Hi Bethanie.
Try and control that WhOA. It can have you looking for a second job in no time!
Eskin's a good player and I agree his videos are probably easier
to follow, especially when he goes through them at the slower tempo.
Now that you're into whistle, your "whistle radar" will be up and I'm sure in time you'll run into other players. Hopefully you'll meet one or more with good experience and technique. It's kind of like getting a new car. You never really notice so many on the road until you have one.
Hey....I live in Madison, AL (Huntsville) and there's a large group of Celtic musicians here and growing. Whooda guessed?! When I first started learning whistle, like you I got hooked early on and desperately needed guidance
to improve my playing. And I was concerned that I may end up playing by myself for my roommate and her cats the rest of my life. But I wanted more. I wanted
to attend sessions and maybe end up in a band sometime. One day my roommate saw a piece in the newspaper announcing a special Irish/Celtic concert at UAH (University of Alabama in Huntsville) put on by a local Celtic session group...a group I was unaware of. Naturally I dropped everything and went.
To my surprise, there were about 20 musicians on stage. They played several tunes I was learning, so I was pumped, and the concert was great. There were musicians ranging from beginner
to professional. After the concert, I spoke with a girl who was the lead whistle and she invited me
to join their weekly sessions at a local church. I couldn't believe this! I was part of that group for over two years and there were times when attendance reached 30+. We did more concerts and local events and it was valuable experience. There were several exceptional players who'd been playing Celtic music most of their lives, and I tended
to hang around them, two of which are excellent whistle players. They took me under their wing and boy, did I learn a lot! The first thing they did was break me of some bad habits I'd developed while learning on my own and I actually became a pretty decent player with increasing confidence during that time. I even ended up playing whistle in a special Christmas concert with Grammy-nominated songwriter Claire Lynch who is from this area.
http://www.clairelynch.com/ That was quite a night! I remember using my Sindt for that concert.
There were four players in particular who were obviously more talented and experienced in Trad music than the others (and myself) and between them, they play fiddle, guitar, bodhran, low & high whistle, banjo, and mandolin. They asked me
to start joining them after the sessions at the local Irish pub, Finnegan's,
to play more music. What an honor that was! So we started the now infamous "Thurs Night Finnegan's Session" that have been going on for about six years now. We've enjoyed the company of musicians from all over the world. In the meantime, the original large session group eventually disbanded. Those same four musicians asked me
to join the band they'd been thinking about forming, and we became SlipJig in 2004
http://www.slipjigband.com/. I'm a guitarist by trade and used
to tour with some big names as well as solo for about 30 years, so they asked me
to be the band's guitarist and play some whistle as well. I jumped on that offer! I eventually learned DADGAD tuning and now I can't go back
to standard tuning. SlipJig's biggest claim
to fame has been opening a concert in Birmingham for Gaelic Storm. If you
access the SlipJig web site and click on "Gallery", I'm the one on guitar in all the photos.
I was with SlipJig as guitarist/lead vocal/whistle for over two years, then left the band
to team up with one of the best Irish fiddle/bouzouki players in the area, Larry Lynch (Claire's ex-husband) and gave me the opportunity
to play more whistle. We did a duo for about two years then family issues for both of us
stopped the duo for a while. Now we're back
to rehearsing and have added a great bodhran player/singer, and a Uilleann pipe/whistle player. So we're getting back on track as well as still doing the Thurs Finnegan's sessions.
Please know this post isn't about blowing my own horn, but rather
to give Bethanie hope and let her know great things can happen out of nowhere, when least expected, and in the least expected places. Who would have thought northern Alabama would have so many Celtic musicians, although Bluegrass and Celtic music often go hand-in-hand. Many Bluegrass musicians also play Trad and vice-versa.
Bethanie, just keep at it and keep your eyes and ears open for anything having
to do with Irish/Celtic music locally or at least nearby. Keep us informed of your progress.
Bally
PS: Unless you're in a band that can play in any key
to fit whatever whistle you feel like playing or what may sound best for certain tunes (which is what we do), D/C whistles will handle most trad sessions. But if you're looking
to expand, I've found a mezzo A
to be useful on occasion. Eb whistles are fun
to play, though seldom useful for trad.
And yes, I'd suggest getting tunable whistles
