WHISTLE TWEAKING BREAKTHROUGH could change the music world (seriously) with your help … Today I met with Drs. Richard Bass (music theory) and Sina Shahbazmohamadi (engineering) of the University of Connecticut Digital Musicology Group. They, together with Dr. Robert Howe, are famous for using advanced CT imaging to create exact replicas of rare historic instruments, including saxophone mouthpieces made by Adolphe Sax himself. UConn is the only place in North America doing this. As it happens, the University of Connecticut is seven miles from my house. Both gentlemen were extremely gracious and offered UConn’s help to replicate the tweaked whistles I’ve spent the past ten years perfecting. CT scanning my tweaked whistleheads to create CAD computer files I can work with is the next step toward mass production, which has been my goal since I began this work. I would like to put high quality, affordable whistles in every music store and Irish gift shop so EVERYONE’S first experience with the instrument is a fulfilling one. I’ve heard the same story many times: Long ago, someone took an interest in Irish music, bought a whistle and began learning to play. After a short time, frustrated by the cantankerousness of the instrument and unsure whether the problem was their playing or the whistle itself, they gave up. People have told me, “If I’d gotten one of your whistles twenty years ago instead of the [insert brand] I did buy, I would have been playing twenty years by now. Whistle teachers all over the world recommend my instruments. Every year, the Mid-Atlantic chapter of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann (Irish Arts Association) asks me to make my whistles available at their events so the students can get a good start (CCE organizes the Irish music and dance competitions worldwide that culminate in the All Ireland Fleadh every year). I’m proud to say Freeman tweaked whistles are starting to show up at the All Ireland Fleadh world championship competitions, played by students who started on them several years ago. I’m also proud to say there are now quite a few All Ireland Champions who’ve performed or recorded with my instruments. I believe getting my whistles into mass production and making them available everywhere will make a difference in how many people stay with the music and go on to become lifelong players. That is a significant thing: It will strengthen Irish music everywhere. It will put more music in the world. It will give more people the joy of making their own music. That’s the vision that’s kept me going all these years tweaking tens of thousands of whistles one at a time, trudging along toward this goal. To accomplish this next stage, of CT scanning and creating workable CAD computer files of the whistlehead designs, I’ll need to raise some money. The entire project, which includes scanning all the different whistleheads I work with and purchasing the 3D modeling software I will use will total somewhere around $3,300. I don’t have sources of credit I can tap for this, nor do I have any reserves I can use. I need your help. Any suggestions you can offer for how to go about this fundraising, I deeply appreciate. And of course any contribution you may be able make, I’ll be forever grateful. (edited to add: If you feel inclined to share this on your own timeline, that would be a big help.) bigstory.ap.org/article/uconn-makes-3-d-copies-antique-instrument-parts
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 03:57:37 +0000
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