Whistling..
I've not done as much music these past months as is usually the norm, stringed things are just too challenging for some reason, though I've been playing my recorder most days as its friendly (been playing since I was 6 years old after all (and boy am I out of breath... *g*)). For some reason the other night my brain remembered the existence of a low D whistle in the house, and better still remembered the location - in the wardrobe in dad's room along with a lot of other instruments. Dug it out, had a tootle, and oooh, I like whistles!
Previously I've been less keen on whistles compared to recorders as the fingering is slightly different and quite frankly there were so many other shinies to distract me that that whistle didn't "take", as it were.
Discovery the first, tis a very nice whistle, solid metal in one piece with a gorgeous breathy tone.
Discovery the second, as I suspected when I got the whistle I also got a tutor book which was in the music cupboard (yay being an Organised Person)
Discover the third - its not a Low D whistle, its a Low G whistle. I worked this out cos it has a letter G stamped on the base, cunning that.
Which begged the question of why I got a low G rather than a low D, given the book is a low D one, the standard low whistle tends to be a D and I must have got it in Hobgoblin and they surely had lots of whistles. Yay keeping up with LJ so very well way back, turns out I got the whistle in 2004 (on a birthday shopping trip for a piano accordion which ended up with me buying a banjo and then being lured to the whistles...)
I reckon a decade is long enough to languish unplayed :)
Discovery the fourth - you need a bit more puff for low whistles as a rank beginner than I can currently summon on a regular basis, also online tutor sites suggested one should start with high whistles and then work up.
Cue a fun online bounce and research effort and thanks to fast delivery I am now the proud owner of two, that's 2 high D whistles. Um, on the basis of I was excited about new instruments, they're quite cheap and one of them was BLUE. Blue! Got to have blue instruments (they make a pink one too, mind.... :) ).
I'm very pleased, the non-blue one has the better breathier more authentically Irish-y, Clannad-y type tone for a high whistle, its a Dixon Trad and needs much less breath than anything else I've played, in fact its almost like just exhaling into it for the best tone. And the blue one - a Clarke Sweetone - is sweet and pipey and blue.
Yay new hobbies, new musical instruments and general bouncing about same. Also, I can work up to the low whistles, and there may one day be a low D whistle in my future (because those have such a deep and lovely sound), plus all whistles have the same fingering regardless of the key they produce the sound in so I can use the Low D whistle book with its techniques, tips and tunes for any and all of them, though obviously my whistles will sound different to the recordings on the accompaying cd.
Wheee! Musical hobbits once more! :)
Previously I've been less keen on whistles compared to recorders as the fingering is slightly different and quite frankly there were so many other shinies to distract me that that whistle didn't "take", as it were.
Discovery the first, tis a very nice whistle, solid metal in one piece with a gorgeous breathy tone.
Discovery the second, as I suspected when I got the whistle I also got a tutor book which was in the music cupboard (yay being an Organised Person)
Discover the third - its not a Low D whistle, its a Low G whistle. I worked this out cos it has a letter G stamped on the base, cunning that.
Which begged the question of why I got a low G rather than a low D, given the book is a low D one, the standard low whistle tends to be a D and I must have got it in Hobgoblin and they surely had lots of whistles. Yay keeping up with LJ so very well way back, turns out I got the whistle in 2004 (on a birthday shopping trip for a piano accordion which ended up with me buying a banjo and then being lured to the whistles...)
I reckon a decade is long enough to languish unplayed :)
Discovery the fourth - you need a bit more puff for low whistles as a rank beginner than I can currently summon on a regular basis, also online tutor sites suggested one should start with high whistles and then work up.
Cue a fun online bounce and research effort and thanks to fast delivery I am now the proud owner of two, that's 2 high D whistles. Um, on the basis of I was excited about new instruments, they're quite cheap and one of them was BLUE. Blue! Got to have blue instruments (they make a pink one too, mind.... :) ).
I'm very pleased, the non-blue one has the better breathier more authentically Irish-y, Clannad-y type tone for a high whistle, its a Dixon Trad and needs much less breath than anything else I've played, in fact its almost like just exhaling into it for the best tone. And the blue one - a Clarke Sweetone - is sweet and pipey and blue.
Yay new hobbies, new musical instruments and general bouncing about same. Also, I can work up to the low whistles, and there may one day be a low D whistle in my future (because those have such a deep and lovely sound), plus all whistles have the same fingering regardless of the key they produce the sound in so I can use the Low D whistle book with its techniques, tips and tunes for any and all of them, though obviously my whistles will sound different to the recordings on the accompaying cd.
Wheee! Musical hobbits once more! :)