Made a whistle pouch
General penny whistle or music discussions
With a little luck, I've got a quarter century left. I don't mind a learning curve 
Forum Activity for @bill-c
Made a whistle pouch
General penny whistle or music discussions
I enjoyed everything you said in that last post -- it clarified/put into words some things that I already sort of suspected -- but what interested me most was your second sentence. As I said earlier, I'm interested in getting a dulcimer some day, and your assertion that there's a similarity between whistles and dulcimers is a brand new thought for me. It makes me more eager than before to go ahead and get a dulcimer. I still have the same holdup (I really should be better at the first three instruments I've adopted before moving on to a fourth) but maybe by Christmas I'll feel comfortable putting it on my wish-list.
Made a whistle pouch
General penny whistle or music discussions
This is one thing I've been confused about from the start. My beginner book tells me that the fingering is almost identical for D or G on the D whistle, the only difference being C# vs natural C. But if we have the tabs for a song in G, we can't just use the fingering for C# to change to key of D, can we? Wouldn't it sound off-key? So maybe we can change all the notes (and then come up with new tabs), but that doesn't seem quite right either. And yet it seems that's exactly what I'm doing when I play the same tabs on the A whistle, changing D to A, E to B, etc. Now, if I play the same key of G tabs from my D whistle on a G whistle, I'm changing D to a G, which matches what you said about the lower three notes.
I should point out here that I never studied music theory. I mean, I'm happy to have a back and forth like this, but you certainly know far more about music than I do. So when you ask me to correct you if you're wrong, I assume you are right. All I can do is see if I understand if what you said makes sense mathematically, and to me it does. Sorry if my thinking out loud above sounds like rambling, I just needed to get there on my own
That program sounds great -- perhaps I'll check it out.
Made a whistle pouch
General penny whistle or music discussions
For me, it's mostly to play along with other people who are singing or playing in a different key. For example, the tabs I found for Wild Mountain Thyme are in G, whereas some of the more well-known recordings are in D. Rather than change the tabs for my D whistle, I play the same tabs on my A whistle. Or there's a woman on youtube whose playing I like, she plays Foggy Dew with the Bb whistle. When I play along with her, I use the Bb as well. But even if I'm not playing along with anyone, sometimes I may want to play a song in the key it was written for, whereas almost all the tabs I find are either in D or G. I understand the practicality of that, but still.
Made a whistle pouch
General penny whistle or music discussions
Yes, that is cool.
Having no experience with and very little knowledge of dulcimers, I wouldn't have known that. I guess I was figuring it would be a starter instrument and then if I liked playing it enough I'd move on to something better. But what you said makes me wonder if getting something too cheap might actually turn me off to playing, which is of course counterproductive. I'll have to think on that a bit. Maybe for now I'll stick with whistles and guitars. Oh, and also I got a kalimba for my birthday a few months ago and that's been kind of fun to play around with.
Made a whistle pouch
General penny whistle or music discussions
I actually do flap down the top before rolling up the pouch. Definitely don't want my whistles falling out! And I don't doubt I'll be getting new ones as time goes by, but right now I have a hard enough time with the A and Bb, not sure I'm ready for, say, a low D. But I'll get there.
You might be interested to know that I have a not-too-expensive (under $100) mountain dulcimer on my list. If any of my kids or my wife decide to get me one, that might be my next endeavor. I'd like to get better on guitar before trying that.
Made a whistle pouch
General penny whistle or music discussions
My wife made these two multi-whistle pouches for me on New Year's Eve, out of placemats. I'll bring the sea-themed one down to FL next time I go. The striped on is hanging on the wall in my NY music studio. (Did I say music studio? I meant office.)
