A Brief Note on Tin whistle
A Tin whistle, which is also known as a penny whistle is a kind of six-holed (wood wind) instrument. It belongs to the same category of Indian and American flute. It is actually an end blown flute (fipple flute) which follows the same functioning of a recorder. Uses of this special type of woodwind instrument are mostly associated with Celtic music. Today’s Tin whistle is an edited version of a wider family that is fipple flute that has been used by the people belonging to separate civilization and cultures across the world. However, this instrument was an important part of European culture where it was available in several forms like Flabiol, tabor Pipe and Txistu. In their culture, this instrument was used as a great mean of entertainment. Later on in different countries and different cultures, this instrument has received individual names and has been used by the people of those countries to solve different purposes.
What is it made of?
There is a common belief that this six-holed woodwind instrument is known as Tin whistle because it is made of Tin. However, the fact is that the main components of these instruments are brass, nickel, wood or sometime silver. It has been named likewise because earlier people used to manufacture the instrument using tin-plated steel.
Variation of the whistle:
Tin whistle is of different types. There are several variations of Tin whistle that is being used by different musicians to get variety of tunes. They are often called as soprano whistle and this name has been given to distinguish Tin-whistle from the low whistles, which are longer for the same key. For example, a D penny whistle is often known as High-D whistle and is sometime a bit thinner than what a low D whistle is. The D key based Tin whistle is mostly being used by Irish people. Tin whistles that fall between low and high category of whistle are known as alto whistle. G and F are two most common types of tin-whistle but among the two, the G one is used rapidly and F is a bit less common.
There are Tin whistles that are available on other keys. C is one of the many common keys of Tin whistles. One, who has a tin whistle of D key often, includes the C key whistle in their collection.
How to play it:
You can follow this simple process to play your Tin whistle. At first, you have to sit firmly on your back and have to take a few deep breaths to be sure that all the pipes are properly active. Keeping your right hand at bottom and the left hand at top, try to lift the whistle. Your first three fingers should be on the first three holes of the instrument. Then without feeling shy hold the whistle firmly within your lips and start blowing. If you feel it hard to blow than you can try to pronounce the word “two” to blow easily. Then using your tongue try to create a same note every time you play it.
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