Will learning the tin whistle hurt my flute playing

[Jackiep]

Hi everyone,
I am new to this forum and to flute playing as well. I am a older adult female that has been self teaching myself to play the flute for the past six to eight months up until about two months ago when I started taking weekly lessons. Going back to the basics with my playing has been difficult as I had picked up many bad habits as well as missed some important steps that needed to be covered with a teacher. It has been frustrating to say the least but I am finally starting to see myself improving and am feeling good about my progress with the flute over the past few weeks but have now found myself thinking of taking up playing the tin whistle as I have heard it is easy to learn and I thought it may be fun to play as a secondary instrument to the flute. My concern is that if I was to pick up the tin whistle at this point in my flute playing will it actually hurt my playing? I really do enjoy the flute and still would like to pursue that as my priority but would love to get some input on whether the tin whistle would hurt, help or make no difference at all to my flute playing?
I appreciate any and all input.
Jackie

[Phineas]

To put it simply, nope.

Playing multiple instruments may slow your progress a little, but it will not "hurt" your playing.

Just remember who you are playing for......Y-O-U! If you want to take your music experience in a different direction, just do it.

[pied_piper]

I totally agree with Phineas. I play a variety of different woodwind instruments. The only thing that may confuse you a bit at first is that most woodwind instrument fingerings are similar yet different. For example on the flute, F is played with T123|1, but on the tin whistle, that same fingering is an F#. At first, you will have to stop and think "OK. I have a flute in my hands so this note is played with T123|1". After a while, your fingers will know which instrument you are holding and you won't have to think about it much.

To the mind, it's sort of like when you see a door that has a door knob versus one that has a lever handle. They are similar, yet have different "fingering" and your mind knows the difference, but you don't really have to think about which it is. You just do it!

[Jackiep]

Thanks for the great replies! It sounds like I will be able to pick up the tin whistle without too many issues ..... I hope I enjoy it half as much as I do the flute
Jackie

[pied_piper]

Playing tin whistle is a lot of fun. If you really want to know more about whistle playing, visit the Chiff and Fipple Forum. http://forums.chiffandfipple.com/

[Bo]

Not at all. It's just fun.