learning tin-whistle

[CraigBatty]

I hope you enjoy yourself, Heather, no matter WHAT feadóg ye wind up buying.
Last night at a local session, I had a chance to play SO many whistle, as a guy who sells them was in attendance. Sheeeeeit, I nearly wept. He had an original Overton low D ( ), a couple of REALLY sweet wooden numbers and a whistle by our local genius Earl Bartlett (Black Diamond in D). Great stuff, really great.
If you can afford to buy ANY whistle by Bernard Overton, DO SO.....otherwise: sell the house, mortgage the cat, and hire the kids out for medical experiments.... it's worth it.

[Maija]

Bernard Overton basically INVENTED the low whistle with Finbar Furey. Pure genius. Both of them. One day, I dream of affording a set of Overton Goldies. David Goldie is a maker in Germany, trained and licensed by Bernard to make his whistles.

Colin, not David. I've seen him live with Fiddler's Green and Cromdale a few times, had the pleasure of having him sessioning at our stand at Folk im Schloßhof and listening to him playing is always a pleasure. I posted his price list in another thread around here somewhere, if you're interested. This summer I'll try to overcome my annoying shyness and ask to test the low D. ("Hey, may I ... blow your whistle?" *nudgenudge*)

[CraigBatty]

Sorry Maija, Colin, of course. I was flying from memory when posting to Heather. Thanks for the correction.

[Heather]

:) I hope you enjoy yourself, Heather, no matter WHAT feadóg ye wind up buying.

You meant Overton didn't you?

Just want to know the price of for now, until I can afford one I'll stick to my Feadog Whistles.

I'll have to sell my partner to slavery or something.

[CraigBatty]

You meant Overton didn't you?

Gabh mo leithscéal. Sorry, Heather force of habit. I use the word 'feadóg' wherever I can instead of 'tin whistle'; both to reinforce and practice my Irish vocabulary and to avoid the confusion re: whether whistles made from ABS plastic or wood can be called tin whistles. Bloody session pedants.

I was neither endorsing nor discouraging the use of Feadóg brand whistles, I've never had a chance to play one. I've heard they're lovely.

[Heather]

You meant Overton didn't you?

Gabh mo leithscéal. Sorry, Heather force of habit. I use the word 'feadóg' wherever I can instead of 'tin whistle'; both to reinforce and practice my Irish vocabulary and to avoid the confusion re: whether whistles made from ABS plastic or wood can be called tin whistles. Bloody session pedants.

I was neither endorsing nor discouraging the use of Feadóg brand whistles, I've never had a chance to play one. I've heard they're lovely.

Thanks for explaining that. Yes Feadog are a really nice brand to play, never had any problems with them.

[CraigBatty]

Yes Feadog are a really nice brand to play, never had any problems with them.

I've heard they're nice and stable tuning-wise. Sorry distracted...Just listening to Phil in the phones..... I love conical bore metal whistles with wooden fipples. Such a sweet sound.

[DzM]

Completely unrelated to your dicussion of brand, quality, etc; yet still related to the thread! Woohoo!

I suddenly recall a month or so ago being stuck in the commute hell of the Benicia-Martinez Bridge. As I (and more than a thousand other cars) are slowly inching forward I notice some guy in the car to my left is playing a tin whistle. My lane speeds up and I lose sight of him. My lane slows down and his speeds up. Yep - there he his still playing the whistle.

This went on for five or ten minutes before I just had to flip the iPod to The Pogues. Of course after this he was never to be seen again.

[Heather]

Was he any good DZM?

[CraigBatty]

...This went on for five or ten minutes before I just had to flip the iPod to The Pogues. Of course after this he was never to be seen again.

Great story DzM. Tales of Gridlock always make me chuckle, with the frustrated drivers of course, not at them. And yeah, what Heather said, was he any good, could ye hear him?

[DzM]

what Heather said, was he any good, could ye hear him?

Beats me. It was raining. We both had out windows up.

And strangely I kept worrying that he'd do himself a damage if he were rear-ended. I kept having visions of him jamming the whistle into his soft-palette.

[Irish Rover]

And strangely I kept worrying that he'd do himself a damange if he were rear-ended. I kept having visions of him jamming the whistle into his soft-palette.

Just one of the many dangers of playing the whistle in the car

[CraigBatty]

And strangely I kept worrying that he'd do himself a damange if he were rear-ended. I kept having visions of him jamming the whistle into his soft-palette.

Just one of the many dangers of playing the whistle in the car

Or pissed at a session sitting at a wooden table. Owwwwwwww! Ouchies!!
I just like the image of the gridlocked doing something creative, rather than wasting more resources using their mobiles to ring each other complaining about the traffic...

[Heather]

And strangely I kept worrying that he'd do himself a damange if he were rear-ended. I kept having visions of him jamming the whistle into his soft-palette.

Just one of the many dangers of playing the whistle in the car

Or pissed at a session sitting at a wooden table. Owwwwwwww! Ouchies!!

Sounds like the sort of thing I'd do

[chris s]

Try a 'D' Generation Nickle whistle from Hob goblin.com theyre about 4.00 and play along to a record - its that easy. THen get a pogues band together and PLAY the music. Thats what I did the band is called 'Bottle of Smoke' and we're from Hull, UK. Rock on!