy to have their students play your average Generation/Feadógs/Oak.

The old buying a box to get one good one' is a myth. In the past (this discussion is a recurring subject on the forums) I have gone out to the shop a number of times to show of the shelf cheap whistles are perfectly serviceable. Last time I bought a whistle I tried a dozen and went home with one that took my fancied just a bit more than the rest, any of the others would have done the job though.

The injection mould process is in itself variable, the majority of whistles produced that way will be fine for the use of learning or playing away (I take a sound design to begin with as a given, which I think is the case for the ones I mentioned). Some will be not so great and there will also be a few really outstanding ones, by design as well as by accident. But whatever whistle you buy there will be variation from one to the next, if you're really particular about your whistles you will always have to try a number of them and pick the one you like best. And that is true for cheap ones, tweaked ones and designer ones.

[JTC111]

My opinion...
In the final analysis, any beginner is only going to get better if they put in the hours and hours of practice required to do so. If the whistle one is playing doesn't inspire that person to sit down and practice every day, they're playing the wrong whistle. It doesn't matter if the whistle is well regarded or even functional; if it doesn't make you want to pick it up and blow, then your progress will suffer.

[ducks]

My opinion...
In the final analysis, any beginner is only going to get better if they put in the hours and hours of practice required to do so. If the whistle one is playing doesn't inspire that person to sit down and practice every day, they're playing the wrong whistle. It doesn't matter if the whistle is well regarded or even functional; if it doesn't make you want to pick it up and blow, then your progress will suffer.

innit.

[JTC111]

innit.

pretty much...

[Larry Marshall]

Mr.Gumby wrote:

As far as I am concerned, if you can't make a cheap whistle sing, no $$ thrown at hardware is going to save you.

I've found this thread interesting on several levels. I'm a noobie who can easily put myself in the position of a person believing that limited ability to make sweet sounds from a whistle comes from cheap whistles and not from a lack of player expertise. In two short months I've collected half a dozen whistles.

I think this point of view is natural. Certainly, when I learned to play guitar, I quickly found that better guitars were easier to play. When my daughter decided that tenor saxophone was what she wanted to play, the $2000 we shelled out for a quality instrument was done because the cheaper ones were...well cheap. So I think it's natural for newbie musicians to think that a $300 whistle might be easier to play than their $10 whistle.

That, however, doesn't make it true. My first whistle was a nickel Gen-D. And gosh, it was really hard to get the right amount of breath for each note. Jumping the octave was impossible to do reliably. It must have been the cheap whistle...couldn't be me. And so I ordered a Freeman Gen-D, this time in brass. This was followed by a set of Blackbirds and somewhere along the line I got a Sweetone. And you know what? I was lousy with all of them

I still am but you know what? The more I play the less the bad notes come out. I still can't play fast but I've learned that each of my whistles plays a bit different when it comes to how much breath I've got to give to a high G note, and it's still pretty much hit & miss for me to hit the high A cleanly. And I really DO like my Freeman-tweeked whistles best. But it's also the case that anything I can play on those whistles can be played, even by me, on that first $10 Generation D that I bought. Who woulda thunk it?

In short, too often we beginners discount advice from the gurus by thinking "Sure, you can probably play a sewer pipe and make it sound good but I need all the help I can get." But the truth is, when it comes to whistles, it's all about learning breath control and finger wiggling and you've just got to put in your time, not your money, to be successful.

I may be wrong about this but one virtue of having more than one whistle, for a newbie, is to learn that there's nothing unique to their whistle in the way of consistency. Each whistle requires that you really know it and that the amount of air required to play each note cleanly differs from note to note. I know that my early thoughts were that, somehow, it shouldn't be that way and that my Generation whistle must be 'imprecise' or something. We noobs can think all sorts of things that make no sense (grin).

Cheers --- Larry

[ducks]

buuuuuuttttttt...

all whistles sound a bit different. All whistles play a bit different. And it's about which you like listening to when you play it, best... I was really interested when I went to buy a whistle to try out a wide-ish variety and find what a difference there was between them all.

[JTC111]

That, however, doesn't make it true. My first whistle was a nickel Gen-D. And gosh, it was really hard to get the right amount of breath for each note. Jumping the octave was impossible to do reliably. It must have been the cheap whistle...couldn't be me. And so I ordered a Freeman Gen-D, this time in brass. This was followed by a set of Blackbirds and somewhere along the line I got a Sweetone. And you know what? I was lousy with all of them

My initial whistle experience was different. I had a Gen-D, a LBW, a tweaked Sweetone, and a tweaked Mellow Dog set. On none did I sound very good. I took a gamble and ordered an Oz high D (based primarily on the Tony Hinnigan review). During the 4 month or so wait for the Oz to arrive, I found myself not very eager to play any of the other whistles with the exception of the Sweetone. I could bring myself to play the Sweetone because the notes didn't break so easily; however, it's a bit out of tune with itself and that made the experience less than satisfying.

When the Oz arrived, the level of satisfaction that I received from playing went through the roof. The whistle was so easy to control and had such superior tone (to my ears) that it made me want to play a whole lot more and as a result I improved to the point where I can pick up the other whistles I mentioned and get them to sound better than I was previously able.

In the end, there are more ways than one for the beginner to approach learning this instrument. I can't see how any philosophy could be superior to another except as it's measured by the individual learner. The philosophy that's right is the one that allows that particular player to get his hands on a whistle that will inspire more commitment and practice time. And if for some that's a Gen-D and for others it's an Oz or whatever else might strike their fancy, in the end it all comes down to how much time we're devoting to practice. The person who puts 1000 hours of practice during the year on a Gen-D is going to be a better player than the person who puts in 100 hours of practice on an Oz; likewise, the person who puts 1000 hours of practice during the year on an Oz is going to be a better player than the person who puts in 100 hours of practice on a Gen-D. No one ever became a good whistler because their whistle spent more time in a drawer than someone else's.

[Denny]

When the Oz arrived, the level of satisfaction that I received from playing went through the roof. The whistle was so easy to control and had such superior tone (to my ears) that it made me want to play a whole lot more and as a result I improved to the point where I can pick up the other whistles I mentioned and get them to sound better than I was previously able.

yep, whatever it takes to get you to put the hours in!

When I was 15 my, tone deaf, sister started practicing her cello. The only way to escape her quarter (or less) toning was to drown her out. It did wonders for my technique.

[maki]

How cool are whistles?
World class players use $10 instruments and beginners only need spend $200-500 to get a world class instrument.
I try not to be hardware focused, but alas....

Now the real question is, How much does 10,000 hours of practice cost?

[Denny]

bit less than 7 years @ 4 hours a day, innit

[ducks]

How cool are whistles?
World class players use $10 instruments and beginners only need spend $200-500 to get a world class instrument.

Which is about where a second-hand, half-way playable, instrument of most other kinds, starts.

[JTC111]

How much does 10,000 hours of practice cost?

You read that book too?

[maki]

How much does 10,000 hours of practice cost?

You read that book too?

No, but I'll look for it on the used book store shelves.
I came across the meme and liked it, talk about a viral idea.
We see someone who makes a skill look easy, buy never the endless hours of hard work and frustration.

[JTC111]

How much does 10,000 hours of practice cost?

You read that book too?

No, but I'll look for it on the used book store shelves.
I came across the meme and liked it, talk about a viral idea.
We see someone who makes a skill look easy, buy never the endless hours of hard work and frustration.

The basic premise was that many folks that we think of as geniuses in a particular field actually are where they are because they had access to something that was unavailable to the rest of us for whatever reason. One example he uses is Bill Gates. When he was a high school teenager, Gates had access to a university computer lab at a time when very few universities even had labs. He amassed an incredible amount of hours on those machines and that, the author contends, is why he was able to dominate an industry. It was a pretty interesting read.

[Denny]

frustration isn't frustration if you enjoy the process