Why you should get a Tin Whistle

Victoria — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:17:37 -0400

I have bought a tin whistle just last week. I highly recommend anyone to get one.

I remember really hating wind instruments when I was a kid, playing the recorder very very badly (so badly I was kicked out of the school band). I never really thought I would one day every be able to play a wind instrument decently. But now it seems I am able to do it with the tin whistle! And I'm really not talented at all. So I am convinced that anyone will be able to play it and with much less effort than I have put in too (which isn't much really).

And it is really cheap. I got mine for 8 quid. You can get them from a music shop. They are just crudely made brass tubing with a mouthpiece, and are so light and hardy, you can carry them everywhere. I think that's the idea.

They are really simple instruments to learn. There are only 2 octaves on the tin whistle, and they typically start on a D note, playing the D major scale (that is Do Re Mi.. but starting with a D instead of a C). The D major scale is one of the most common scales that Irish songs come in. You can also get them in G major and A major scales. But for starters it's best to get D as most tutorials use that.

The songs are really catchy and easy to learn. Lots of repetitions, and can be very lively, like in a polka (the music they dance Ceilidh to). And it is good practice for reading musical notation too, if you aren't too familiar with the musical notation. The tin whistle scores are much easier to read than piano scores as there is just one melody running through it. No chords etc to distract you.

I have found this really useful tutorial on YouTube which has made learning the tin whistle a breeze. The links are below.

Afterall Guinness is such a great beer. Surely everything Irish is yummy.

Tin whistle

Why you should get a Tin Whistle

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