minstrel: penny whistle question

[brichard]

>===== Original Message From "david ball" <dkball at hotmail.com> =====
>Picked up a penny whistle at an event recently. It is a brass and plastic
>"Feadog" in D. [...] Is that the nature of
>the beast? Did I just buy a piece of junk? (Hay, I paid FAR more than a
>penny for it ;-). Is it just a matter of more practice?
>
>Thanks
>David Falcone D'el Phoid

I've been playing the Irish Tin Whistle (or Penny Whistle) for a bit more than 
20 years now.  One of my favourite whistles is a D Feadog, but mine's a brass 
body painted black.

There's really only 2 usable octaves on the Tin Whistle.  They're easy to 
over-blow, so start learning by sticking to the lowest octave as much as 
possible.  Getting breath control enough to do that will serve you well no 
matter which octave you play in... including the even harder to control 3rd 
octave.  That 3rd octave only has a couple of usable notes, before it gets out 
of tune and screechy.

The best way to learn is to find someone who already plays and then get them 
to show you.  If that's not possible, then find a recording you can play along 
with.  In my case, it was The Chieftains "Chieftains 7" album.  It had some 
slow airs as well as some spanking fast dance tunes.  The tin whistle is 
played on most of them.  There's a truly wonderful slow air called "Dochas" 
(Irish Gaelic for "Hope") which is a duet between a harp and tin whistle 
before the rest of the band joins in at the end.  It was the tune that got me 
started playing.

Most Tin Whistles are in D.  With an alternate fingering in one spot you can 
get C-Natural as well as C-Sharp, so it can play in G just fine as well.  The 
next most common key is C, doing double duty with F.  There's also B-Flat, 
E-Flat, F, G, Low-C, Low-G, and Low-D that aren't too hard to find.

The prices range from a couple of bucks for a common D whistle in brass or 
nickel to a couple of hundred for a low-D in a good hard-wood.  They actually 
never did cost a penny, but it was common practice to throw a penny to a 
street busker with a tin whistle... it was the whistle that earned a peanny... 
a penny whistle.

If you're interested, Melody's Traditional Music and Harp Shoppes carries a 
wide selection of whistles as well as books, music and tutorial tapes for the 
tin whistle (I'm sure others do, too, but I'm most familiar with Melody's).  
Their website is at "http://www.folkharp.com".

Good Luck!
Telynor
Gate's Edge, Ansteorra (Houston, TX)
brichard at pdq.net