Jim is was probably a whistle that David was playing. I know he plays from some friends in Ireland. The way to tell the difference if the flute is played perpendicular to the mouth/body, kind of pointing to the side. A whistle points straight out of the mouth. Tommy also plays the low whistle in the show and that is the larger, longer, silver one. A hard whistle to play and even harder to make is sound as beautiful as he does!!
Flutes are hard to play and the wooden flute Tommy plays is REALLY hard. You have to have amazing breath control. You should start out with a whistle, often called the tin or penny whistle. It's what almost every Irish musician starts off on as a child. I want to buy one of the ones Tommy makes. I have a piper friend who wants to get a set of the pipes Tommy makes but needs to save up. He said maybe he should just get Tommy to make him reeds, since his have to be magic considering the sound he gets out of them!! And being able to make them sound perfect in every venue no matter what! A lot of pipers wouldn't even try at places like Red Rocks.
Tommy makes pipes? What kind of pipes? Do you happen to know?
The reeds don't have to be magic.
I mean it just depends on quite a few things how well a reed works, you know things like temperature, humidity, if there's mould on them or so etc... Besides, if you have your pipe tuned correctly, the sound is always great. I'm no expert, actually I'm still a beginner on the pipes, considering the fact that I've only started 2 years ago. But this is the stuff I got explained and you soon make the experience yourself.
A piper, like every musician, always wants his instrument to sound perfectly. And well sometimes it seems really hard, but it's not always impossible.
Ok I don't want to be smart here, just talking about my experiences and hope I'm not boring you or talking nonsence. But if you know otherwise, please tell me.
I'm eager to learn new things.
