whistles!

The very cool whistle holder that my friend Teddy
made for me. I store my rosewood flute in it as well as my recorder.


I've been really enjoying getting back into penny whistle playing again, and try to play a bit every day; I've been learning tunes from "120 Favorite Irish Session Tunes", published by Homespun Tapes, and I just bought "Deluxe Tinwhistle Songbook" for $10 on eBay. One of the wonderful things about penny whistles is that you can get them cheap (about $10-12). They're also extremely portable, so I've followed Chris Conway's lead and now carry one around in my bag most places.

I've already given away two: one to a student from Japan living with my father, and one to a niece...both were enjoying some tunes I was playing; we started talking about penny whistles, and that led to an impromptu lesson and the gift of the penny whistles. I remember getting a whistle in a similar fashion from Kylea Fulton, a Winnipeg filker who sometimes plays with Dandelion Wine and who also performed on our "Myths and Urban Legends" CD.



What the whistle holder looks like rolled up.


I've also started exploring online resources. There are some VERY cool penny whistle resources available, many with soundclips and sheet music. Here are just a few:

The Whistle Workshop

Whistletutor.com

Chiff & Fipple

Anyone know of others?

I've started lusting after a low whistle, but I've heard they're physically hard to play (holes wide apart, for instance). For those of you unfamiliar with low whistles, here's a description from the Chiff & Fipple site: "Low whistles are twice as long and play an octave lower. They're the big Freudian models. This is the kind of whistle seen by a zillion people in Riverdance. They're good to own because, in a pinch, you can use one to defend yourself in a pub."

The first two photos in today's Blathering are of the wonderful whistle holder that Teddy made for me. I already have more whistles than whistle slots, so I bundle them up in the middle whenever I travel with them. THANK YOU, TEDDY!!!



Teddy at FilKONtario in 2001


Going to a housefilk at Sally Headford's in Richmond Hill tonight, held in honour of Chris Malme, a filker from the UK who's in town. You can hear samples of Chris's music here. My favourite songs of his include "The Boy In The Room" (inspired by "Ender's Game") and "Elektra's Song" (inspired by the Elektra Saga by Frank Miller with Klaus Johnson).

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