.. that whistle makers aren't using youtube more often...
It's the most known video site, and a great way to both see and hear the whistles in action.
All that is needed is making and uploading a video with the whistle in question, and then remember to type whistle name and type in headline.
This way a whistle "video library" could be build for us poor players to search when we want to know more about a certain whistle. (Some of us live in countries were the whistles are considered "toys" or just "not worthy of real musicians", which makes it very difficult to test a whistle we're interested in)
I hope this thread makes a few makers consider the idea, as it is also a good way to make more people aware of your product. (Nonmakers, you're more than welcome to add with videos of the whistles you own)
I'm not trying to be a wiseguy, but what is the advantage of seeing a whistle played over just hearing a recording and having a picture and description of it?
If someone were to hear me play a whistle, they'd sell very few. If they saw me play a whistle they'd take up the banjo.
Some people don't just want a nice sounding whistle. They want one that they think looks good too. And a video shows it better than a picture, as you see it in action.
As far as i know, there isn't a sound library anywhere with more than a few whistles. So why not just use youtube and just remember to make the headline the way i described? That way we can use it to search for any whistle we might be interested in.
I know that some people might think it won't be worth the trouble, but i think that especially new players would like this. One of the biggest problems i've faced so far, haven't been learning to play tunes, but finding whistles, and trying to figure what they sound and look like. More experienced players would find it useful too, when it comes to a whistle they want to add to their collection. Remember, some of the whistles in question cost more than just a single pot of gold.
It's a lot of work if someone did all this by themself. But with a community as big as this part of the forum already is, it should be pretty easy to make.
Of course, it would be best if everyone played the same tune, for comparison, but i think people would prefer a little variation too.
OK, fair enough. To each his own. Personally, to see what a whistle looks like I'd rather have a nice, clean photograph in close up rather than a video with the players hands hiding it. To me, whistles 'in action' all look pretty much alike: A tube with fingers flailing over it. But what the heck, why not? Could be useful to some I suppose.
There´s this problem - with cheap whistles, it will hardly sound different from each other. With good whistles, I´d would be afraid if there wasn´t used some audio effect (which indeed improve the sound)...it could be good way of advertising, but not too reliable I´d say.
Bothrops wrote:Here in Argentina whistles are quite rare, so they can't be considered ''toys'' by people, because they don't even know what are they. :D
Pyroh wrote:There´s this problem - with cheap whistles, it will hardly sound different from each other. With good whistles, I´d would be afraid if there wasn´t used some audio effect (which indeed improve the sound)...it could be good way of advertising, but not too reliable I´d say.
It's easier to use audioeffects on a soundfile than on a video, simply because on the video, you get to see the room they play in. (Easier to spot when an effect has been used)
And even cheap whistles don't sound alike most of the time.
If i hadn't stumbled upon this site by accident, i would still be using google and youtube only, and finding pages and examples by luck. I still pretty much have to track down certain makers sites just for an example and i know that if we got a video library like that, more people wouldn't become discouraged from playing the whistle. We do want this hobby of ours to grow, right?
You bring up some interesting points. Based on your comment about stumbling over C&F by accident, I just ran searches for 'tin whistle', Irish whistle', and 'tin whistle discussion forums', and Chiff and Fipple was no better than the fourth listing. I would have expected it to top the list. Oddly, 'tin whistle discussion forum' gave banjohangout.com as the first hit. Very strange indeed. The whole idea behind dedicated sites such as this one is to reduce the number of people stumbling along blindly through the Internet in search of information. C&F is the largest and, I thought, best known community for whistle players. Its fundimental purpose is to prevent potential players from becoming lost and discouraged.
Having to find things by luck or track down makers' websites on your own is not desired. The value of sites like C&F is the community of support available. I can't help but wonder if the idea of a video library of whistle clips wouldn't further dillute the effort. Things like YouTube could be powerful tools if used in conjunction with focused, interest-specific sites like C&F, but as a stand-alone resource, I think it would have the opposite effect. People would be wandering the halls of YouTube without the guidance of their support community, despite the effort to make whistle information readily accessable there.
Since we're using the term library, let's examine that idea more closely. We all have our private collections of books at home. But which is the more powerful resource, our own bookshelves or the public library in our town? Well, the library of course. But not just because it has many more books, but because it has other resources, most importantly, the librarians. We can wander through a library and perhaps find some information we need, but the Librarian can point us to the most, best information available and help us use that information once we have it. Chiff and Fipple is like a library in that respect. It contains a bewildering amount of information, but it also has knowledgable people to guide us in our search. No matter how well organized we might make a collection of whistle videos on YouTube, it would be like our private bookshelves. Handy and somewhat informative, but lacking in depth and application.
I think you're onto a good idea, but to be most useful to most people, it would need to exist within a larger framework to make it accessable and meanigful.
Last edited by Tim2723 on Tue Oct 16, 2007 8:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
Well, apart from listing the video with maker and model in the headline, people can add the url of c&f to the description of the whistle.
This way not only would people be able to find the different whistles, but would also be given the link to this page and a way to get info from the site and help from the forum users.
edit: I forgot to add that it of course could be used by people on these forums when trying to describe a whistle to others. "Just click this link, watch and listen"
Last edited by ElPollo on Tue Oct 16, 2007 8:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
