Tin Whistle Scale Chart? The 7 Latest Answer

Woodwind instrument with six holes

The tin whistle, also known as the penny whistle,[1] is a simple six-hole woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute that falls in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet these criteria. A tin whistle player is called a whistler. The tin whistle is closely associated with traditional Irish music and Celtic music. Other names for the instrument are flageolet, English flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, tin flageolet or Irish whistle (also Irish: feadóg stáin or feadóg).

history [edit]

The tin whistle in its modern form comes from a larger family of fipple flutes that can be seen in many forms and cultures around the world.[2] In Europe, such instruments have a long and distinguished history and take various forms, the most famous of which are the recorder, tin whistle, flabiol, txistu and tabor pipe.

Predecessor[ edit ]

Almost all primitive cultures had some type of flute, and it is most likely the first flute instrument in existence.[3] Examples found so far include a possible Neanderthal flute from Slovenia, believed by some scholars to have been made between 81,000 and 53,000 BC. and a flute known as the Malham Pipe, made from sheep bones in Iron Age West Yorkshire.[7] (A revised dating of the Malham whistle now places it in the early Middle Ages. [8]) Written sources describing a fipple-type whistle include the Roman tibia and the Greek aulos. In the early Middle Ages, the peoples of northern Europe played the instrument, as seen in 3rd-century British bone flutes,[9] and Irish Brehon Law describes a flute-like instrument. By the 12th century, Italian flutes of various sizes existed, and fragments of 12th-century Norman bone whistles have been found in Ireland, as well as an intact 14 cm clay whistle from Tusculum, dating from the 14th century in Scotland. In the 17th century, whistles were called flageolets, a term to describe a whistle with a French-made fipple headjoint (common with the modern penny whistle); and such instruments are associated with the development of the English flageolet, French flageolet, and recorders of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.[12] The term flageolet is still preferred by some modern tin whistlers, who feel it better describes the instrument, as the term characterizes a variety of fipple flutes, including penny whistles.

19th Century[ edit ]

The modern penny whistle is native to Great Britain and Ireland,[13] particularly England,[13] when factory “tin whistles” were made in Manchester and later in New Moston, England by Robert Clarke from 1840 to 1889. By 1900 they were also marketed as “Clarke London Flageolets” or “Clarke Flageolets”.[15] The whistle’s fingering system is similar to that of the six-hole “plain Irish flutes” (“plain” compared to Böhm system flutes). The six hole diatonic system is also used on baroque flutes and was of course well known before Robert Clarke started producing his tin whistles. Clarke’s first whistle, the Meg, was pitched High A and was later made in other keys suited to Victorian parlor music. The company displayed the pipes at the 1851 World’s Fair.[16] The Clarke tin whistle is somewhat voiced on an organ pipe with a flattened tube forming the lip of the fipple mouthpiece[17] and is usually made of rolled sheet metal or brass. They were mass-produced and widely used due to their relative affordability.

Since the penny whistle was generally regarded as a toy,[4] it has been suggested that children or buskers would pay a penny from those who heard them play the whistle. In reality, however, the instrument was so called because it could be bought for a penny.[4] The name “tin whistle” was also coined as early as 1825[18], but neither the tin whistle nor the penny whistle name seems to have been in use until the 20th century.[a] The instrument was used in several Music traditions popular: English,[5] Scottish,[4] Irish, and[5] American traditional music.[5][19]

Because of its affordability, the tin whistle was a popular household instrument, as ubiquitous as the harmonica.[4] In the second half of the 19th century, some flute makers such as Barnett Samuel and Joseph Wallis also sold whistles. These had a cylindrical brass tube. Like many old whistles they had lead plugs and as lead is poisonous care should be taken before playing an old whistle.

Quiet whistle[edit]

While whistles were most commonly produced in the higher register, the “low” whistle was historically produced. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has in its collection an example of a 19th century deep pipe from the Galpin collection.[20]

Modern tin whistle[edit]

Contemporary multi-key tin whistles

The most common whistles today are made of brass or nickel-plated brass, with a plastic mouthpiece that contains the fipple. Generation, Feadóg, Oak, Acorn, Soodlum’s (now Walton’s) and other brands fall into this category.

The Generation Whistle was introduced in the first half of the 20th century and also featured a brass barrel with a lead fiddle. The design has been updated somewhat over the years, most notably with the replacement of the lead fiddle with a plastic fiddle.

Although most whistles have a cylindrical bore, other designs exist, for example a conical tin whistle with a wooden stopper at the wide end to form the fipple, the Clarke’s brand being the most common. Other less common variants include the all-metal whistle, the PVC whistle, the square-hole Flanna whistle, and the wooden whistle.

In the early 19th century, with the revival of Celtic music, penny whistles gained popularity as a folk instrument and are now an integral part of several folk traditions. Whistles are a common starting instrument in English traditional music, Scottish traditional music and Irish traditional music, as they are usually inexpensive. relatively easy to play, free from tricky approaches like the flute; and operational stops are nearly identical to those on traditional six-hole flutes such as the Irish and Baroque flutes. The tin whistle is a good introductory instrument for learning the uilleann pipes, which have similar fingering technique, range and repertoire. The tin whistle is the most popular instrument in traditional Irish music today.[21]

In recent years, a number of instrument makers have launched a line of “high-end” handcrafted whistles, each of which can cost hundreds of dollars – expensive compared to cheap whistles, but still cheaper than most other instruments. These companies are usually either a single person or a very small group of artisans working closely together. The instruments differ from the inexpensive whistles in that each whistle is individually made and “tuned” by a professional rather than being made in a factory.

Tuning [ edit ]

Wrench[ edit ]

The whistle is tuned diatonic, making it easy to play music in two major keys a perfect fourth apart and the natural minor key and Dorian mode a major second above the lowest note. The whistle is identified by its lowest note, which is the tonic of the lower of two major keys. This method of determining the key of the instrument differs from the method of determining the key of a chromatic instrument, which is based on the relationship between the notes in a score and the pitch sounding.[22]

Pipes are available in all 12 chromatic keys; However, the most common pipes are tuned in D, followed by pipes in C and F, G, and then B♭ and E♭, with other keys being somewhat less common. The D whistle can easily play notes in the keys of D and G major. Since the key of D major is lower, these pipes are called D pipes. The second most common whistle tuning is a C whistle, which can easily play notes in the keys of C and F major. The D whistle is by far the most common choice for Irish and Scottish music.

Although the whistle is essentially a diatonic instrument, it is possible to obtain notes outside the whistle’s major major key, either by half-punching (partially covering the highest open finger hole) or by crossing over (covering some holes leaving open when exiting) . some higher open). However, half-holing is a bit more difficult to do correctly, and whistles are available in all keys, so for other keys a whistler will usually use a different whistle instead, reserving half-holing for oversights. Some whistle designs allow a single mouthpiece to be used on bodies with different keys.

Quiet whistle[edit]

During the Irish traditional music revival of the 1960s, the low whistle was “recreated” by Bernard Overton at the request of Finbar Furey.

There are larger whistles that, because of their length and width, produce tones that are an octave (or, in rare cases, two octaves) lower. Whistles in this category are probably made of metal or plastic tubing, sometimes with a tuning slide head, and are almost always referred to as low whistles, but sometimes also as concert whistles. The low whistle works on identical principles to the standard whistle, but musicians in the tradition may consider it a separate instrument.

The term soprano whistle is sometimes used for the higher-pitched whistles when it is necessary to distinguish them from low-pitched whistles.

playing technique [edit]

Fingering and range[ edit ]

Young man demonstrates the use of a tin whistle.

Notes are selected by opening or closing holes with fingers. Holes are usually covered with the pads of the fingers, but some players, particularly when negotiating the larger holes and spacing in deep pipes, may use the “piper’s grip”. When all holes are closed, the whistle produces its lowest note, the tonic of a major scale. Successive opening of holes from bottom to top produces the remaining notes of the scale in sequence: if the bottom hole is open, the second is produced, if the two lowest holes are opened, the third is produced, and so on. When all six holes are open, the seventh is created.

As with a number of woodwind instruments, the tin whistle’s second and higher registers are achieved by increasing the air velocity into the duct’s wind tunnel. On a flute, this is generally done by narrowing the lip/lug.[26] Since the size and direction of the wind tunnel of the tin whistle is fixed, like the recorder or fipple, it is necessary to increase the speed of the airflow. (See overblowing).

Second register fingering is generally the same as first/root, although alternative fingerings are sometimes used at the top of registers to correct a flattening effect caused by higher air column velocity. Also, the second register tonic is usually played with the top hole of the whistle partially uncovered, rather than covering all holes as in the first register tonic. this makes it harder to accidentally fall into first register and helps correct pitch. Recorders do this by “pinching” the dorsal thumbhole.

Various other notes (relatively flat or sharp relative to that of the major scale) can be reached by cross-fingering techniques, and all notes (except for the lowest of each octave/register) can be flattened by half holes. Perhaps the most effective and commonly used cross-fingering is the one that creates a flattened shape of the seventh note (e.g. B♭ instead of B on a C whistle, or C♮ instead of C♯ on a D whistle). This makes another major scale available (F on a C whistle, G on a D whistle).

The standard range of the whistle is two octaves. For a D whistle, this includes notes from D5 to D7; that is, from the second D above middle C to the fourth D above middle C. It is possible to produce tones above this range by blowing with sufficient force, but in most musical contexts the result is loud and out of tune due a cylindrical bore.

Ornamentation [ edit ]

Traditional fife playing uses a variety of embellishments to embellish the music, including cuts, hits, and rolls. Most playing is legato, with flourishes to create rests between notes, rather than tongued. The traditional musical concept of the word “ornament” differs somewhat from that of European classical music in that ornaments are changes in a note’s articulation rather than the addition of separately perceived notes to the piece. Common ornaments and articulations are:

Cuts Cuts are very brief raising of a finger above the note being played without interrupting the flow of air into the whistle. For example, a player playing a low D on a D whistle can cut the note by very momentarily lifting the first finger of his or her bottom hand. This causes the pitch to shift upwards for a short time. The cut can be made either at the very beginning of the note or after the note has started to sound; Some people call the latter a “double cut” or a “mid-note cut”. Strikes Strikes, or taps, are similar to cuts except that a finger is briefly lowered onto the whistle below the note being played. For example, if a player plays a low E on a D whistle, the player might tap by rapidly lowering and raising his or her bottom finger. Both cuts and taps are essentially instantaneous; the listener should not perceive them as separate notes. Rolls A roll is a note with first a cut and then a hit. Alternatively, a roll can be viewed as a group of notes of identical pitch and duration with different articulations.[28] There are two common types of rolls: The long roll is a group of three tied notes of equal pitch and duration, the first sounding without a cut or hit, the second with a cut, and the third with a hit.

is a group of three tied notes of equal pitch and duration, the first sounded without a cut or beat, the second with a cut, and the third with a beat. The short roll is a group of two tied notes of equal pitch and duration, the first sounded with a cut and the second with a smack.

Cranns Cranns (or cranns) are ornaments borrowed from the Uilleann cane tradition. They are similar to reels except only cuts are used, no taps or strikes. On the tin whistle they are generally only used for tones where a twirl is not possible, e.g. B. the lowest note of the instrument. Slides Slides are similar to portamentos in classical music; A note below or above (usually below) the intended note is fingered, and then the fingering is gradually shifted to smoothly raise or lower the pitch to the intended note. The slide is generally an ornament of longer duration than, say, the cut or the tap, and the listener should perceive the change in pitch. Tonguing Tonguing is used to emphasize certain notes, such as the first note in a melody. Some tin whistle players typically do not pronounce most notes, but this varies by player and background. To tongue a note, a player briefly touches the front of the palate (as if articulating a ‘t’) at the beginning of the note, creating a percussive attack. Vibrato Vibrato can be achieved on most notes by opening and closing one of the open holes, or by varying breath pressure (the latter is actually both vibrato (pitch modulation) and tremolo (amplitude modulation)). Of the two, fingered (i.e. real) vibrato is much more common than diaphragmatic (breath) vibrato (i.e. tremolo) except on notes like the lowest note on the whistle where fingered vibrato is much more difficult. A common way to achieve vibrato is to finger a note and then quickly toggle one finger on and off, not the hole below the fingered note but hole two below the fingered note, leaving an open hole in between . This technique can be heard on the legendary Chieftains broadcast, Women of Ireland (Chieftains IV).

Some tricks[edit]

Leading Tone Leading notes are the seventh just before the tonic, so called because melodic styling often uses the seventh to lead into the tonic at the end of a phrase. On most tin whistles, the leading note can be played to the lowest root by using the pinky of the lower hand to partially cover the opening at the very end of the whistle, while leaving all other holes covered as is usual for the root. Tone The tone of the tin whistle is largely determined by its manufacture. Clarke-style rolled metal whistles tend to have an airy “impure” sound, while Generation-style cylindrical instruments tend to have clear or “clean” whistling tones. Inexpensive rolled metal whistles, such as those made by Cooperman Fife and Drum (which also makes high-end instruments), can sound very airy and can be difficult to play in the upper register (second octave). Frequently placing a piece of tape over an edge of the fipple slot (just below the mouthpiece) to narrow the fipple will greatly improve the tone and playability of the instrument. Scales While, as noted under Fingering, a player will typically only play a given instrument in its home key and the key beginning on the fourth (e.g. G on a D whistle), almost any key is possible, and will increasingly difficult to keep in tune as the player moves away from the whistle’s root according to the circle of fifths. Therefore a D whistle is quite suitable for playing both G and A, and a C instrument can be used for F and G fairly easily.

repertoire [edit]

A number of musical genres commonly feature the tin whistle.

Irish and Scottish music[ edit ]

Traditional music from Ireland and Scotland is by far the most common music played on the tin whistle and comprises the vast majority of published scores suitable for whistle players. The tin whistle is so prevalent in Irish music that it could be said to be characteristic of the genre and fairly common in Scottish music.

Kwela[ edit ]

Kwela is a musical genre that originated in South Africa in the 1950s and is characterized by an upbeat, jazzy tin whistle lead. Kwela is the only genre of music created around the sound of the tin whistle. The low cost of the tin whistle, or jive, made it an attractive instrument in the impoverished apartheid-era townships; The Hohner tin whistle was particularly popular in Kwela performance. The Kwela craze was responsible for the sale of more than a million tin whistles.[30]

By the late 1950s, mbaqanga music had largely supplanted the kwela in South Africa, and it followed that the saxophone eclipsed the tin whistle as the wind instrument of choice for the township folk. Kwela master Aaron “Big Voice Jack” Lerole continued to perform into the 1990s; Some bands like London’s The Positively Testcard continue to record Kwela music.

Kwela sheet music is rarely released, and many of the recordings by Kwela’s founding artists are out of print. A representative compilation is Drum: South African Jazz and Jive.[31]

Other music[edit]

The tin whistle is used in many other styles of music, although not to the extent that it is distinctive like Irish music and kwela. Piccolo is often substituted for it in some Irish music composed for symphonic ensembles. It is not uncommon to hear the tin whistle used in worship music and movie soundtracks, particularly the Lord of the Rings and Titanic soundtracks. Published scores suitable for tin whistle performance are available in these two genres. The tin whistle also appears in “crossover” genres such as world music, folk rock, folk metal, and folk punk.

Spelling [ edit ]

Tin whistle music collections are generally notated in one of three different formats.

Standard music notation [ edit ]

It is common to notate music for the whistle using standard musical notation. The tin whistle is not a transposing instrument – for example, the music for the D tin whistle is written at concert pitch, rather than being transposed down a tone as would be common for transposing instruments. Despite this, there is no real consensus on how tin whistle music should be written or how reading music on the whistle should be taught. However, when music is notated for a soprano whistle, it is written an octave lower than it sounds to conserve ledger lines and improve readability.

The traditional music of Ireland and Scotland makes up the majority of published scores for the fife.[b] As most of this music is written in D major, G major or one of the corresponding keys, the use of D major or G Major keys is a de facto standard. For example, the “C Whistle” edition of Bill Ochs’ popular The Clarke Tin Whistle Handbook is notated in D and differs from the D edition only in that the accompanying audio CD is played on a C whistle.[ 32]

Reading directly on the C whistle is popular for the obvious reason that its home key, or Speed ​​Dial, is the quite natural major key (C major). Some musicians are encouraged to learn to read directly on one whistle, while others are taught to read directly on another.

The pipe player who wants music to continue reading on all pipes must learn the mechanics of written transposition by taking music in one key and transcribing it in another.

The tab notation for the tin whistle is a graphic representation of which tone holes the player should cover. The most common format is a vertical column of six circles with holes to cover for a specific note filled with black and a plus sign (+) at the top for notes in the second octave. Tablature is most commonly found in textbooks for beginners.

Tonic sofa [ edit ]

The tonic solfa is found in Ireland and possibly Wales, particularly in schools. Many schools have printed sheets with melodies notated in tonic solfa, although Ireland has more teaching of music. With the availability of good standard grade textbooks, teaching may be moving in this direction. [original research?]

Abc notation[ edit ]

Since the majority of popular tin whistle music is traditional and not copyrighted, it is common to share collections of tunes on the Internet.[33] ABC notation is the most common means of interchanging tunes electronically. It is also designed to be easily read by humans, and many musicians learn to read it directly rather than using a computer program to convert it into standard sheet music.

Known Artists[ edit ]

In traditional Irish music

In the 1960s, Tommy Makem played the tin whistle as a member of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, one of the most influential Irish folk groups, particularly popular during the American folk music revival.

In 1973 Paddy Moloney (of The Chieftains) and Sean Potts released the album Tin Whistles which helped popularize the tin whistle in particular and Irish music in general. Mary Bergin’s Feadóga Stáin (1979) and Feadóga Stáin 2 (1993) were similarly influential.[35] Other notable players include Carmel Gunning, Micho Russell, Joanie Madden, Brian Finnegan, Cathal McConnell and Seán Ryan. Many traditional pipers and flute players also play the pipe at a high level. Festy Conlon is considered by some to be the best slow air player.[36]

In traditional Scottish music

Award-winning singer and musician Julie Fowlis has recorded several tracks on the Tin Whistle, both in her solo work and with the band Dòchas.[37]

In Kwela

Aaron “Big Voice Jack” Lerole and his band recorded a single called “Tom Hark” which sold five million copies worldwide and which Associated Television used as the theme song for the 1958 television series The Killing Stones. But the most famous star of the Kwela era was Spokes Mashiyane.[30] Paul Simon’s 1986 album Graceland draws heavily on South African music and features traditional-style pennywhistle solos performed by Morris Goldberg.

In pop music

As a traditional Irish musical instrument, Irish rock bands The Cranberries and The Pogues (featuring Spider Stacy as the whistler) incorporate the tin whistle into some of their songs, as do American Celtic punk bands such as The Tossers, Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly (which features Bridget Regan playing the instrument).

Andrea Corr of Irish folk rock band The Corrs also plays Tin Whistle. Saxophonist LeRoi Moore, founding member of the American jam band Dave Matthews Band, plays the tin whistle on some of the band’s songs.

Bob Hallett of the Canadian folk-rock group Great Big Sea is also a well-known performer of the tin whistle, playing it in arrangements of both traditional and original material.

Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós closes their song “Hafsól” with a tin-whistle solo.

Barry Privett from the American Celtic rock band Carbon Leaf plays several songs with the tin whistle.

Lambchop uses the tin whistle in the song “The Scary Caroler”.

The unicorns use the tin whistle in the song “Sea Ghost”.

Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson plays a tin whistle on “The Whistler” from the album Songs from the Wood (1977)

In jazz

Steve Buckley, a British jazz musician, is known for using the penny whistle as a serious instrument. His whistling can be heard on recordings with Loose Tubes, Django Bates and his album with Chris Batchelor Life As We Know It. Les Lieber is an acclaimed American jazz tinwhistle player. Lieber has played with Paul Whiteman’s Band and also with the Benny Goodman Sextet. Lieber recorded with Django Reinhardt at the AFN Studios in Paris in the post-WWII era and launched an event called “Jazz at Noon” every Friday in a New York restaurant, which featured a core of advertisers, doctors, lawyers, and businessmen who were or might have been jazz musicians. Howard Johnson is also known to play this instrument. Musical polymath Howard Levy introduces the tune True North with a jazzy and very traditionally Celtic-inspired whistle tune about Bela Fleck and the Flecktones’ UFO TOFU.

In film and video game music

Howard Shore requested a tin whistle in D for a passage in his Concerning Hobbits from The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The tin whistle symbolizes the Shire, along with other instruments such as the guitar, double bass and bodhrán. The Tin Whistle also plays a passage in the main theme of the same trilogy.

The tin whistle features prominently in the song “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion in the movie Titanic. The song’s introduction consists of a tin whistle solo that has become iconic. Famously performed by Abigail Butler and Emily Black.

The Tin Whistle also features prominently in the soundtrack of the film How to Train Your Dragon and is associated with the main character Hiccup.

The tin whistle is heard at the beginning of the 1984 short The Adventures of Andre and Wally B

The tin whistle appears in the winning song of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 Only Teardrops by Emmelie de Forest.

The Tin Whistle is featured in Mario Kart 8’s title Wild Woods of the Animal Crossing × Mario Kart 8 DLC pack.

See also[edit]

Notes [edit]

References[edit]

quotes[edit]

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A tin whistle has 6 holes that don’t move, and the shape of your mouth (the embouchure) has a lot less to do with the sound than other instruments – this means there’s no way a tin whistle can be out of tune ?

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A tin whistle can be out of tune for several reasons:

The Tin Whistle design is flawed due to hole size and spacing

Unintentional defects in the whistle such as the shape and angle of the ramp and wind tunnel

The player’s flight speed can be above or below the ideal value

The Tin Whistle is cold and needs to be warmed up

The tuning slide is not set correctly (only applies to tin whistles with tuning slides)

It turns out there are many reasons why a tin whistle can be out of tune! You would think that a tin whistle, especially an untunable tin whistle, would always be in tune, but it turns out there are many reasons for this. Let’s talk about why tin whistles can be out of tune and how you can counteract it.

Ways Tin Whistles can be out of tune and how to fix them

First of all, what does it mean to be upset? Well, that could be a whole discussion on its own, but in short: an instrument whose pitch is higher or lower than the standardized pitch (for example, the standard for A is 440 Hz). Also, an instrument may be out of tune with respect to another instrument being played.

So when I say a tin whistle can be out of tune, I mean two possibilities:

Generally upset

Out of tune on certain notes

What I mean by generally out of tune is that every note you play is out of tune with a standardized pitch, or maybe you’re playing another instrument that can’t be tuned, or an instrument that’s difficult to tune (like a piano). –and the two instruments are out of tune with each other.

It’s possible that the tin whistle is only out of tune for certain notes, which is a much more difficult problem to solve. Let’s talk about the reasons and what you can do about it.

Tin whistle design

It can be frustrating to think about, but it’s possible that the tin whistle’s design is intrinsically flawed — meaning the tin whistle is either generally out of tune, through no fault of its own, or is always out-of-tune on certain notes, since the tin whistle is designed like this:

How can pipe design affect intonation?

Look at this picture and I’ll show you what I mean:

This is a diagram of a tin whistle. As you probably already know, the Tin Whistle has 6 holes on the front of the instrument. The distance between the holes and the size of the holes cause the pitch to change when you cover or uncover the holes.

If you look closely, you can see that the holes in the tin whistles are not evenly spaced. In addition, if you look closely, you can see that the holes are not the same size. This is no coincidence – these are spaced and sized to give the correct pitch when played.

Hole spacing, hole sizes, and length of bore all play a role in pitch. When any of these factors are off, either the entire pipe is out of tune (repairable) or specific notes are out of tune (more difficult to repair).

How Can You Overcome Tin Whistle Design Flaws and Play in Tune?

Adjusting the tuning slide

If the whistle is generally out of tune, but the notes are a reasonable distance apart, you might be in luck. You may be able to fix the problem by adjusting the mouthpiece with a tuning slide. If your whistle doesn’t have a tuning slide, you may be able to make a temporary tuning slide. See the following section for more information.

If only a few notes are out of tune, this is more difficult to manage – but you can experiment with alternative fingerings.

Alternative fingerings

Many notes have alternate fingerings that not only provide a different way of playing a note for convenience, but intonation (a fancy word for whether a note is in tune or not) also differs from fingering to fingering.

Three ways to play C on a D Tin Whistle

In the image above you can see three different ways to play C on a D gauge tin whistle. The middle fingering covers the 2nd and 3rd holes, while the rightmost fingering covers the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th holes. The first fingering covers half of the 1st hole. Partially covering holes is the most flexible way to adjust pitch – you have full control to sharpen or flatten a particular note.

Defects with the whistle

Another reason your whistle could be out of tune is due to a defect unrelated to the whistle’s design.

The tin whistle is a fairly simple instrument in concept, but it turns out that very small adjustments can affect the tone of the instrument and whether or not it’s in tune.

The area you blow into is called the mouthpiece. The empty column that you fill with air escaping from the hole in the mouthpiece and through the rest of the instrument is called the wind tunnel. The wind tunnel is interrupted by a ramp (that’s the small ramp that goes down into the hole in the mouthpiece). The ramp is a delicate part of the instrument that greatly affects the sound of the instrument.

How to Overcome Tin Whistle Defect Errors and Play in Tune?

**Warning** Be very careful when making adjustments to your whistle. I cannot be held responsible for any damage. I will try to warn you about dangerous operations.

If the ramp is somehow bent, or there’s an obstruction in the wind tunnel due to a manufacturing issue, or if there’s an air leak – all of these will alter your tone and probably your pitch, and possibly knock you out. upset. You can use a thin, sharp object (like a sewing needle) to carve out these plastic blockages.

Adjusting the ramp is a tricky and potentially dangerous thing as changes are really hard to undo. Some change the shape of their ramp or even cover it with a different piece of plastic to adjust the sound. You can try using the mounting kit to temporarily attach something without gluing to experiment and not damage your tin whistle.

Some defects cannot be fixed or are not easy to fix. If there is a problem and there is nothing you can do about it, you can use the methods above (use the tuning slide if possible, or try alternate fingerings).

Airspeed issues

The tin whistle works by rapidly oscillating air back and forth. Ultimately, the speed of the air being blown from your mouth into the mouthpiece creates the sound. You can easily bend the note’s pitch if you play too softly or too forcefully.

This is not easy to fix as most of the time it is self-evident. Try to fire into the middle of the street and give plenty of air support and not too much where you often fire into the higher octaves.

Cold whistle

If you’re playing outdoors or in a large room where it’s difficult to change the temperature (like an auditorium), or if you’re only whistling after not playing for a minute or two, you can Experiencing cold whistle syndrome leading to your tin whistle sounds flat. Your tin whistle will generally be out of tune.

Okay… so maybe I just made that term up – but the fight is real!

Because your tin whistle works by air pressure and the oscillation (rapid reciprocation) of that air pressure, the temperature of the whistle can fundamentally affect how fast the air can move back and forth.

TL;DR: Cold Whistle = out of tune

How do you warm up a cold pipe and play in tune?

Luckily, our body temperature stays between 95 and 99 degrees Fahrenheit. If we were cold blooded I’m not sure what we could do!

The trick is to simply cover the sound hole (the ramp on the mouthpiece) and blow into the whistle. It should only take a few seconds for the mouthpiece of a metal pipe to warm up. This method prevents ruptured eardrums and promotes whistling of the correct tune.

Tuning slide not set correctly

If you are lucky enough to have a good quality whistle, chances are your whistle has a tuning slide. The tuning slide allows you to change the pitch – if your tuning slide is not set to the correct position, your whistle will generally be out of tune.

Read on to learn more about tunable vs. non-tunable whistles and how to use a tunable whistle.

(Also, there’s a section further up that talks about turning an untunable pipe into a tunable pipe.)

Tunable vs. non-tunable whistles

So there are pipes that are tunable and pipes that are not. What am I talking about here?

When I say tuneable, I mean that the overall pitch of the tin whistle (all the tones of the tin whistle) can be adjusted. The most common way to achieve this is via a tuning slide.)

Tuning slides are used in a variety of different instruments, including trumpets or trombones (which are basically a gigantic tuning slide 😀 ), other instruments are tuned similarly, such as saxophones, clarinets… basically any concert instrument can be tuned, and this is usually done with a tuning slide or a similar concept.

A tuning slide is a way of lengthening or reducing an instrument’s whistle, and can essentially be thought of as a whistle within a larger whistle. The longer the whistle, the lower the pitch of the instrument – the shorter the whistle, the higher the pitch.

How to tune a tunable tin whistle

A tunable tin whistle means it often has a tuning slide. Follow these steps to tune your Tin Whistle:

Find a reference pitch – it’s not a good idea to choose the highest or lowest notes playable on a tin whistle, as the edges of the tin whistle’s range (and for the range of any instrument) are the hardest to tune. G or A are good notes for tuning. Play the reference pitch using a digital pitch pipe (Tuner – G-Strings is an Android mobile app that I like to use, the iPhone also has several tuning apps) or an instrument that you agree to use as a reference pitch (people tune often to a piano, as these are the most difficult instruments to tune) While playing the reference pitch, play the same note on your tin whistle. The easiest way to tune is to intentionally detune your tin whistle by pulling your mouthpiece out as far as possible while still making a tone. Now that your tin whistle is very out of tune, now go the other way and push the mouthpiece in until your pitch matches the other pitch. This takes some practice to get a ‘ear’ of whether a note is in tune or not. Listen carefully for a “flutter” that sounds like the two notes are fighting. You know you’re in tune when you hear no difference between the reference pitch and your tin whistle. Quick tip from band experience: It’s a lot easier to tune to instruments that sound similar to yours. A digital pitch pipe is often a pure tone, much closer to the sound of a tin whistle than a piano or trumpet.

G fingering

So…that’s great and all, but what if your whistle isn’t tunable?

Is my tin whistle tunable?

If your tin whistle has a mouthpiece that can slide up or down the bore of the tin whistle, then you have a tunable tin whistle (cheers to come!)

If your tin whistle has a mouthpiece that won’t slide up or down the bore of the whistle, then you don’t have a tunable whistle (for now…the last section talks about how you might be able to fix this).

If the mouthpiece of your tin whistle is part of the bore – so called one-piece whistle: Check out this tin whistle from Dixon for an example (Amazon) then you’re stuck – the tuning of this tin whistle can’t be adjusted without the Cutting off the hole that isn’t is not a good idea (most of the time).

This is how you make your tin whistle tunable

**Warning: kites ahead…be very careful…I cannot be held responsible if you damage your whistle by modifying it.

First, before you think too much about tuning your pipe, remember that some pipes can be made without extensive modifications, such as B. one-piece whistles, can not be tuned.

If you have an inexpensive whistle (less than $35), chances are you won’t be able to tune the whistle right away. However, there are ways to make a tin whistle tunable if your whistle consists of two parts: the mouthpiece and the bore of the whistle!

All of this knowledge comes from reading Tin Whistle Communities and from the Tin Whistle Shop.

The trick is to loosen the mouthpiece and make it a mouthpiece that can slide up or down the bore of the tin whistle.

Sometimes the plastic mouthpiece is placed on the tin whistle without glue.

This means you may be able to use a small twisting motion to try and loosen the mouthpiece.

If the mouthpiece doesn’t budge, try placing the tin whistle’s mouthpiece in hot water (the temperature that’s very hot where you can still drink it – but don’t boil it, you risk clogging your mouthpiece) for a few seconds melt). This can loosen the glue.

Once the glue has come loose, immediately try twisting the mouthpiece off again (taking care not to damage anything). If that doesn’t work, you may need to increase the temperature of the water and try again (it makes no difference if you soak the tin whistle in hot water for a long time).

The mouthpiece has come loose… now what?

Well, you now have a tunable tin whistle! Congratulations! If you’re wondering if there’s a way to improve this, you’re absolutely right.

What you don’t want is a mouthpiece that is leaking air and difficult to move up and down the bore of the tin whistle. One solution is to use the same type of grease used in other tuned slide instruments. For example you could use grease used on a trumpet like here (musicArts.com) or you could use Cork Grease (Amazon) used on a clarinet.

This grease both seals the mouthpiece to the bore and allows for easy movement to allow for tuning.

How can I raise the pitch?

So if you remove the mouthpiece you can now lower the pitch of your tin whistle… but what about raising the pitch?

Well, destructive action is required here. You can sand or trim the top of the tin whistle (the top is the side with the mouthpiece – never trim the bottom). Only a few millimeters are needed… I would start with a millimeter first and then see if you can get away with that. After all, there is no going back.

If you’d like to see more details on how to get your Tin Whistle tunable, check out this guide at the Whistle Shop.

This post contains affiliate links. We earn commissions when you purchase products from retailers after clicking a link from our site. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

When you’re just starting out with the tin whistle, it’s a little daunting to make a choice because there are so many different types of tin whistle.

By the way, looking for recording equipment? Visit MusiciansFriend.com for any microphone, monitor, audio interface or other recording device you could ever need. (affiliate link)

The most common tin whistle is D – almost all fingering charts and instructions are designed for a D whistle, so a D whistle is an ideal choice for a first whistle.

That pretty much sums it all up, but I imagine you’ll have a few other questions once you start playing Tin Whistle. Let’s talk a little bit about why the D Whistle is a good first choice and I’ll put your foot down and give you some pointers to get you playing faster and having fun.

Why is the D Whistle the best choice to start with?

Before we talk about why, it’s important to understand why there is a “D Tin Whistle” in the first place.

Why are there so many different keys in Tin Whistles?

Tin whistles only have 6 holes and the combinations of these holes do not allow you to play more than 7 notes (over two octaves) with a few exceptions.

The fact that a particular tin whistle is designed for a single scale means that it is a diatonic instrument. If you want to learn more about what this means, read our article about tin whistles, diatonic and chromatic and other key terms.

As a result, when a tin whistle player wants to play other notes more easily (e.g. when a song is in a different key), they often have multiple tin whistle in different keys! It is not uncommon for a whistler to keep a supply of tin whistle for many different songs.

The most common tin whistle key

The main reason D is the best choice for a beginning tin whistle is because it’s the most common.

Well, I don’t mean that because it’s good to be similar to others, just that all learning materials: books, YouTube videos, tutorials, etc. are often all designed for a D-whistle. You will have more resources to learn if you choose a D whistle.

Don’t feel like you need to get new sheet music if you get a different key of the tin whistle though, since the tin whistle is a transposing instrument.

What does it mean to be a transposing instrument?

When you decide to play a tin whistle, you might think that the notes will change with every tin whistle you have. Well actually this is not the case. Marksmen decided to leave the notes the same.

I’ll give you an example.

If you play on a D Tin Whistle with the first three holes, this would be a G:

The G major scale on the tin whistle for a D tin whistle

However, when you get a C Tin Whistle, and here’s the key point, the notes don’t change, but the actual notes are different.

In other words, the scale looks like a G scale, and everything is written as if the notes haven’t changed, but the actual notes you play are one note down.

So if a C tin whistle were playing alongside the D whistle playing the same notes for the G major scale, these would be the notes that would be played:

D Tin Whistle C Tin Whistle G F A G B A C Bb (B) D C E D F# (F#) E G F

If you’re not sure what that means, the key point is that you can use the same notes as a D whistle, but your notes will sound one note lower.

So that’s a godsend, but it can still be a bit tricky to learn how to transpose (change from one key to another) when you’re playing different instruments – when you’re just starting out, this is easiest to do to do Play the whistle that corresponds to the key of the song.

The D Tin Whistle can play the D major scale and the G major scale, which are very common for many songs. The C whistle can play the C major scale and the F major scale, also two very common scales for many songs. If you choose a D whistle or a C whistle, you’ll be in good shape to play along with your favorite music.

A bundle of whistles

Because of this, Tin Whistlers often accumulate many whistles in many different keys. It’s easiest to play songs in the same key as your tin whistle. While it’s possible to play more notes using special techniques (read our post to learn what techniques you can use to play all the notes in the scale), using these techniques to play quickly is awkward and difficult .

So if you’ve ever wondered why Tin Whistlers love to share pictures of their Tin Whistle hideout, then this is why.

(psst…plus…I should mention that tin whistles sound so different – that’s one of the reasons they’re so fun and interesting to play. It’s hard not to want to catch them all.)

What is the best tin whistle for beginners?

There are many different tin whistles that are extremely inexpensive. (another reason why I think the tin whistle is so cool). You can find a tin whistle that sounds beautiful and provides hours of meaningful and happy music making for less than $20. This is so unusual for most instruments.

For my comprehensive tin whistle buying guide, I did a lot of research on this topic and compared the different whistle in this price range. There are dozens of whistle makers making inexpensive whistles under $30, but the three most popular are Clarke, Generation, and Walton.

Of the three, my favorite entry-level tin whistle is Clarke’s Sweettone Tin Whistle. The sweettone stays in tune as you play up and down the scale, is sold in the key of D, has a tapered bore that doesn’t require a lot of air, and has a plastic mouthpiece that doesn’t swell when wet like you play.

Did I mention it’s very cheap? You can pick it up on Amazon for less than the price of two movie tickets. So instead of taking him to the movies, tell your significant other that you’re going to be serenading him (after a month or so of practice, of course).

But seriously, if you want to know what to expect from an entry-level tin whistle and want to do some research yourself, take a look at my tin whistle buying guide. You will get an idea of ​​what to look out for and look out for

How difficult is the tin whistle to learn?

One question you might have when trying to pick up the Tin Whistle is…well…how difficult is it to play?

That’s a good question because maybe you’re new to music or you’re not sure how much time you have to learn the tin whistle.

As an experiment, and also to answer this question, I practiced the tin whistle for an hour a day for 30 days in a row with extremely little tin whistle experience to see what skill you can achieve in just 30 days.

I studied the Tin Whistle for 30 days, did I get better? #MonthlyGoalsProject Watch this video on YouTube A before and after 30 days of tin whistle practice

I’ve learned a lot – and I’ve learned that the tin whistle, while simple in concept, is a deep instrument that has tremendous potential.

Some people may even dismiss the tin whistle and even wonder if it is a real instrument (see our article for more on this discussion). However, there is so much to learn, especially with the tin whistle embellishments.

To get an idea of ​​how long it might take to learn the tin whistle, read our post here which goes into detail and helps you see what to expect.

How to play the tin whistle

It can be difficult to get started with an instrument…sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. To help with that, I’ve created a learning plan that goes into detail to make it as accessible as possible on exactly where to start, what to practice, and how to take your skills to the next level. Check out the Tin Whistle Learning Plan here.

This post contains affiliate links. We earn commissions when you purchase products from retailers after clicking a link from our site. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

The Tin Whistle has only 6 holes and looks like a very simple instrument. Does that mean it’s easy to play? Appearances can be deceiving.

By the way, looking for recording equipment? Visit MusiciansFriend.com for any microphone, monitor, audio interface or other recording device you could ever need. (affiliate link)

While learning the tones and basic scale of the tin whistle is relatively easy, ultimately mastering transitions, breath control and good tone, and most importantly, embellishments, makes the tin whistle a challenging instrument to master.

I put myself to the test for the Tin Whistle to better answer that question for you, dear reader! I decided to learn Tin Whistle for 30 days starting with almost zero experience to see how much I could learn. I’m not a professional musician – I’m actually just a regular guy who also played the trumpet in high school. Read on to see the level of difficulty in learning the tin whistle.

Learning to tin whistle: easy or difficult?

Before embarking on an instrument, you often want to know how easy or difficult the instrument is so that you have the right expectations of your own ability. Is the tin whistle an easy instrument to learn or a difficult one?

In my 30-day Tin Whistle Challenge, I used Bill Ochs’ book Clarke’s Tin Whistle. The book is a fantastic introduction to the tin whistle, and I discovered that the tin whistle, while simple in construction, has many, many subtleties that are difficult to master.

I found that I was able to learn the fingerings and smooth the transitions so that I could play and memorize multiple songs in a single month without too much difficulty. I attribute part of this ability to having previous experience playing an instrument. So I would say if you have any prior musical experience, learning the basics of the tin whistle is easy to intermediate.

If you have no musical experience, the Tin Whistle fits into the medium difficulty category before you can learn to make it sound good.

Regardless of your musical background, however, mastering the intricacies of the instrument, particularly the ornamentation, will be downright difficult.

What makes an instrument difficult to learn? Well I’ve broken this question into several parts so you can gauge how difficult the instrument will be for you as everyone is different and has a different musical background. I’ve also provided a summary of how difficult it is to learn the tin whistle in each of these categories.

Generate Sound – Simple

Learning Fingerings – Intermediate

Achieve good tone – moderate to difficult

Transitions – moderate to difficult

High Game – Intermediate

Ornamentation – Hard

Make a sound on the tin whistle

Luckily, the tin whistle is perhaps one of the easiest wind instruments to produce a tone. The tin whistle is actually quite forgiving of the shape of your mouth and lips (called the neck) and how you blow air through the instrument.

The tin whistle is easy to sound only in comparison. You will squeak a lot as you learn to play. In comparison, other wind instruments such as the concert flute, saxophone, clarinet, and brass instruments such as the trumpet, trombone, and French horn all have specific approach requirements.

In fact, it can take new students of these instruments days to actually get a sound, and many more months before they can produce a sound that doesn’t sound gross. At least that’s what I know from high school.

The Tin Whistle is pretty flexible here, though. A new player can hit the ground running in minutes if not seconds.

Learning the fingerings

Learning the fingerings of the tin whistle is relatively easy. But don’t be fooled, while easy, it took me a long time to feel like I had a good handle on them. I’m still struggling with some fingering transitions to be honest.

While memorizing the different finger positions is easy, the difficulty here is actually getting your fingers to completely cover the finger holes. Even after hours of practice, I found I was still squeaking because one of my fingers wasn’t fully sealing one of the tin whistle holes.

Overcoming this takes many hours of mindful practice. For this reason I would say that learning the fingerings is a medium level of difficulty.

Achieve a good tone on the tin whistle

I suspect you can improve your tone over years – it will take several weeks of daily practice to get to the point where people can hear you, but mastering the tone on the tin whistle could take much longer.

Getting good tone for the basic techniques is of medium difficulty, but beyond that, good tone is difficult in the higher registers and with good control.

The hardest part of mastering the tone on the tin whistle is learning the exact breath pressure required for each note. If you have too much breath pressure for a particular note, you risk hitting the higher register when you slide down to the note you’re actually trying to play. If you don’t have enough, your notes will clip and not sound good. Finding this balance of breath pressure is a challenge that takes practice.

Transitions on the Tin Whistle

While the fingerings on the tin whistle are relatively easy, it can be very difficult to completely cover the holes, and it’s especially difficult to do so when you’re doing fast runs. On a flute or clarinet you have the advantage of these definitive knobs. Buttons are nice because you press them and the hole is covered unless there is a malfunction.

With the tin whistle, you jump back and forth between the fingerings, using your fingers to cover the holes. Therefore, without keys that other instruments have, it’s fairly easy to create squeaks on transition.

Therefore, the difficulty of the transitions on the Tin Whistle is moderate. If you’re playing fast, some of these transitions are downright difficult. There is an arpeggio in a song that I wanted to learn and I spent several minutes every day for a week just hitting a transition and I still couldn’t get it very smoothly.

That being said, if you’re playing simple songs with notes that are close together, the transitions are pretty easy.

high game

Flipping through Clarke’s Bill Och’s Tin Whistle book, I was surprised to see the recommendation to practice playing high with earplugs.

There is no exaggeration with these recommendations. Playing high on the tin whistle can sound squeaky and I found it quite difficult to get it sounding good.

I also thought that tin whistle you have probably makes a big difference. I couldn’t get my particular tin whistle to sound very good.

ornamentation

After a month of tin whistle practice, I found I had barely scratched the surface of the capabilities of such an elegant and simple instrument. Once I got the hang of the basics, I tried to get a feel for the next level – the embellishment.

I quickly learned that I was way, way out of my league.

Embellishments are difficult. No ifs and buts. While many of the embellishments are not difficult to perform (some of them are difficult even on their own), integrating them smoothly into your music is very difficult.

The few songs I tried that had a notated embellishment I found very difficult even though I only played the basic embellishment.

Being able to play the ornament is one thing, but playing it solidly and smoothly would take several months of constant practice to get right.

Summary: Is the tin whistle easy or difficult to learn?

If I were forced to give a straight answer, I would say that the tin whistle is particularly easy to learn the basics but difficult to master.

If you’re looking for an instrument for a child, or if you’re picking up an instrument for the first time, be prepared for some growing pains – luckily the growing pains don’t last as long as with some instruments like the violin.

If you already play an instrument, then you’re better equipped to start learning and you’ll enjoy learning the tin whistle right from the start.

How long does it take to learn the tin whistle?

It all depends on your expectations and your musical background. If you’re going to get to the Mary Bergin level, you have to start thinking in decades.

If you want to be able to attend an Irish session, you may need to practice consistently for a year or even two before you reach this stage.

If you can learn just the basics and memorize and play a few roles and a few popular songs that you like, then you can reach that goal in a month if you have some musical experience.

That was my starting point – my main instrument was the trumpet for several years in junior high and high school, and I have some experience with a few more instruments, and I managed to learn several songs within a month of hour daily practice.

If you don’t have any musical experience, you may need to reset your expectations a few months before you can play the basics.

This table is an attempt to present all this information in a concise manner:

Time required to learn the tin whistle

Minimum Time Required for Consistent Practice Performance Musical Experience Level 6 to 12 months Embellishment with High Speed ​​Play (Reels) Experienced 3 months High Speed ​​Play Experienced 1 month Basic Techniques with Multiple Songs Experienced 9 to 15 months Embellishment and High Speed ​​Play (reels) Beginner 6 to 9 months High Speed ​​Play Beginner 2 to 4 months of basic techniques with several songs for beginners

What is the best tin whistle for beginners?

Perhaps one of the most wonderful aspects of the tin whistle is that it is a very simple instrument, meaning the instruments are extremely inexpensive. Like…$10.

I have a Sweetone Clarke Tin Whistle and while I was skeptical that such a cheap instrument could do anything, I was amazed at how beautiful the instrument sounded.

In fact, I started looking at other tin whistles hoping to improve my sound when I found this Youtube video:

This woman uses the same tin whistle as me and she can make it sound amazing! That’s when I knew it wasn’t the Tin Whistle, it was me!

I can unreservedly say that the Sweetone Clarke Tin Whistle is a great instrument for beginners.

The Walton’s Mellow D Tin Whistle is also a great choice for beginners – and if I were to compare the two I’d say the Mellow D was a bit easier to cover the finger holes (they’re a bit larger) and so might this one better choice for a beginner.

The best way to learn the tin whistle

Having some practice at it now, I can say that The Clarke Tin Whistle by Bill Ochs is a fantastic resource for absolute beginners. I will name a few reasons:

If you’ve never played a musical instrument, Bill will explain music notation as he walks. I already knew music while reading this book and I think it goes a bit fast but definitely gives you what you need to get started.

I already knew music while reading this book and I think it goes a bit fast but definitely gives you what you need to get started. If you want to practice traditional Irish, Scottish, English, and even some old American tunes, this is a great resource

Fantastic explanations of ornamentation

The included CD is invaluable as it lets you hear some of the rhythm interpretations that aren’t obvious (or even notated).

Couple your learning with some YouTube videos and you’ll be off to a great start.

Is the tin whistle a real instrument?

Let’s clear the air here – some people may say that the tin whistle is a toy and doesn’t qualify as a real instrument. As a hobbyist with some instrument experience, I can definitely say that the Tin Whistle is a real instrument. If you want more of that discussion, I’ll go straight to that question here in this article.

Is the tin whistle the same as the recorder?

In short, no, the tin whistle is not the same as the recorder. The biggest difference between the tin whistle and the recorder is that a tin whistle is built to play a scale (diatonic), while a recorder is a chromatic instrument, meaning it can play all 12 notes much more easily .

The tin whistle can also play all 12 notes, but you have to use a technique where you half cover the holes, and that’s actually very difficult (especially fast).

The appearance of a tin whistle also differs from that of a recorder – if you want to see more differences, as well as an example graphic, read my post on this very topic here.

Hello, I’m trying out the Clarke D Whistle and would like to play this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-HYhu8mxKs . Can smn please tell me what the sounds with the + sign underneath are and how to play them? Just following the fingering makes it sound an octave lower I think, and the pitch must be higher.

Recommended whistles, tutorials and sets for beginners

Whistle is a great first instrument and on this page we give some of our recommendations for people just starting out. Keep in mind that even the cheapest whistles can have all the ornamentation and range of a more expensive whistle.

We always recommend sticking with a soprano D for your first whistle. You can find more information about keys in our online tutorial or in our FAQ section.

We also recommend that a beginner put on at least two different whistles whenever possible. That way, if you’re having trouble learning (like struggling to hit a certain high note), you can just take the other whistle to see if the problem is the whistle or not.

Recommended sets (includes a whistle in D) –

Recommended First Whistles –

Sweetone by Clarke – This is an excellent choice for a first whistle. It has a happy, round sound and is fairly easy to play throughout its two-octave range. Clarke’s Celtic Tinwhistle

Original Clarke – Made of tinplate, with a wooden fiddle (the block in the mouthpiece). This non-tunable whistle gives you the classic “tinwhistle sound” but requires more air to play than the whistles with plastic mouthpieces. If you want a whistle that retains the unique Clarke sound but requires less air, take a look at our “tweaked” version. Walton’s “Little Black D” – This is one of the most affordable whistles on the market today and is recommended by many coaches for new players.

Walton’s Irish Whistle – Available in brass, a favorite of traditional Irish players.

Susato Oriole Model – This durable ABS plastic whistle is easy to play throughout the 2+ octave range. Susato Orioles are tunable

Susato Kildare Model – This tunable whistle with a slightly tapered bore is an excellent choice as a first whistle.

Recommended Tutorials –

Recommended Deep Pipes –

Be sure to take a look at our Low Whistle Page before deciding if a Low Whistle is right for you!

Susato Kildare (be sure to check out the “medium-bore” Susatos)

Susato Dublin

3 tips for choosing your Irish whistle

by João Ferreira

The last 2 articles I wrote about how to motivate and play our Feadog Whistle with your child. In this article I will focus on 3 tips on how to choose the best Irish whistle for you and your child.

So let’s get started.

1- Choosing a key

Visit our site for Feadog Whistles keys in C and D, as well as Generations, Shaws and Susatos in other keys. The C and D keys are the most popular.

A D whistle is ideal for beginners and children as the finger holes are closer together than a C whistle, making it easier to play. Together with other instruments they sound great. They are used in most Irish tunes, making them the go-to choice for many Tin Whistlers.

C whistles are fantastic for those looking for an extra whistle. They’re also great for people who prefer to play solos rather than being part of a group. Although they work well with other instruments as well.

2- Mouthpiece selection

Since 1978, Feadog has been developing Ireland’s finest mouthpiece. We continue to invest and research to provide the best mouthpiece for the tin whistle player around the world.

3 – style

With a wide range of colors and designs to choose from, you’re sure to find a tin whistle that looks exactly how you want it. On our website you will find our brass and nickel C and D whistles, the colored ones and the PROs. We also sell Generation Whistles, Susatos and Shaws.

I believe following these 3 tips will inspire your child to learn how to play our Feadog Whistles better and better. Browse our website and look for the one that suits you. If you are already a player, become our fan and visit our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for tips and more information.

Also known as the penny whistle, the tin whistle is a woodwind instrument most commonly heard in Irish music. This small instrument has six holes, a mouthpiece, and is played by blowing air into it and covering different holes with your fingers to produce different sounds. The tin whistle is known by a variety of names depending on the region, including the tin flageolet, English flageolet, Clarke London flageolet, Irish penny whistle, Scottish penny whistle and Feadog stain. While unique in itself, the tin whistle shares many similarities with other instruments including the Native American flute, recorder and even clarinet when it comes to fingering and playing style.

Most traditional music compositions by musicians in Ireland and Scotland feature this beautiful instrument and it has become a large part of their culture since its introduction in the mid to late 19th century. When this flute is still heard in a musical composition today, it is almost always associated with traditional Irish and Scottish music. With the Celtic revival of the 1960s and 70s, this woodwind instrument became more popular around the world thanks to bands like the Clancy Brothers, the Chieftains and the Irish Rovers.

History of the Modern Tin Whistle

The same year Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol was published, another fantastic piece of history was dreamed up in 1843 by a young Robert Clarke. His invention, the modern tin whistle, was made from a small piece of wood, some solder, and tinplate in a small, unassuming village in Suffolk, England.[1] Unbeknownst to Clarke, an uneducated but hard-working family man, the instrument he created eventually became the staple of a very popular musical genre. As already mentioned, the tin whistle is indistinguishable from Celtic music and is a popular instrument for Celtic musicians and fans alike.

Robert Clarke eventually began manufacturing his invention and by the early 1900’s the instrument had become so common in homes that it was very similar in commonality to the harmonica. It was eventually dubbed the “penny whistle” because it could be bought at most stores for just a penny. Thanks to his entrepreneurial endeavors, Clarke’s Tin Whistle found its way all over the world where it became incredibly important in several musical genres including Ireland, Scotland, England and even South Africa.

The Penny Whistle

Initially, the tin whistle was viewed by many only as a toy that many households bought for their children due to the instrument’s ready availability and affordability. The instrument could be bought in many shops for just one cent, so the nickname “penny whistle” soon caught on. Many people believed that the penny whistle got its nickname because children played the instrument on the street for pennies, but most sources believe that its nickname comes from its price. Eventually, the “penny whistle” was picked up by Celtic and folk musicians and became a seriously mainstream instrument, as it is primarily known today.

“Low” whistles

While the modern tin whistle is known for its high pitched tone, several different sized whistles have also been played over the years that have a much larger appearance. These “low” whistles are much larger than their standard tin whistling counterparts and are able to reach much lower octaves due to their larger shape and length. These larger whistles are played in the same way as a standard tin whistle and are usually made of plastic or metal depending on the manufacturer. A famous 19th-century deep whistle is housed in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts as part of the Galpin Collection, named after Francis William Galpin.[2]

Is the tin whistle still made of tin?

Today most tin whistles are no longer made out of pewter and wood like the Clarke original, but out of brass or nickel plated brass and a plastic fiddle. Despite these manufacturing differences, the tin whistle has retained its colloquial name, although it is no longer made of pewter. This is similar to how it has retained the ‘penny whistle’ moniker, although it now sells for well over a penny in most places.

The Influence of the Tin Whistle in South Africa

Intimately associated with Celtic music, the tin whistle is one of the mainstays of the genre and a favorite among Celtic performers and their fans. While this tool is primarily associated with countries like Ireland and Scotland, many people are unaware of its influence in countries like South Africa.

A style of music that originated in South Africa as an offshoot of the Marabi sound, kwela is an entire genre that began using the Irish penny whistle. Thanks to the ready availability of the penny whistle, this instrument was taken up by natives in impoverished areas and was used to create the jazzy style of music known as kwela. The madness surrounding the Kwela when it was introduced caused sales of the penny whistle to explode in South Africa in the 1950s to over a million instruments sold.[3]

However, thanks to the emergence of another musical style, mbaqanga, the tin whistle was gradually phased out in favor of the saxophone. Despite its decline in popularity, the tin whistle is still held in high esteem within the kwela genre as the instrument that made the genre what it is today.

See the Tin Whistle in action!

Played here by the amazing Mary Bergin, this tin whistle solo showcases the instrument’s ability to play upbeat, jazzy leads. As you can see, the instrument requires its player to blow into the body of the instrument through the fipple and cover the holes with fingers to produce different tones. The harder you blow, the higher the pitch tends to be. If you’re looking to learn how to play a tin whistle, just remember this: you won’t become a pro overnight. Becoming an amazing player like Mary Bergin, Seán Ryan or Tommy Makem takes dedication, good hand-eye coordination and most importantly, LOTS of practice!

List of notable tin whistle players

Steve Buckley – England

Robert Bruce Hallett – Canada

LeRoi Holloway Moore-Virginia

Andrea Jane Corr – Ireland

Peter Richard “Spider” Stacy – England

Morris Goldberg – South Africa

Julie Fowlis – Scotland

Sean Ryan – Ireland

Joanie Madden-New York

Micho Russell – Ireland

Carmel Gunning – Ireland

Mary Bergin – Ireland

Sean Potts – Ireland

Paddy Moloney – Ireland

Tommy Makem – Ireland

Carlos Nuñez Muñoz – Spain

Matt Molloy – Ireland

Stephan Micus – Germany

Michael McGoldrick – England

references

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The Tin Whistle has only 6 holes and looks like a very simple instrument. Does that mean it’s easy to play? Appearances can be deceiving.

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While learning the tones and basic scale of the tin whistle is relatively easy, ultimately mastering transitions, breath control and good tone, and most importantly, embellishments, makes the tin whistle a challenging instrument to master.

I put myself to the test for the Tin Whistle to better answer that question for you, dear reader! I decided to learn Tin Whistle for 30 days starting with almost zero experience to see how much I could learn. I’m not a professional musician – I’m actually just a regular guy who also played the trumpet in high school. Read on to see the level of difficulty in learning the tin whistle.

Learning to tin whistle: easy or difficult?

Before embarking on an instrument, you often want to know how easy or difficult the instrument is so that you have the right expectations of your own ability. Is the tin whistle an easy instrument to learn or a difficult one?

In my 30-day Tin Whistle Challenge, I used Bill Ochs’ book Clarke’s Tin Whistle. The book is a fantastic introduction to the tin whistle, and I discovered that the tin whistle, while simple in construction, has many, many subtleties that are difficult to master.

I found that I was able to learn the fingerings and smooth the transitions so that I could play and memorize multiple songs in a single month without too much difficulty. I attribute part of this ability to having previous experience playing an instrument. So I would say if you have any prior musical experience, learning the basics of the tin whistle is easy to intermediate.

If you have no musical experience, the Tin Whistle fits into the medium difficulty category before you can learn to make it sound good.

Regardless of your musical background, however, mastering the intricacies of the instrument, particularly the ornamentation, will be downright difficult.

What makes an instrument difficult to learn? Well I’ve broken this question into several parts so you can gauge how difficult the instrument will be for you as everyone is different and has a different musical background. I’ve also provided a summary of how difficult it is to learn the tin whistle in each of these categories.

Generate Sound – Simple

Learning Fingerings – Intermediate

Achieve good tone – moderate to difficult

Transitions – moderate to difficult

High Game – Intermediate

Ornamentation – Hard

Make a sound on the tin whistle

Luckily, the tin whistle is perhaps one of the easiest wind instruments to produce a tone. The tin whistle is actually quite forgiving of the shape of your mouth and lips (called the neck) and how you blow air through the instrument.

The tin whistle is easy to sound only in comparison. You will squeak a lot as you learn to play. In comparison, other wind instruments such as the concert flute, saxophone, clarinet, and brass instruments such as the trumpet, trombone, and French horn all have specific approach requirements.

In fact, it can take new students of these instruments days to actually get a sound, and many more months before they can produce a sound that doesn’t sound gross. At least that’s what I know from high school.

The Tin Whistle is pretty flexible here, though. A new player can hit the ground running in minutes if not seconds.

Learning the fingerings

Learning the fingerings of the tin whistle is relatively easy. But don’t be fooled, while easy, it took me a long time to feel like I had a good handle on them. I’m still struggling with some fingering transitions to be honest.

While memorizing the different finger positions is easy, the difficulty here is actually getting your fingers to completely cover the finger holes. Even after hours of practice, I found I was still squeaking because one of my fingers wasn’t fully sealing one of the tin whistle holes.

Overcoming this takes many hours of mindful practice. For this reason I would say that learning the fingerings is a medium level of difficulty.

Achieve a good tone on the tin whistle

I suspect you can improve your tone over years – it will take several weeks of daily practice to get to the point where people can hear you, but mastering the tone on the tin whistle could take much longer.

Getting good tone for the basic techniques is of medium difficulty, but beyond that, good tone is difficult in the higher registers and with good control.

The hardest part of mastering the tone on the tin whistle is learning the exact breath pressure required for each note. If you have too much breath pressure for a particular note, you risk hitting the higher register when you slide down to the note you’re actually trying to play. If you don’t have enough, your notes will clip and not sound good. Finding this balance of breath pressure is a challenge that takes practice.

Transitions on the Tin Whistle

While the fingerings on the tin whistle are relatively easy, it can be very difficult to completely cover the holes, and it’s especially difficult to do so when you’re doing fast runs. On a flute or clarinet you have the advantage of these definitive knobs. Buttons are nice because you press them and the hole is covered unless there is a malfunction.

With the tin whistle, you jump back and forth between the fingerings, using your fingers to cover the holes. Therefore, without keys that other instruments have, it’s fairly easy to create squeaks on transition.

Therefore, the difficulty of the transitions on the Tin Whistle is moderate. If you’re playing fast, some of these transitions are downright difficult. There is an arpeggio in a song that I wanted to learn and I spent several minutes every day for a week just hitting a transition and I still couldn’t get it very smoothly.

That being said, if you’re playing simple songs with notes that are close together, the transitions are pretty easy.

high game

Flipping through Clarke’s Bill Och’s Tin Whistle book, I was surprised to see the recommendation to practice playing high with earplugs.

There is no exaggeration with these recommendations. Playing high on the tin whistle can sound squeaky and I found it quite difficult to get it sounding good.

I also thought that tin whistle you have probably makes a big difference. I couldn’t get my particular tin whistle to sound very good.

ornamentation

After a month of tin whistle practice, I found I had barely scratched the surface of the capabilities of such an elegant and simple instrument. Once I got the hang of the basics, I tried to get a feel for the next level – the embellishment.

I quickly learned that I was way, way out of my league.

Embellishments are difficult. No ifs and buts. While many of the embellishments are not difficult to perform (some of them are difficult even on their own), integrating them smoothly into your music is very difficult.

The few songs I tried that had a notated embellishment I found very difficult even though I only played the basic embellishment.

Being able to play the ornament is one thing, but playing it solidly and smoothly would take several months of constant practice to get right.

Summary: Is the tin whistle easy or difficult to learn?

If I were forced to give a straight answer, I would say that the tin whistle is particularly easy to learn the basics but difficult to master.

If you’re looking for an instrument for a child, or if you’re picking up an instrument for the first time, be prepared for some growing pains – luckily the growing pains don’t last as long as with some instruments like the violin.

If you already play an instrument, then you’re better equipped to start learning and you’ll enjoy learning the tin whistle right from the start.

How long does it take to learn the tin whistle?

It all depends on your expectations and your musical background. If you’re going to get to the Mary Bergin level, you have to start thinking in decades.

If you want to be able to attend an Irish session, you may need to practice consistently for a year or even two before you reach this stage.

If you can learn just the basics and memorize and play a few roles and a few popular songs that you like, then you can reach that goal in a month if you have some musical experience.

That was my starting point – my main instrument was the trumpet for several years in junior high and high school, and I have some experience with a few more instruments, and I managed to learn several songs within a month of hour daily practice.

If you don’t have any musical experience, you may need to reset your expectations a few months before you can play the basics.

This table is an attempt to present all this information in a concise manner:

Time required to learn the tin whistle

Minimum Time Required for Consistent Practice Performance Musical Experience Level 6 to 12 months Embellishment with High Speed ​​Play (Reels) Experienced 3 months High Speed ​​Play Experienced 1 month Basic Techniques with Multiple Songs Experienced 9 to 15 months Embellishment and High Speed ​​Play (reels) Beginner 6 to 9 months High Speed ​​Play Beginner 2 to 4 months of basic techniques with several songs for beginners

What is the best tin whistle for beginners?

Perhaps one of the most wonderful aspects of the tin whistle is that it is a very simple instrument, meaning the instruments are extremely inexpensive. Like…$10.

I have a Sweetone Clarke Tin Whistle and while I was skeptical that such a cheap instrument could do anything, I was amazed at how beautiful the instrument sounded.

In fact, I started looking at other tin whistles hoping to improve my sound when I found this Youtube video:

This woman uses the same tin whistle as me and she can make it sound amazing! That’s when I knew it wasn’t the Tin Whistle, it was me!

I can unreservedly say that the Sweetone Clarke Tin Whistle is a great instrument for beginners.

The Walton’s Mellow D Tin Whistle is also a great choice for beginners – and if I were to compare the two I’d say the Mellow D was a bit easier to cover the finger holes (they’re a bit larger) and so might this one better choice for a beginner.

The best way to learn the tin whistle

Having some practice at it now, I can say that The Clarke Tin Whistle by Bill Ochs is a fantastic resource for absolute beginners. I will name a few reasons:

If you’ve never played a musical instrument, Bill will explain music notation as he walks. I already knew music while reading this book and I think it goes a bit fast but definitely gives you what you need to get started.

I already knew music while reading this book and I think it goes a bit fast but definitely gives you what you need to get started. If you want to practice traditional Irish, Scottish, English, and even some old American tunes, this is a great resource

Fantastic explanations of ornamentation

The included CD is invaluable as it lets you hear some of the rhythm interpretations that aren’t obvious (or even notated).

Couple your learning with some YouTube videos and you’ll be off to a great start.

Is the tin whistle a real instrument?

Let’s clear the air here – some people may say that the tin whistle is a toy and doesn’t qualify as a real instrument. As a hobbyist with some instrument experience, I can definitely say that the Tin Whistle is a real instrument. If you want more of that discussion, I’ll go straight to that question here in this article.

Is the tin whistle the same as the recorder?

In short, no, the tin whistle is not the same as the recorder. The biggest difference between the tin whistle and the recorder is that a tin whistle is built to play a scale (diatonic), while a recorder is a chromatic instrument, meaning it can play all 12 notes much more easily .

The tin whistle can also play all 12 notes, but you have to use a technique where you half cover the holes, and that’s actually very difficult (especially fast).

The appearance of a tin whistle also differs from that of a recorder – if you want to see more differences, as well as an example graphic, read my post on this very topic here.

Tin Whistle

Pennywhistle Classification Woodwind

wind

Aerophone Range Two octaves Related instruments Flute with a simple system

The tin whistle, also known as a whistle, penny whistle, flageolet or Irish whistle, is a simple six-hole woodwind instrument. The Irish words for the instrument are feadóg (‘whistle’ or ‘flute’) or feadóg stáin (‘tin whistle’); feadóga stáin is the plural. It can be described as an end-blown fiddle, which puts it in the same category as the recorder, Native American flutes, and many other woodwind instruments found in traditional music.

story

LE McCullough notes that the earliest surviving whistles date from the 12th century, but that “players of the Feadan are also mentioned in the description of the court of the King of Ireland given in the 3rd century AD Brehon Acts.” . is to be found.” The Tusculum whistle is a 14 cm long, six-hole brass or bronze whistle found in pottery from the 14th and 15th centuries. it is currently in the collection of the Museum of Scotland.

The word “penny whistle” was used as early as 1730 and the word “tin-whistle” as early as 1825, but both words do not seem to have been in use until the 20th century. The first record of whistles made of tinplate dates back to 1825 in Great Britain.

The first factory made tin whistles were made by Robert Clarke (? – 1882) in Manchester, England. Norman Dannatt boasted that Robert Clarke’s whistles produced “a unique sound which, although attempts have been made to copy it, no one has ever improved upon”. By 1900 they were marketed as “Clarke London Flageolets” or “Clarke Flageolets”. The whistle’s gripping system is similar to that of the six-hole, simple system, the “Irish flute” (“simple” compared to the Böhm system flutes). The six-hole diatonic system is also used on baroque and other folk flutes and was of course well known before Robert Clarke began producing his tin whistles around 1843. Clarke’s first pipes were in high A and were later made in other keys suitable for Victorian parlor music. The company displayed the whistles at the 1851 World’s Fair.

In the second half of the 19th century, some flute makers such as Barnett Samuel and Joseph Wallis also sold whistles. These had a cylindrical brass tube. Like many old whistles, they had lead plugs; Because lead is toxic, you should exercise caution before playing an old whistle.

The Generation whistle was introduced in the first half of the 20th century and also featured a brass barrel with a lead fipple plug. The design has been updated somewhat over the years, most notably with the replacement of the lead plug design with a plastic fiddle.

While whistles were most commonly produced in the higher pitches, the “low” whistle is not unknown historically. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has in its collection an example of a 19th century deep pipe from the famous Galpin collection. During the Irish traditional music revival of the 1960s, the low whistle was “recreated” by Bernard Overton at the request of Finbar Furey.

Contemporary Tin Whistles

Today’s most common tin whistles consist of brass pipes or nickel-plated brass pipes with a plastic fiddle (mouthpiece). Generation, Feadóg, Oak, Acorn, Soodlum’s (now Walton’s) and other brands fall into this category. The second most common shape is the conical tin whistle with a wooden stopper at the wide end to form the fipple, with the Clarke’s brand being the most common. Other less common variants are the all-metal whistle, the PVC whistle, and the wooden whistle.

Whistles are a common starting instrument in Irish traditional music, as they are often cheap (under $10), relatively easy to start (no tricky approach like the flute), and the fingerings are identical to those of the traditional six-hole flute ( Irish flute, baroque flute). The tin whistle is the most popular instrument in traditional Irish music today.

In recent years, a number of instrument makers have launched lines of handcrafted “high-end” whistles that can cost hundreds of dollars – expensive compared to cheap whistles, but still cheaper than most other instruments. These companies are usually either a single person or a very small group of artisans working closely together. It is common for makers of wooden flutes and Uilleann whistles to also build whistles. The instruments differ from the inexpensive whistles in that each whistle is individually made and “tuned” by a professional rather than being made in a factory.

poll

Whistle Wrench

The whistle is tuned diatonic, making it easy to use for playing music in two major keys and their corresponding minor keys and modes. The whistle is identified by its lowest note, which is the tonic of the lowest major key. Note that this method of determining the key of the instrument differs from the method of determining the key of a chromatic instrument, which is based on the relationship between the notes in a score and the pitch they sound. Whistles come in many different tones.

Most common whistles can easily play notes in the keys of D and G major. Since the key of D major is lower, these pipes are called D pipes. The second most common whistle tuning is a C whistle, which can easily play notes in the keys of C and F major. The C whistle is widely used in American folk music, while the D whistle is the most common choice for Celtic music.

Although the whistle is essentially a diatonic instrument, it is possible to obtain tones outside of the whistle’s main major key, either by half-holing (partially covering the highest open finger hole) or by crossing over (covering some holes while leaving some higher ones open). ). However, half-holing is a little more difficult to do correctly, and whistles come in many keys, so an alternative key whistler will usually use a different whistle instead, reserving half-holing for oversights. Some whistle designs from manufacturers such as Susato allow the use of a single fipple or mouthpiece for bodies with different keys.

Soft whistle

There are larger whistles that, by being longer and wider, produce notes that are an octave (or, on rare occasions, two octaves) lower. Whistles in this category are probably made of metal or plastic tubing with a tuning slide head and are almost always referred to as low whistles, but sometimes as concert whistles. The low whistle works on identical principles to the standard whistle, but musicians in the tradition may consider it a separate instrument.

The term soprano whistle is sometimes used for the higher-pitched whistles when it is necessary to distinguish them from low-pitched whistles.

tuning adjustment

Pipes may or may not be tunable. When this is the case, tuning is done by sliding the mouthpiece in or out, either with the mouthpiece itself sliding over the body of the pipe, as with the metal pipe/plastic body model, or with a tuning slide so that the mouthpiece and top of Der Body forms the “head” of the whistle which fits into the main body.

playing technique

fingering and range

Notes are selected by opening or closing holes with fingers. When all holes are closed, the whistle produces its lowest note, the tonic of a major scale. Successive opening of holes from bottom to top produces the remaining notes of the scale in sequence: if the bottom hole is open, the second is produced, if the two lowest holes are opened, the third is produced, and so on. When all six holes are open, the seventh is created.

On any flute, including the tin whistle, the second and higher octaves are achieved by increasing the air velocity into the embouchure. This increases the frequency of the air pressure waves generated. On a flute, this is generally done by narrowing the lip opening. Because the size and direction of the tin whistle’s wind tunnel, like that of the recorder and other fipple flutes, is fixed, it is necessary to increase the speed of the airflow by overblowing. This can be achieved by blowing a little harder.

Fingering in the second octave is generally the same as in the first octave, although alternative fingerings are sometimes used at the top of the octave to correct tuning. Also, the second octave tonic is usually played with the top hole of the whistle uncovered, rather than covering all holes as with the first octave tonic. This makes it harder to accidentally fall into the first octave and is usually better in tune.

Various other notes (relatively flat or sharp relative to that of the major scale) can be reached by cross-fingering techniques, and all notes (except the lowest of each octave) can be flattened by half-holes. Perhaps the most effective and commonly used cross-fingering is the one that creates a flattened shape of the seventh note (e.g. B instead of B on a C whistle, or C-natural instead of C sharp on a D whistle). This makes another major scale available (F on a C whistle, G on a D whistle).

The standard range of the whistle is two octaves. For a D whistle, this includes notes from the second D above middle C to the fourth D above middle C. It is possible to produce notes above this range by blowing with sufficient force, but in most musical contexts it will Result being loud and out of tune.

ornamentation

Traditional Irish fife playing uses a range of flourishes to embellish the music, including cuts, hits and rolls. Most playing is legato, with flourishes to create rests between notes, rather than tongued. The Irish and Celtic concept of the word “ornament” differs somewhat from that of classical music, in that ornaments are changes in a note’s articulation rather than the addition of separately perceived notes to the piece.

Common ornaments and articulations are:

Cuts Cuts are very brief raising of a finger above the note being played without interrupting the flow of air into the whistle. For example, a player playing a low D on a D whistle can cut the note by very momentarily lifting the first finger of his or her bottom hand. This causes the pitch to shift upwards for a short time. The cut can be made either at the very beginning of the note or after the note has started to sound; Some people call the latter a “double cut” or a “mid-note cut”.

Strikes Strikes, or taps, are similar to cuts except that a finger is briefly lowered onto the whistle below the note being played. For example, if a player plays a low E on a D whistle, the player might tap by rapidly lowering and raising his or her bottom finger. Both cuts and taps are essentially instantaneous; the listener should not perceive them as separate notes.

Rolls A roll is a note with first a cut and then a hit. Alternatively, a roll can be viewed as a group of notes of identical pitch and duration with different articulations. There are two common types of rolls: The long roll is a group of three tied notes of equal pitch and duration, the first sounding without a cut or hit, the second with a cut, and the third with a hit.

is a group of three tied notes of equal pitch and duration, the first sounded without a cut or beat, the second with a cut, and the third with a beat. The short roll is a group of two tied notes of equal pitch and duration, the first sounded with a cut and the second with a smack.

Cranns Cranns are ornaments borrowed from the Uilleann pipe tradition. They are similar to reels except only cuts are used, no taps or strikes. On the tin whistle they are generally only used for tones where a twirl is not possible, e.g. B. the lowest note of the instrument.

Slides Slides are similar to portamentos in classical music; A note below or above (usually below) the intended note is fingered, and then the fingering is gradually shifted to smoothly raise or lower the pitch to the intended note. The slide is generally an ornament of longer duration than, say, the cut or the tap, and the listener should perceive the change in pitch.

Tonguing Tonguing is used sparingly to emphasize certain notes, such as the first note in a melody. Tin whistle players typically do not pronounce most notes. To tongue a note, a player briefly touches their tongue to the front of the palate at the beginning of the note, creating a percussive attack.

Vibrato Vibrato can be achieved on most notes by opening and closing one of the open holes or by varying the pressure of the breath. Of the two, finger vibrato is much more common than diaphragmatic (breath) vibrato, except on notes like the lowest note on the whistle, where finger vibrato is much more difficult.

repertoire

A number of musical genres commonly feature the tin whistle.

Irish and Scottish Music

Traditional music from Ireland, and to a lesser extent Scotland, is by far the most common music played on the tin whistle and comprises the vast majority of published scores suitable for whistle players. Musicians playing Irish and Scottish music on the tin whistle perform both solo and as members of bands. While the tin whistle is so prevalent in Irish music that it could be said to be characteristic of the genre and fairly common in Scottish music, in either case it is not a “required” instrument.

Since embellishments and improvisations around a simple melody are characteristic of both genres, many traditional musicians frown on the use of scores, believing that learning “by ear”, from recordings or live lessons, is the best way to explore these aspects of music to learn how to play the whistle. Therefore, Tin Whistle students may be advised not to use scores, and would certainly be expected to spend a significant amount of their time listening to other performers even when scores are used. Scores are never used in live performances and are usually discouraged in meetings. Nonetheless, it is common to transcribe traditional tunes, both for the purpose of preserving tunes and as a learning tool. In the score of traditional melodies there are rarely, if ever, separate scores for individual instruments; Therefore, tin whistle players use the same score as all other musicians.

kwela

Kwela is a musical genre that originated in South Africa in the 1950s and is characterized by an upbeat, jazzy tin whistle lead. Of all the music genres featuring the tin whistle, kwela is the only one completely dominated by the instrument. The genre was created around the sound of the whistle. The low cost of the tin whistle made it an attractive tool in the impoverished townships of the apartheid era; The Hohner Tin Whistle was particularly popular in this genre. The Kwela craze was responsible for the sale of over a million tin whistles.

The kwela was largely superseded by the mbaqanga genre in South Africa in the late 1950s, and with it the saxophone largely supplanted the tin whistle as the main instrument for township music. However, kwela master Aaron “Big Voice Jack” Lerole continued to perform into the 1990s, and some kwela bands, such as London’s The Positively Testcard, continue to record kwela music today.

Kwela music scores are rarely published and many of the recordings by the Kwela artists’ founders are out of print and hard to find.

other music

The tin whistle is used in many other styles of music, although not to the extent that it is distinctive like Irish music and kwela. It is not uncommon to hear the tin whistle used in bluegrass, worship music, and movie soundtracks, and published scores suitable for tin whistle performances are available in all of these genres. The tin whistle also appears in “crossover” genres such as world music and folk metal.

notation

Tin whistle music collections are generally notated in one of three different formats.

standard music notation

It is common to notate music for the whistle using standard musical notation. The tin whistle is a transposing instrument and there is no real consensus on how tin whistle music should be written or how reading music on the whistle should be taught. However, it can be said that when music is notated for a soprano whistle in the key it is intended to sound in, it is written an octave lower than it sounds, avoiding the use of ledger lines and making it much easier to read.

Irish music and other Celtic music make up the majority of published scores for the whistle. Since the majority of this music is written in D major, G major, or one of the corresponding musical modes, using the keys of D major or G major is a de facto standard. For example, the “C Whistle” edition of Bill Ochs’ popular The Clarke Tin Whistle Handbook is notated in D and differs from the D edition only in that the accompanying audio CD is played on a C whistle.

Reading directly on the C whistle is popular for the obvious reason that its home key, or Speed ​​Dial, is the quite natural major key (C major). Some musicians are encouraged to learn to read directly on one pipe while others are taught to read directly on another pipe, and learning to read directly on a second pipe will tend to enhance the ease gained on the first to seriously disturb.

The pipe player who wants music to continue reading on all pipes must learn the mechanics of written transposition by taking music in one key and transcribing it in another.

tablature

The tab notation for the tin whistle is a graphic representation of which tone holes the player should cover. The most common format is a vertical column of six circles with holes to cover for a specific note filled with black and a plus sign (+) at the top for notes in the second octave. Tablature is most commonly found in textbooks for beginners.

ABC notation

Since the majority of popular tin whistle music is traditional and not copyrighted, it is common to share tune collections on the internet. ABC notation is the most common means of interchanging tunes electronically. It is also designed to be easily read by humans, and many musicians learn to read it directly rather than using a computer program to convert it into standard sheet music.

Known actors

With traditional music

In 1973 Paddy Moloney (of The Chieftains) and Sean Potts released Tin Whistles, which helped popularize the tin whistle in particular and Irish music in general. Similarly influential were Mary Bergin’s Feadóga Stáin (1979) and Feadóga Stáin 2 (1993).

Other notable players include Carmel Gunning, Micho Russell, Joanie Madden, Brian Finnegan and Seán Ryan. Many traditional pipers and flute players also play the pipe at a high level.

In Kwela

Aaron “Big Voice Jack” Lerole and his band recorded a single called “Tom Hark” which sold five million copies worldwide and was used as the theme song for a BBC series. But the most famous star of the Kwela era was Spokes Mashiyane. Paul Simon’s 1986 album Graceland draws heavily on South African music and features traditional-style pennywhistle solos.

In pop music

The deep whistle gained public notoriety thanks to its use by Davy Spillane on the stage show Riverdance and Tony Hinnigan, who played a Phil Hardy Chieftain on the soundtrack of the 1997 film Titanic.

Certain Irish punk bands also use the tin whistle. Examples are Bridget Regan from Flogging Molly or Spider Stacy (from The Pogues).

Andrea Corr from the Irish pop/rock band The Corrs plays the Tin Whistle. Leroi Moore of the American/pop band The Dave Matthews Band plays the tin whistle on some of the songs in the band’s repertoire.

Bob Hallett of the Canadian folk-rock group Great Big Sea is also a well-known performer of the tin whistle, playing it on both traditional and original material.

In jazz

It is known that Steve Buckley, a British jazz musician, used the penny whistle as a serious instrument. His whistling can be heard on recordings with Loose Tubes, Django Bates and his album with Chris Bachelor Life As We Know It. Les Lieber is an acclaimed American jazz tinwhistle player. Lieber has played with Paul Whiteman’s Band and also with the Benny Goodman Sextet. Lieber recorded with Django Reinhart at the AFN Studios in Paris in the post-WWII era and launched an event called “Jazz at Noon” every Friday in a New York restaurant, which featured a core of advertisers, doctors, lawyers and others played businessmen who were or could have been jazz musicians.