I play the Uilleann pipes, and learned the whistle (and everything else) by ear, many years ago, and as you may guess from my unpredicatable spelling,I have a slight learning disabilty, which did not keep me from getting into law school, but did make it impossible for me to do simple math in my head, and funny enough, read music. First the advantage of not reading... you develope a fearce good ear - I had to in order to survive in school, where music classes insisted I learn to read music, and instead, I picked up what the other fellow before just played and banged it back at the teacher. One of my grade school music teachers heard me play the pipes at a wedding, and I finnaly told him I never learned to read, and he did not believe it. Thouse who learn by ear have a refined sence of the blass (flavor) of traditional music, often, missing in the likes of James Galway. On the other hand, the down side... I am driven crazy by all that written music in rare old books, not played much, and waiting for me to get a friend to put on tape for me. Best of luck to the kids, and patience to you Larry Otway