Figured I ought to learn an instrument...
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@tinker Have fun! I love the Tin Whistle as an instrument to listen to, and I've gravitated towards wanting to learn it but sofar I've got enough other things on my musical plate
I've been learning tin whistle, but I also play the recorder, which has a different fingering. To make sure I didn't get my fingers mixed up, I've been playing the whistle left-handed. It's symmetrical, so it's just as easy.
@Anne_Delong - Oh what a fun hack! That makes sense!
Was going to get a Clarke Sweetone as my first tin whistle (based on online research), but the Feadog is what my local Irish store had. - So it's the one I grabbed.
I haven't played an instrument since I played trumpet as a Freshman in highschool.
So I wanted something straightforward and inexpensive. I had originally looked at playing the clarinet or oboe, but I can't put down that money (even for a rental) right now. I like the concept of fipple flutes and looked at a recorder, but the simple fingering of a tin whistle looked approachable.
I want to play the low whistle at some point as I love the sound, but I figured I'd start with a penny whistle. If this turns out to be a flash in the pan and a quickly put down ADHD passion project, then I wont be out too much money and will have had a fun experience for the time and effort spent.
If it DOES stick, though (and I'm approaching this as a lifelong project), then I'll invest a bit for a better whistle or even look at other instruments.
But this looks challenging enough, approachable enough, and just fun.
So I'll try it out.
Mary Had a Little Lamb and Twinkle Twinkle have been played. So I'm moving on to some simple folk ballads to start with.
First day. Wish me luck.
@tinker
One great thing about tin whistle is that the fingering is more or less the same for recorder, so if you later get a recorder it’s only an incremental change
I have a friend who plays the tin whistle. It adds a lot to any jam session. Plus, it's very portable, so you'll always be ready should a party suddenly break out.
@donray - The idea of playing with a group scares the ever loving crap out of me....
.... but that would be really really cool if I ever get to that level.
@tinker Try to move past this fear, for it is unfounded.
Yes, you do need to get to a certain competency level, but the level you need to be ready for playing in a group is lower than you'd expect, and, it's weirdly easier with others, because you are not saddled with responsibility for the entirety of the music. Like, as soon as you've got a single tune down, you should immediately attend an Irish music jam in your area. Immediately.
My thing is more about strings, but sticking with the whistle, one example, if you have a bodhran player in the room, you can stop worrying so much about rhythm, because the drum is providing you a pulse to follow. If you're a guitar player and someone is playing Bass, you can be way more creative with the top end and ignore your lower strings.
If I'm playing solo acoustic, I have to be alternating between bass strings on the beats, and strumming the chord in the offbeat. You cannot really do a lot of melody (that's what my mouthhole is used for, in my case), you're just a drum that does harmonies, really.
Do not be afraid. Be excited and work hard to get to that even more fun place. You're doing the worst part of this process right now, beginning any instrument suuuuuucks
@jpaskaruk - You're awesome. I'll do this. (I'll still be scared shitless, but I'll do this).
@tinker oooo tin whistle is one that lasted a decent amount of time for me. Long enough anyway that I got a low whistle and couple different styles of tin whistles as well. Learned some fun songs like Concerning Hobbits. Good luck and have fun 🫡
@CyberB - Yeah it's going to have to be Christmas tunes and Concerning Hobbits for me as well. I love that tune.
@tinker that is cool and I admire the approach -- I started guitar last year and I started with a hand-me-down (free) acoustic even though I'm more of a rock guy because I wanted to be sure I'd stick with it before spending much $
@ChukG - Yeah, I can't change my desire and love to try out new things. I've embraced it. But many of those new things I put down after I've explored it a bit. Which is absolutely fine! I like dabbling and tinkering with random new things. But I don't want to fall into the trap of dumping lots of money into a short obsession. So this works.
@tinker Good call! It's a fun and easy instrument to play, although hard to be subtle with. I really liked this collection of music and tabs: https://www.irish-folk-songs.com/
@Lee_Holmes - Oh cheers for the resource!
And yeah, the lack of subtlety is a feature for me right now, lol! Hahaha!
@tinker BTW, if you're enjoying that - another really fun one is a native american flute. You can make one out of PVC for basically nothing. Because of the built-in scale, it's great for noodling on and just doing what sounds nice (ignoring sheet music and songs etc.) https://www.instructables.com/PVC-Native-American-Flute-in-A/
@Lee_Holmes - Oh neat! I'll look into it, thank you!
On the topic of making fipple flutes yourself, I've seen several 3D printed ones used online. I might try my hand at that in the future as well:
@Lee_Holmes - Oh neat! I'll look into it, thank you!
On the topic of making fipple flutes yourself, I've seen several 3D printed ones used online. I might try my hand at that in the future as well:
@tinker @Lee_Holmes
@sparseMatrix
@paul_ipv6
I've been on Mastodon a week or so, and I'm stumbling onto a loosely-affiliated coven of DIY 3D-printing tin whistling anarchist solarpunk types? Please, what world is this haha. Not to make this about me, but putting words on this experience as an Irish person who started tin whistle in fourth class in primary school (age 8 or so) is not something I'm mentally equipped to do 😅
Fair play to all of you, and more power to you! The home-made whistles look amazing, I hope to one day emulate these efforts myself and have noted a few links.
They have most tunes here, and you can keep a "tunebook" of your faves https://thesession.org/ metronomes are good, but you can't beat playing along with recordings to get the "swing" of tunes. If you
1. find something you like on youtube that isn't too fast (a ballad, or a jig played slowly, to start)
1.5 listen to it tons, until you can roughly sing the melody
2. look up the notes on the session
3. play it looooads, slowly
4. hit play on youtube and try play along
5. rinse and repeat
You'll be doing very well! We mostly play jigs and reels in sessions, with the odd hornpipe, slide, polka, march, depending on the session. And the odd song here and there. People know loads of tunes, but you just learn one at a time and enjoy the process :)
Also - mary bergin for tin whistle albums, flook or lunasa for something more modern, the dubliners for drinking songs, planxty for everything.
And sorry can I just say one more time, this is incredible and I'm in awe of your efforts, so so cool!
i went through a quite serious "tinwhistle" phase. didn't make my own but played a slew of different makers' work. it's a surprisingly versatile and delicate instrument if played with care and love.
That one looks majestic! I hope it sounds as good
My favorite I've made is simply an end-blown flute made of drilled pvc pipe.
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