for an ad-free Fetcheveryone experience!

Fetch Musicians

50 watchers

Garfield Dec 2024 10:06am, 20 Dec 2024 18,272 posts	Quote Pin Garfield Intriguing Nord Rundeer...and another fellow clarinet and flute person here, though I started off with recorder and piano as a child. Now if you really want to confuse your fingers, try taking up the oboe at the same time as playing clarinet and flute - very similar, yet oddly different! A recorder like F fingering (forked, that is), a weird B flat, yet lots similar to flute and upper clarinet, yet different in other ways! I liked oboe, aside from the reeds being a pain...hideously expensive as I didn't have time to learn to make my own, so gave it up after several years and took up trumpet!
Nord Rundeer 🦌 Dec 2024 10:34am, 20 Dec 2024 4,820 posts	Quote Pin Nord Rundeer 🦌 I haven’t played clarinet for a long time @Garfield, but it was enough to confuse the fingers on whistle. I really should get it going again, but it has lain in a case for so long it surely needs refurbishing and I don’t know where I'd do that in Norway (B&H Edgware). Seemed easier to think about an Irish flute :D Actually, I have a second-hand wooden Irish flute. I'm wondering if a new, lighter, expensive model (e.g., carbon fibre) would magically fix my embouchure and let me play better (i.e., workman vs tool problem lol).
Garfield Dec 2024 11:32am, 20 Dec 2024 18,274 posts	Quote Pin Garfield Just a bit of oil for the keys should do it all right. I don't have a clarinet any more...sold it many years ago now. Embouchure comes with practice...I really should practice more too! Currently I'm only playing once a week when I go to flute choir...and I'm still reasonably good at sight reading, which is surprising me a lot. Muscle memory has a lot of answer for.
Cerrertonia Dec 2024 11:44am, 20 Dec 2024 22,504 posts	Quote Pin Cerrertonia Alice the Camel wrote:The book is great, 100s of assorted tunes. You’ve reminded me about the tin whistle. I have to confess I’ve not given it much attention since I bought it, I really should make an effort to learn the fingering (slightly different to picc). As you said, it's the 'bible' of Irish music. You'll find loads of recordings (and tutorials) for pretty much every tune in there for both flute and whistle, too. Not always played exactly as written though, most tunes have plenty of variations. I thought my flute playing friends all used wooden flutes, but a quick question suggests they all have carbon fibre ones too
Garfield Dec 2024 11:49am, 20 Dec 2024 18,275 posts	Quote Pin Garfield Wow! I'm clearly way behind the times!!! I only have a silver flute and piccolo. And a couple of ocarinas that I bought years ago.
Nord Rundeer 🦌 Dec 2024 11:55am, 20 Dec 2024 4,821 posts	Quote Pin Nord Rundeer 🦌 That “all” is pushing me closer to the tipping point, @Cerrertonia :D. A carbon fibre (keyless) irish flute is still reasonably priced compared with classical instruments and decent recorders. It is a bit pricier than the equivalent carbon-fibre low D whistle. This is especially true if for a model with little slanted chimneys inside some finger-holes that let the hole-spacing be closer, to avoid a stretch that is too much for some people.
RunnyBunny Dec 2024 3:16pm, 20 Dec 2024 1,568 posts	Quote Pin RunnyBunny Perfect timing for tips on the whistle, as I just got one. There's one on the Fairytale of New York arrangement the band does - not played by me, but if I see an instrument I haven't got, I tend to want one. Has anybody tried a pBone trombone (the plastic one)? Thinking of one just to have a play with at home, although Amazon has some reviews from people in bands using them as a back-up in venues they don't want to take an expensive instrument to. I'd be a beginner though, so no band playing.
Nord Rundeer 🦌 Dec 2024 3:46pm, 20 Dec 2024 4,824 posts	Quote Pin Nord Rundeer 🦌 What did you get, @RunnyBunny ?If your household vacates the room/house when you play on the upper register of a std D whistle (really a non-transposing C to everyone else) you might like to try a lower whistle. Unlike with recorder variants, we don’t normally use transposed music, just play the same. My favourites are F, G and A and I switch to a piper's grip somewhere in there. So if you play a normal Irish piece on a G, for example, it will be a 5th lower and not so piercing. Depending on the model it could still cut through, or be quite soft and airy. Of course, if you play with others you need a different solution, such as a low D (an octave down) which can be a physical stretch and is not as fast to play but can sound good with the right material.
Nord Rundeer 🦌 Dec 2024 4:05pm, 20 Dec 2024 4,825 posts	Quote Pin Nord Rundeer 🦌 BTW, there's a huge amount of Irish music for free here thesession.org including the Fairytale score .
Cerrertonia Dec 2024 4:11pm, 20 Dec 2024 22,508 posts	Quote Pin Cerrertonia Fair to say that the discussion forum on thesession isn't always as friendly as here It's a fantastic resource though. One of the ladies that I play with (since 2007, gulp) mostly plays fiddle, but she has an array of whistles (& a flute and an oboe) that she brings to sessions. I haven't entirely worked out which tunes (and keys) prompt which instrument to be brought out, but there are definitely some things where she always uses the low D whistle.