Tin Whistle Adventures
Everyone knows I'm a avid listener of many many music genres and systems ranging from traditional Hindustani and Chines folk music to Hard Rock and Metal. But as a performer (in school) I had only played string instruments before. My main instrument was Violin. What I was trying to say is, I have lately developed an enthusiasm for wind instruments. At least for some of them. So last year I got myself a Chromatic Harmonica. I still can't play it properly, but I'm working on it. And now I'm in love with the Tin Whistle too.
So what about the little wind instruments? What made me so interested all of a sudden? Answer: Fun and Ease.Both Harmonica and the Whistle are easy to carry around. And playing it whenever I feel like it fun. You can't do that with a Violin. A Violin usually needs a bulky case, a special setting and tuning process among other things. A Whistle of a Harmonica on the other hand is very casual. If I carry it in my pocket or start playing it on a beach folk are less likely to stare at me. Since both don't involve tuning (some whistles are tunable) it's quite convenient. More than anything I can play it wherever and enjoy it. So example you can play both even while lying down or feet up. Ok, so it's a little hard to play a Tin Whistle with your feet up. But my point is I can play whenever I can enjoy. And since I'm doing it for fun I don't need to practice how to play music sheets either. So why a Tin Whistle, not a flute, or piccolo or a something else? It has a sweet sound. Yes, it's the wind instrument you love to hear in all those Celtic music. It's also the instrument played in the Titanic theme song. I already had a Harmonica which was passed down to me by my grand father. Needless to stay, it's well older than me. But still in good condition and plays as good as a new one. The only problem is it's diatonic. It other terms it means I can only play certain notes. Regardless the limitation the diatonic version is probably the most you've ever seen. And oh, the one I had was also of the "Tremolo" variant, which is great. Anyway, here I was wanting a Chromatic Harmonica. I practically went almost every music instrument store in Colombo searching for that elusive instrument. The funny thing: most shops didn't even know there's a different type of Harmonica. I had to explain them Chromatic version had a push button sort of thing on one end so that it can play the full range of notes. When I was about to give up, one 3 wheeler driver offered to take me to Nalin music store in Colombo 10 Division 2 (walking distance from Maradana railway station). Not only the shop owner knew what I was looking for he had a couple of those. :) So I bought one. I mentioned the story because it repeated almost identically last week when I was looking for a Tin Whistle. Only this time one of those shops proudly presented me with a Chromatic Harmonica worth of 3000+ LKR. Finally, I went to Nalin store again to hear the bad news; no Tin Whistles available. I being the not-giving-up type, went through the collection of flutes to find two old and sorry looking Tin Whistles in a pile of brass flutes. I was looking for a high D but those were just mid C ones. But beggars can't be choosers. So, yay! So now I'm the proud owner of a cheap-looking, ok-sounding, awefully-inconsistent and hard-to-play sorry excuse for a Tin Whistle. :) On a side note: I just ordered a Clarke high D Celtic Tin Whistle on eBay. Which would hopefully be enough for me to keep playing and practice. Now only if I had a Hang. ;)
