Is Whistle Your Primary Instrument?

I know many here play whistle, but it occurs to me that precious few consider it their primary instrument. I am asking for replies from experienced players, not newbies. Just curious.

It was my first and only ITM instrument for a long long time. I still play it a lot, as much or more than my pipes. It’s handy and always available, yet so satisfying, and still fun to play. So even if it’s a co-primary instrument for me, it’s still often my first choice to play.

For 21 years whistle has been my primary ITM instrument; really the only one I was competent at.

That said, the last five years or so I’ve been making a push to get up to speed on C#/D accordion and flute, with a strong focus on the latter during the pandemic…

It’s an interesting question, because when I first got into ITM back in the 70s the whistle seemed to be regarded, by the Irish people I met, as a stepping-stone instrument.

Any bio I read of an ITM musician started off with “at the age of six he began on the lowly whistle and at 12 he graduated onto the _______ .”

The ________ could be anything: fiddle, box, flute, uilleann pipes…it didn’t matter, whatever instrument you ended up with as your serious adult instrument, you started out on the lowly whistle.

Here in the USA what changed that was The Chieftains, who in their early days had a fulltime whistle player. Everybody wanted to mimic the Chieftains’ sound of fiddle, pipes, bodhran, hammer dulcimer, harp, flute, and whistle. (Yes I know Derek Bell played Cimbalom, but everybody here substituted the hammer dulcimer.)

My first mentor/teacher in ITM played Low D Whistle as his primary instrument, quite a rarity in the late 1970s. He had an early Overton.

He was a terrific flute player, but for whatever reason preferred his Overton Low D.

I didn’t take up whistle myself, but played flute as my primary ITM instrument for over 30 years.

Then around 15 years ago when chronic hand, wrist, neck, and shoulder cramping became too much I switched from flute to Low D Whistle, which has been my primary instrument since.

So yes, now the whistle is my Primary Instrument.

I quite literally fall into the “at the age of six he began on the lowly whistle” category. I can barely remember not having one. I still usually carry one in my pocket, and I play randomly merely for my own pleasure when alone (which is most of the time). After many short experiments I have always remained biased towards the original Clarke tin whistle, which was my first instrument. It was perhaps viewed as a toy when I was first given one (in the 1950’s). I doubt that I would be competent enough to whistle a large repertoire up to speed in most sessions because I never seriously commit myself to it (it kinda comes too comfortably for me to want to take it THAT seriously) , but whistle undoubtedly provided the foundation to my early experience of playing Irish tunes, and it eventually set me up pretty well to play the fiddle (my undoubted primary instrument).

Not my primary instrument but a close second! I keep one in my writing utensils cup on my desk, one in the door of car, one in my work bag, one in my hiking backpack, and so on.

I find it a lot easier to noodle around and try out tunes with, though it’s not my main focus or what I’m usually playing at session.

Although I am only an occasional whistle player now, at one time, whistle and mandolin vied for first place – I went through phases where the whistle would take precedence. I have only ever made half-hearted stabs at the flute and (Scottish small)pipes, so the whistle is definitely my primary *wind* instrument.

Gobby said:

“I quite literally fall into the ‘at the age of six he began on the lowly whistle’ category…I have always remained biased towards the original Clarke tin whistle…perhaps viewed as a toy when I was first given one…”

That’s cool!

Who would have imagined, in the 1950s, that 60 years in the future Americans would be making Sterling Silver and exotic hardwood whistles costing a thousand dollars?

Definitely my primary instrument. I dabble in flutery and piping of the uilleann variety, but am not competent enough on either for it to replace the whistle, and oddly the better I get at playing other instruments the more it seems to cement the place of the whistle as my preferred instrument.

There’s a real beauty in the simplicity of the whistle in the hands of a skillful and tasteful player. And ‘tasteful’ to me includes not doing triple tonguing, unless you’re Seán Ryan.

The tin whistle has been the gateway drug to Irish trad for Generations (no apologies offered for that pun!).

Great “onboarding” instrument - inexpensive, simple and instantly gratifying. No months to develop an embouchure or the pain of strings cutting into delicate fingers or fretting over intervals. It’s almost as basic as an instrument could be yet having all the essentials to get up and running. And small enough for little fingers to manage.

While a lot of people “move on” - I think in many cases they could never have started at their “primary” instrument, especially for younger kids. Too many initial challenges and impediments to achieving the early success that gets you hooked. However long the player learned on the Tin Whistle - a lot of the music theory and genre idiom basics will have been acquired as well as some repertoire which will help during transition.

It was my only instrument (self taught) for >40 years. And then I started classes (whistle) in 2016 which led to flute a year later. I still think of whistle as being “my” instrument. Love playing it. But the flute is now my “primary” instrument - it’s where I spend the most time learning and playing. But it did take me over 40 years to get here 🙂

The whistle was my primary instrument for the first five or so years I played sessions, but then I started playing a Casey Burns rosewood flute, then later upgraded to an Olwell blackwood flute which became my primary instrument.

Unfortunately, as I’ve gotten into my 70s, arthritis in my hands and an old shoulder injury have made holding a flute quite uncomfortable and about three years ago I declared myself to be a whistle player instead of a flute player. It saddened me, but decided to just become the best whistle player I could be. There are not many whistle players who don’t also play another instrument, but there are a few excellent ones.

Playing good whistles from Chris Abell, Michael Burke, John Sindt and others, I can hold my own quite well in sessions.

It isn’t, though I’ve found myself playing it a lot more lately.
My usual instruments are harp, bodhran and mandolin (usually harp for solo gigs and bodhran or mando for playing with a group) but the whistle ends up being a secondary instrument in a lot of those settings, often because I’m playing with a couple other plucked string players and it’s nice to have some sustained notes and tonal contrast.
I also recommend, when I’m teaching folks to play bodhran, that they pick up a whistle and learn to squeak their way through at least a handful of tunes, as I very much believe that spending some time on the melody side of the music makes you better at playing an accompaniment instrument, and the whistle is usually the most affordable way to do that.

Nope, but I began with the whistle just about 30 years ago. I still play it and often use it at home to learn new tunes before transferring them to my primary weapon.

It isn’t, and I didn’t start on it, either, but it’s a very enjoyable second instrument for me. My primary ITM instrument is fiddle, but it’s very nice to be able to change the color up if five other fiddle players turn up and no one else does.

Not sure how to define primary…

The one I feel most at home on and most effortless playing? Yes, but still I don’t think of it as my primary instrument.

That would be Uilleann pipes, but there’s always a whistle or two right next to me at sessions.

The fiddle was my first instrument, but I well recall buying a Generation whistle in the key of C back in 1970. I still have it and use it regularly to play tunes and also to help tune other instruments. It’s remarkably accurate in the latter case.

Yes, it is my primary and only instrument that I play. I’ve only recently started trying to play any musical instrument. Who knows what the future will bring but for now and the foreseeable future the whistle is it.

I consider the flute my primary instrument since I got one a couple of years ago. Before that it was definitely the whistle and I still love to play it and love the way it sounds.

If it wasn’t for Sean Potts’ and Paddy Maloney’s whistles I may not have had the guts to make the jump from rock & roll guitar to Irish Traditional Music. Their whistles were the gateway that pulled me in…through their sound and the fact it was not intimidating to spend a few dollars on a whistle and pick up some tunes.

After a few years I was completely obsessed with ITM and decided that I was going to get pipes or a flute and learn them as well. Flute Embouchure seemed less intimidating than learning how to wrestle the octopus at age 40…so thats the direction I headed.

I love whistle!!! When my reeds on the pipes get sad in the winter, the whistles are ready to play.

BrotherHug said:
“as I’ve gotten into my 70s, arthritis in my hands and an old shoulder injury have made holding a flute quite uncomfortable and about three years ago I declared myself to be a whistle player instead of a flute player. It saddened me, but decided to just become the best whistle player I could be.”

I feel your pain, Brother, literally. That’s my exact situation.

I was experiencing shoulder pain when playing flute for long periods even in my 30s. By the time I hit 50 both hands were cramping, both wrists hurting, and osteoarthritis in my neck had joined in making fluteplaying impossible.

It’s a widely recognised problem in the mainstream “classical” Boehm flute world, and several firms make vertical/upright flute conversion kits consisting of a special headjoint and aids to help holding the Boehm flute vertically like thumb-rests and other devices.

Happily things which are played with body parts in alignment like whistle and pipes have remained completely comfortable for me. So my Highland piping hasn’t suffered one bit, nor has Low Whistle, my new Primary Instrument for ITM.

If by primary you mean first, then yes it was. Many will think this maudlin but I got it so that I could play a certain tune when I had to return my best friend to the soil. For almost 14 years I woke up with Cocker Spaniel nose or Cocker Spaniel butt on my pillow with me. She earned that. Not long after I moved on to my flute. Still on pack and canoe trips (I’m an ultralight kind of guy) I’ve played my Oak on the highest points in Utah and Wyoming and deep into Canadian waterways.

If you mean the one played most often … well that that would be the double, “Doghouse”, bass. After more than 60 years with my “wooden dance partner” I gotta say the whistle is a whole lot easier to carry!

Absolutely. Not only that, but the low whistle is my primary instrument. I’m much more competent and in the groove with my low D whistle (Chieftain) than I am on the high D. I can do much more with my breath, my throat and my tonguing on the low D, because it needs more air in the first place. “Throat vibrato” is apparently much easier on the low D whistle than on many other instruments.

I faced years of being asked “so, when will you start to play the pipes/the flute?” I personally prefer the sound of the whistle over the flute (though there’s a lot of tonal variation within both instruments), so that was never a serious temptation. On the other hand, I’ve always dreamed of being able to fill a room (full of dancers) with music, unassisted by technology, so the uilleann pipes were always a fascination. And the regulators! Which melody player doesn’t dream of adding a bit of harmonic accompaniment to their playing?

But I could never afford a set of pipes, so I just kept digging the whistle groove. I played other instruments: guitar, fiddle, accordion, but in the end, they just served to improve my whistle playing. In lock-down, I bought a practice set of uilleann pipes, and am getting along ok, but the slight out-of-tuneness is driving me nuts! Again, I’ve noticed improvements in my whistle technique as the pipes force my fingers to do new things, like articulate the start of the note…

I took a master class from Kevin Crawford in Ennis in 2015. One of the things that stuck with me was that he said that playing the whistle, as opposed to other instruments, was that the whistle was “cheeky “. That, more than anything makes me appreciate the whistle.

Definitely not. I’d say my primary instrument, GHBs, is the one I love performing (and impressing) on. The most fun the practice (because of a cool app I use to practice) and the one that came most easily to me is bass (guitar). I am perfectly competent on low whistle though, and I practice probably 5 or 6 days a week.