Practicing for my June 1 fiddle recital, my teacher has been pushing me to use a metronome to keep the rhythm of my two pieces on point. Nobody who uses them likes the damn things and I’m no exception.
I struggled with the metronome for a week before complaining. Okay, he said, how about singing the notes of the tunes as I play them. Uh, then, how about whistling them as I read the dots on the chart?
It works. The only question is why? Perhaps, he said, because like most people I’ve been whistling to music all my life. Nor is it unusual for musicians to do it. Jazz players, he said, whistle or sing along with their work, sounds that usually go unnoticed because they’re lost in the other instrumentation.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 