This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
The section about breath vibrato not being pitch modulation ought to be removed. It's not really true that breath can't change the pitch. If this ere true, flutes wouldn't be able to do vibrato at all. Breath vibrato changes the pitch AND and the volume, not just the volume.
I possess each of the three types of whistles for which the article has sound samples, and I'm quite accomplished on the instrument. I'd gladly add some sound samples that actually give an idea of what the instrument sounds like. The current sound samples do not do the whistle justice.
-Bart —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.27.22.181 ( talk) 10:16, 31 July 2008 (UTC)
I'm under the vague impression that the cutoff point for Low Whistles is A (below the standard D). Is that correct, or is a Generation Bb count as low whistle? In either case, can we add the defining pitch to the definition of Low Whistle? MatthewVanitas ( talk) 16:46, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
From LaurelBush 16:14, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC):
The tin whistle isnt a modern form of flageolet? Laurel Bush 12:53, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC).
I believe there was a time (19th century) when Clarke whistles were bought in bulk by other companies and rebranded as more 'up-market' instruments, eg by calling them 'flagolets'. Laurel Bush 11:59, 5 May 2005 (UTC).
Sigh. Mel Etitis in history claims that (1) "there's no such word as 'anachrously'" — true enough, but there is such a word as "anachronously" — and that the flageolet is a different instrument than the whistle, in spite of the references above that the terms have been used as synonyms in the past. I believe he's wrong for the reasons indicated in the conversation I had above with Laurel Bush months ago, but since I've now reverted this twice I'm raising it here. Mel Etitis, if you think that L.E. McCullough's citation is incorrect, could you explain why, please? -- Craig Stuntz 21:01, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
I note the use of The Irish feadóg (literally "flute") is first evidenced in literature and on High Crosses from the 11th century. Bone whistles are also known to have been played in 12th century Viking Dublin as the first sentence under History. I am sure that in the 11th and 12th centuries similar instruments were in use in many places other than Ireland. Laurel Bush 09:59, 18 May 2005 (UTC).
Laurel added a notation section which presently reads as follows:
I find this a bit speculative and out of line with my own experience in collecting tin whistle scores (I'm the category editor for Tin Whistle in dmoz.org and have assembled a large index of online tune collections). For example, in my experience notation for C whistles is usually scored in D/G, simply because nearly all traditional music is in D/G; see, for example, the popular The Clarke Tin Whistle Book by Bill Ochs, where the "C whistle" edition of the book differs only by the included recording (CD), and the notation stays the same as the D edition, even though the C edition was published first. I also feel that it doesn't touch on some important points regarding whether and how scores should be used in traditional music, which constitutes the majority of published tin whistle notation. Finally there's the issue of tablature.
Since I'm proposing a fairly radical change to what was just added I thought I should run it by here to start with.
I would suggest the following text instead:
Although fiddlers often like to play in A, they typically use a D score and transpose, when they use a score at all. Many of the tunes scored in A are simply incorrect; they're Highland pipe tunes and are therefore in A mixolydian rather than A major, and should be scored in D major, which uses the same notes as A mixolydian — although scores written for Highland pipers tend to omit key signatures altogether as there's really only one key possible on the GHBs and they don't play in concert pitch anyway.
As for non-traditional (i.e., not folk music) musical scores for the whistle, I'm not sure there is enough of it to make a generalization.
Now, the text I wrote above misses some subtleties like playing along with non-traditional instruments and using differently-keyed whistles to transpose. But I'm thinking that's more of a playing issue than a notation issue.
What do you think?
-- Craig Stuntz 16:55, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
Interesting. Much of the above seems to be more about traditional music than it is about the tin whistle as such. I have seen Clarke publications with music scored in C for the C whistle (usually from within starter packs designed for young children). Also, for many years from World War II onwards there was only one CLarke whistle, the C whistle.
Not sure I understand the bit about fiddlers transposing to A from scores in D. I do know, however, that much traditional music written with the three-sharps key signature would be written more appropriately with the two-sharps signature.
Perhaps there is more consensus on notation for whistle than is indicated in the article, around the idea of music being written as for playing on the D whistle. Certainly, if you have learnt to read directly onto that whistle but then want, eg, music to play in D on an A whistle (perhaps because the range of the A is more suited to a particular piece) then you will tend to want the music written as for G on a D whistle. And if you want music to play in G on a G whistle you will want it written as for D on a D whistle. The idea of the whistle as a transposing instrument is not just about the octave in which music is written.
I am thinking the above and how the sense of it might be worked into the article, without turning it, the article, into one more about traditional music than about the tin whistle. By the way: I have figured the point about reading in D and playing in A on a fiddle; it means fingering first, second and third strings as if second, third and fourth. Laurel Bush 11:19, 15 December 2005 (UTC).
I just extracted the book reference in this sentence into a ref tag:
However, I can't find any real information about this book to fill out the rest of the book-reference template. Amazon has a listing for a book called The History of the Tin Whistle which may or may not be the same. I've searched multiple book catalogs, including a couple of ISBN catalogs and the Library of Congress and found nothing. Clarke doesn't mention the book on their site. A Google query turns up one reference.
I can ask Dale if he has a copy, but I'm also wondering how relevant the quote is. Considering that it's a book published by Clarke which is bragging about the quality of Clarke products, it seems like advertising copy. But since I can't look up the original I may be missing something in the context.
Comments? -- Craig Stuntz 15:15, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
I have a copy. It was published by the Clarke company and does have an advertising purpose. Also, however, it has some interesting, detailed history in it, about Clarke himself and about the company now using his name. And I seem to remember having some correspondence with the author. I'll see if I can chase up a better reference tag. Laurel Bush 16:36, 26 January 2006 (UTC).
At 96 pages in length The History of the Tin Whistle looks like it might be a later, longer, version of the same work. Laurel Bush 16:42, 26 January 2006 (UTC).
Dale Wisely writes: Well, I praise it, but I wrote the forward and my picture and bio's in the thing so I'm biased. That said, the book provides a lot of useful stuff about the history of the instrument. On the other hand, the Clarke Company, which produced this book (Norman works for them) has always maintained a kind of historical ownership of the whistle which is probably overstated. It would be hard to ignore the importance of the Robert Clarke and the company to the instrument but I don't think it's quite fair to say he invented it. The book is, clearly, a blend of useful history and advertising for Clarke.--Dale Wisely
The article presently says:
I've done some digging and seems this isn't true.
I haven't changed this line yet since it's hard to prove a negative, but I'm thinking about rephrasing it somewhat. -- Craig Stuntz 21:22, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
I'd like to start a discussion about what to do with this section. It's kind of weak as it stands, and lacks citation. I don't think it contributes much to the article at the moment, but I think some discusson of performers is necessary. There are performers like Micho Russell and Spokes Mashiyane who are not listed at present but probably should be. Actually, there isn't any non-Irish-music performer listed there now, which is by itself a problem.
Anonymous contributors occasionally stick in names of folks who, while they are indeed well-known, are not anywhere near as influential as the rest of the performers listed (e.g., Andrea Corr, Flogging Molly/Bridget Regan). Some of the people who are currently listed are really better known for playing other instruments.
Among the people who are listed now, Seán Ryan is much better known as a fiddler, but is unquestionably an accomplished tin whisle player. Davy Spillane is much more influential as an Uilleann piper; his article scarcely mentions the whistle. He builds both U pipes and tin whistles, but his pipes seem to have a better reputation than his whistles, and the whistles are pretty hard to come by. He's in some ways notable as a whistle player since a lot of people had never been aware of the instrument before Riverdance, but I can't recall anyone ever saying they wanted to play the whistle like Davy Spillane (although I have heard people say they wanted to get his Uilleann pipe sound). Joanie Madden is popular and a lot of whistle players I know say they like her style, which is quite characteristic, but I can't off the top of my head think of any performer of her stature who she influenced. (That said, I don't claim expertise, so maybe I'm just missing something). On the other hand, without Paddy Maloney and Seán Potts and Mary Bergin the tin whistle might still be regarded as a toy instrument. They not only made the instrument popular, they changed the perception of what it was capable of.
If we were to include people strictly on the basis of how well they're known it should probably include Spider Stacy and Jean-Luc Picard. But I guess I think it's kind of pointless to include people based on being well-known; I'd rather list performers based on how much they have influenced other players, either by their style or by influencing people to start playing the instrument in the first place.
I think some citations might help. But I'd also like to ask: Who should be included here? People who are popular and influential? Popular but not influential? Influential but popular? Are there people who are neither popular nor influential but should be included for other reasons?-- Craig Stuntz 14:36, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
I saw that the song from Titanic was mentioned in this section without identifying the player and initially misunderstood the intent of the section as being about popular uses. I wondered where Paul Simon's "Call Me Al" was, and was about to add it until I saw the section title. (smiley face) Frank Lynch ( talk) 23:52, 12 January 2018 (UTC)
Can we talk a little bit about external links? I spoke a bit about this with Craig Stuntz offline, and he encouraged me to bring up the topic here for discussion. For a while, there were 10-12 external links, and it was pretty stable. Then in Nov 2006, a lot of the links were cleaned out as per the external link policy. The link to my website was among them. A friend of mine told me the link was gone, and re-added the link. Shortly thereafter, it was removed again.
Now I read the policy, and I can understand the point that Wikipedia is not a link aggregator. But clearly, some external links are appropriate. For instance, there's a link to the Chiff and Fipple website, and a link to DMOZ.
Nearly 3 weeks ago, a link was added to WhistleThis, and it has remained. So, I guess I'm asking for a discussion about the policy, and some clarification on what's going to be allowed as an External Link. Clearly, WhistleThis is a useful resource for a tinwhistlers using it to collectively learn tunes. Chiff and Fipple also is useful in that it's a good central location about things tinwhistle, and provides a sporadic newsletter, and the DMOZ entry on whistles clearly is useful. I'd also like to think that the link to my own website was also a useful resource. Please note my reviews at http://www.tinwhistler.com/reviews.asp
My site has reviews of nearly every whistle in manufacture today, and I believe it's the most complete set of tinwhistle reviews that you'll find on the entire Internet. Along with Chiff and Fipple, it's one of the oldest tinwhistle sites on the Internet as well (since 1995). It's not a matter of driving ad dollars my way, as I think the Wikipedia traffic was only responsible for about $10.00 a year worth of ad revenue as far as that goes. But I do believe that my site (specifically, the reviews section) falls well within the guidelines' definition of what's useful to link to, but is too subjective to have as an article itself.
When I'd asked Craig about possibly including it on the wiki, he asked me to have the discussion in the open here. So here I am. Greg Mahan 23:46, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
I bought one and have loved playing it ever since. But You can sometimes get sore fingers and chapped lip's. Try eating something like crackers before you play. And if you finger's get sore, just keep going and soon you'll notice that it's doesn't hurt any more.
MetalHellsAngel 16:35, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
I have never had sore fingers or chapped lips in all the six years of playing the Tin Whistle... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.27.226.192 ( talk) 18:00, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
The Turkish connections were added by User:85.103.138.89 ( talk) , seemingly based on the equivalence of the tin whistle to the dilli ney. While I recognise that the same or ostensibly identical instruments may have evolved in both the British Isles and the Balkan / Turkish / Arabian cultures, I'd suggest that each deserves its own article citing its own evolution, traditional and contemporary use, role in ethnic music, etc. As it stands the implication of the article is that (1) the dilli ney evolved in the British Isles according to the article's "history" section and (2) the British tin whistle is part of the Turkish musical tradition according to the sidepalnels and project links. I'll invite User:85.103.138.89 to contribute to this discussion via his/her talk page. -- Timberframe ( talk) 12:35, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
I have added a "citation needed" tag to the statement that the tin whistle is used in bluegrass music. I am familiar with this music genre and am an amatuer musician. I have never heard (or heard of) the tin whistle used in this music genre. I think an acceptable reference would be the name of artist, song, and album that contains a tin whistle part. 75.88.54.210 ( talk) 01:59, 4 July 2008 (UTC)
I think the Low Whistle deserves a separate article (even if it's only small) and I am keen to write one. Would this be supported or has this idea been raised before and turned down? Jaybird88 ( talk) 09:42, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
In the section that talks about Patrick Steward (Jean-Luc Picard) playing the tin whistle, it should be noted that the actor didn't actually play the instrument during that episode, all-though he knew how. The tin whistle music in that episode was actually played by a professional musician. Bartholomewklick ( talk) 21:38, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
Can the editors here please explain why this edit is worth 6 reversions in under an hour? Or, better yet, agree on a compromise text? Reference to additional high quality scholarly sources might be in order. If consensus can be reached here before protection expires in a week, please request unprotection at WP:RFPP. - 2/0 ( cont.) 03:25, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
Not as far as I know. The reason whistle is called a D whistle is that it is tuned to play the key of D in open tuning. Playing the key of G on a D whistle requires half-holing (cross-fingering holes 2 and 3 gives a poor approximation of the note) -- and even then, many whistles are tuned to just intonation rather than equal temperament, which means each instrument is specifically tuned to a single key: any other key will be slightly off.
I intend to change this when the article lock expires, unless anyone convinces me otherwise in the mean time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Prof Wrong ( talk • contribs) 13:57, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
In addition to the above correction which I agree seems necessary (that G major requires half-holing), this paragraph now says "(equivalent to a concert C instrument) and F major (equivalent to a concert B♭ instrument)" which doesn't seem right, my D Clark matches concert pitch, which makes me think tin whistles are not transposing instruments. Lower on this page it says "The tin whistle is not a transposing instrument - for example, music for the D tin whistle is written in concert pitch, not transposed down a tone as would be normal for transposing instruments." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thomasballinger ( talk • contribs) 05:39, 26 September 2019 (UTC)
You're right to question the "equivalent to concert" references. They don't make sense here, so I've removed them. However, I would say whistles are expected to deliver a plausible flattened seventh (C natural on a D whistle), not a poor approximation, with cross fingering (usually OXXOOO), so half-holing isn't required. On a whistle, adjustments to breath pressure offer considerable control over the precise tuning. Tunborough ( talk) 13:32, 26 September 2019 (UTC)
There's an old play on words poem about whistles that goes: I bought a wooden whistle/ But it wooden whistle./ I bought a steel whistle/ And it steel wouldn't whistle./ I bought a tin whistle,/ And now I tin whistle. Could it be included here? Perhaps put in the article about whistles in general. 66.99.219.2 ( talk) 23:49, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
Edit revert by user 86.44.17.238 due to the nature of the term British Isles as an on going dispute, if you want to change this term you must get a consensus here taking place here failure to do so will get the edit reverted again. Kind regards Kamcau ( talk) 05:47, 11 December 2010 (UTC)
Nothing about the 3-holed whistle? Or did I miss it? Whogue ( talk) —Preceding undated comment added 04:00, 1 March 2012 (UTC).
Tin Whistle vs. Recorder. It might be small, but I believe this might help. Komitsuki ( talk) 06:16, 28 November 2014 (UTC)
Here is a simple question that does not seem to be answered in the article: how does the player change between octaves? Thanks. CountMacula ( talk) 17:00, 26 February 2015 (UTC)
Currently the article states (at the bottom of Playing technique : Fingering and range):
I don't actually have a tin whistle to hand, but as I poke around, this appears to be an octave too high. Shouldn't it instead read:
If this is correct, then a C whistle would start right at middle C, which I believe is also true. Phil wink ( talk) 02:14, 6 August 2015 (UTC)
OK. Which keys would those be? All of them? The article gives no clue, mentioning only the "D' and "C" whistles. The Generation company has for many years produced a set of whistles containing (from low to high): Bb, C, D, Eb, F, and G whistles. These are the only six keys I've ever seen penny whistles in. Do other keys exist? B, C#, E, F#, Ab, and A, for example?
Some specificity and clarity is in order, here.
"... some players, particularly when negotiating the larger holes and spacing in low whistles, may employ the "piper's grip"."
What, exactly, would the "piper's grip" be?
They hold the instrument like a plumber would?
They use a pipe wrench to grip the whistle?
A little explanation, or at least a link to an explanation, would be nice here.
In most other articles about musical instruments, at least some indication is given of the approximate physical size of a standard example of the instrument. I can find no indication of such in this article. Assuming the "D" whistle to be the standard, how long is a typical example? 3 inches? 8 inches? 49 inches? What is the diameter of the tube? Is it the same for all whistles, regardless of key? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.95.43.253 ( talk) 21:35, 5 May 2020 (UTC)
Ref 20 (as of writing), about the low whistle in the Galpin collection (FWIW, I have never heard of this, and neither had anyone involved with the 60s reinvention), points to page on tin whistle history. That page in turn has clearly been rewritten from here, or vice versa. In any case, the actual point is moot as the page says nothing about the reference in question. Calum ( talk) 23:53, 20 June 2020 (UTC)
Are there acoustic or playing differences between conical-bore whistles (e.g. Clarke) and cylindrical-bore whistles (e.g. Generation). If there are, should they be mentioned in a new section? -- ABehrens ( talk) 18:32, 29 September 2020 (UTC)
This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
The section about breath vibrato not being pitch modulation ought to be removed. It's not really true that breath can't change the pitch. If this ere true, flutes wouldn't be able to do vibrato at all. Breath vibrato changes the pitch AND and the volume, not just the volume.
I possess each of the three types of whistles for which the article has sound samples, and I'm quite accomplished on the instrument. I'd gladly add some sound samples that actually give an idea of what the instrument sounds like. The current sound samples do not do the whistle justice.
-Bart —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.27.22.181 ( talk) 10:16, 31 July 2008 (UTC)
I'm under the vague impression that the cutoff point for Low Whistles is A (below the standard D). Is that correct, or is a Generation Bb count as low whistle? In either case, can we add the defining pitch to the definition of Low Whistle? MatthewVanitas ( talk) 16:46, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
From LaurelBush 16:14, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC):
The tin whistle isnt a modern form of flageolet? Laurel Bush 12:53, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC).
I believe there was a time (19th century) when Clarke whistles were bought in bulk by other companies and rebranded as more 'up-market' instruments, eg by calling them 'flagolets'. Laurel Bush 11:59, 5 May 2005 (UTC).
Sigh. Mel Etitis in history claims that (1) "there's no such word as 'anachrously'" — true enough, but there is such a word as "anachronously" — and that the flageolet is a different instrument than the whistle, in spite of the references above that the terms have been used as synonyms in the past. I believe he's wrong for the reasons indicated in the conversation I had above with Laurel Bush months ago, but since I've now reverted this twice I'm raising it here. Mel Etitis, if you think that L.E. McCullough's citation is incorrect, could you explain why, please? -- Craig Stuntz 21:01, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
I note the use of The Irish feadóg (literally "flute") is first evidenced in literature and on High Crosses from the 11th century. Bone whistles are also known to have been played in 12th century Viking Dublin as the first sentence under History. I am sure that in the 11th and 12th centuries similar instruments were in use in many places other than Ireland. Laurel Bush 09:59, 18 May 2005 (UTC).
Laurel added a notation section which presently reads as follows:
I find this a bit speculative and out of line with my own experience in collecting tin whistle scores (I'm the category editor for Tin Whistle in dmoz.org and have assembled a large index of online tune collections). For example, in my experience notation for C whistles is usually scored in D/G, simply because nearly all traditional music is in D/G; see, for example, the popular The Clarke Tin Whistle Book by Bill Ochs, where the "C whistle" edition of the book differs only by the included recording (CD), and the notation stays the same as the D edition, even though the C edition was published first. I also feel that it doesn't touch on some important points regarding whether and how scores should be used in traditional music, which constitutes the majority of published tin whistle notation. Finally there's the issue of tablature.
Since I'm proposing a fairly radical change to what was just added I thought I should run it by here to start with.
I would suggest the following text instead:
Although fiddlers often like to play in A, they typically use a D score and transpose, when they use a score at all. Many of the tunes scored in A are simply incorrect; they're Highland pipe tunes and are therefore in A mixolydian rather than A major, and should be scored in D major, which uses the same notes as A mixolydian — although scores written for Highland pipers tend to omit key signatures altogether as there's really only one key possible on the GHBs and they don't play in concert pitch anyway.
As for non-traditional (i.e., not folk music) musical scores for the whistle, I'm not sure there is enough of it to make a generalization.
Now, the text I wrote above misses some subtleties like playing along with non-traditional instruments and using differently-keyed whistles to transpose. But I'm thinking that's more of a playing issue than a notation issue.
What do you think?
-- Craig Stuntz 16:55, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
Interesting. Much of the above seems to be more about traditional music than it is about the tin whistle as such. I have seen Clarke publications with music scored in C for the C whistle (usually from within starter packs designed for young children). Also, for many years from World War II onwards there was only one CLarke whistle, the C whistle.
Not sure I understand the bit about fiddlers transposing to A from scores in D. I do know, however, that much traditional music written with the three-sharps key signature would be written more appropriately with the two-sharps signature.
Perhaps there is more consensus on notation for whistle than is indicated in the article, around the idea of music being written as for playing on the D whistle. Certainly, if you have learnt to read directly onto that whistle but then want, eg, music to play in D on an A whistle (perhaps because the range of the A is more suited to a particular piece) then you will tend to want the music written as for G on a D whistle. And if you want music to play in G on a G whistle you will want it written as for D on a D whistle. The idea of the whistle as a transposing instrument is not just about the octave in which music is written.
I am thinking the above and how the sense of it might be worked into the article, without turning it, the article, into one more about traditional music than about the tin whistle. By the way: I have figured the point about reading in D and playing in A on a fiddle; it means fingering first, second and third strings as if second, third and fourth. Laurel Bush 11:19, 15 December 2005 (UTC).
I just extracted the book reference in this sentence into a ref tag:
However, I can't find any real information about this book to fill out the rest of the book-reference template. Amazon has a listing for a book called The History of the Tin Whistle which may or may not be the same. I've searched multiple book catalogs, including a couple of ISBN catalogs and the Library of Congress and found nothing. Clarke doesn't mention the book on their site. A Google query turns up one reference.
I can ask Dale if he has a copy, but I'm also wondering how relevant the quote is. Considering that it's a book published by Clarke which is bragging about the quality of Clarke products, it seems like advertising copy. But since I can't look up the original I may be missing something in the context.
Comments? -- Craig Stuntz 15:15, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
I have a copy. It was published by the Clarke company and does have an advertising purpose. Also, however, it has some interesting, detailed history in it, about Clarke himself and about the company now using his name. And I seem to remember having some correspondence with the author. I'll see if I can chase up a better reference tag. Laurel Bush 16:36, 26 January 2006 (UTC).
At 96 pages in length The History of the Tin Whistle looks like it might be a later, longer, version of the same work. Laurel Bush 16:42, 26 January 2006 (UTC).
Dale Wisely writes: Well, I praise it, but I wrote the forward and my picture and bio's in the thing so I'm biased. That said, the book provides a lot of useful stuff about the history of the instrument. On the other hand, the Clarke Company, which produced this book (Norman works for them) has always maintained a kind of historical ownership of the whistle which is probably overstated. It would be hard to ignore the importance of the Robert Clarke and the company to the instrument but I don't think it's quite fair to say he invented it. The book is, clearly, a blend of useful history and advertising for Clarke.--Dale Wisely
The article presently says:
I've done some digging and seems this isn't true.
I haven't changed this line yet since it's hard to prove a negative, but I'm thinking about rephrasing it somewhat. -- Craig Stuntz 21:22, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
I'd like to start a discussion about what to do with this section. It's kind of weak as it stands, and lacks citation. I don't think it contributes much to the article at the moment, but I think some discusson of performers is necessary. There are performers like Micho Russell and Spokes Mashiyane who are not listed at present but probably should be. Actually, there isn't any non-Irish-music performer listed there now, which is by itself a problem.
Anonymous contributors occasionally stick in names of folks who, while they are indeed well-known, are not anywhere near as influential as the rest of the performers listed (e.g., Andrea Corr, Flogging Molly/Bridget Regan). Some of the people who are currently listed are really better known for playing other instruments.
Among the people who are listed now, Seán Ryan is much better known as a fiddler, but is unquestionably an accomplished tin whisle player. Davy Spillane is much more influential as an Uilleann piper; his article scarcely mentions the whistle. He builds both U pipes and tin whistles, but his pipes seem to have a better reputation than his whistles, and the whistles are pretty hard to come by. He's in some ways notable as a whistle player since a lot of people had never been aware of the instrument before Riverdance, but I can't recall anyone ever saying they wanted to play the whistle like Davy Spillane (although I have heard people say they wanted to get his Uilleann pipe sound). Joanie Madden is popular and a lot of whistle players I know say they like her style, which is quite characteristic, but I can't off the top of my head think of any performer of her stature who she influenced. (That said, I don't claim expertise, so maybe I'm just missing something). On the other hand, without Paddy Maloney and Seán Potts and Mary Bergin the tin whistle might still be regarded as a toy instrument. They not only made the instrument popular, they changed the perception of what it was capable of.
If we were to include people strictly on the basis of how well they're known it should probably include Spider Stacy and Jean-Luc Picard. But I guess I think it's kind of pointless to include people based on being well-known; I'd rather list performers based on how much they have influenced other players, either by their style or by influencing people to start playing the instrument in the first place.
I think some citations might help. But I'd also like to ask: Who should be included here? People who are popular and influential? Popular but not influential? Influential but popular? Are there people who are neither popular nor influential but should be included for other reasons?-- Craig Stuntz 14:36, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
I saw that the song from Titanic was mentioned in this section without identifying the player and initially misunderstood the intent of the section as being about popular uses. I wondered where Paul Simon's "Call Me Al" was, and was about to add it until I saw the section title. (smiley face) Frank Lynch ( talk) 23:52, 12 January 2018 (UTC)
Can we talk a little bit about external links? I spoke a bit about this with Craig Stuntz offline, and he encouraged me to bring up the topic here for discussion. For a while, there were 10-12 external links, and it was pretty stable. Then in Nov 2006, a lot of the links were cleaned out as per the external link policy. The link to my website was among them. A friend of mine told me the link was gone, and re-added the link. Shortly thereafter, it was removed again.
Now I read the policy, and I can understand the point that Wikipedia is not a link aggregator. But clearly, some external links are appropriate. For instance, there's a link to the Chiff and Fipple website, and a link to DMOZ.
Nearly 3 weeks ago, a link was added to WhistleThis, and it has remained. So, I guess I'm asking for a discussion about the policy, and some clarification on what's going to be allowed as an External Link. Clearly, WhistleThis is a useful resource for a tinwhistlers using it to collectively learn tunes. Chiff and Fipple also is useful in that it's a good central location about things tinwhistle, and provides a sporadic newsletter, and the DMOZ entry on whistles clearly is useful. I'd also like to think that the link to my own website was also a useful resource. Please note my reviews at http://www.tinwhistler.com/reviews.asp
My site has reviews of nearly every whistle in manufacture today, and I believe it's the most complete set of tinwhistle reviews that you'll find on the entire Internet. Along with Chiff and Fipple, it's one of the oldest tinwhistle sites on the Internet as well (since 1995). It's not a matter of driving ad dollars my way, as I think the Wikipedia traffic was only responsible for about $10.00 a year worth of ad revenue as far as that goes. But I do believe that my site (specifically, the reviews section) falls well within the guidelines' definition of what's useful to link to, but is too subjective to have as an article itself.
When I'd asked Craig about possibly including it on the wiki, he asked me to have the discussion in the open here. So here I am. Greg Mahan 23:46, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
I bought one and have loved playing it ever since. But You can sometimes get sore fingers and chapped lip's. Try eating something like crackers before you play. And if you finger's get sore, just keep going and soon you'll notice that it's doesn't hurt any more.
MetalHellsAngel 16:35, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
I have never had sore fingers or chapped lips in all the six years of playing the Tin Whistle... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.27.226.192 ( talk) 18:00, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
The Turkish connections were added by User:85.103.138.89 ( talk) , seemingly based on the equivalence of the tin whistle to the dilli ney. While I recognise that the same or ostensibly identical instruments may have evolved in both the British Isles and the Balkan / Turkish / Arabian cultures, I'd suggest that each deserves its own article citing its own evolution, traditional and contemporary use, role in ethnic music, etc. As it stands the implication of the article is that (1) the dilli ney evolved in the British Isles according to the article's "history" section and (2) the British tin whistle is part of the Turkish musical tradition according to the sidepalnels and project links. I'll invite User:85.103.138.89 to contribute to this discussion via his/her talk page. -- Timberframe ( talk) 12:35, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
I have added a "citation needed" tag to the statement that the tin whistle is used in bluegrass music. I am familiar with this music genre and am an amatuer musician. I have never heard (or heard of) the tin whistle used in this music genre. I think an acceptable reference would be the name of artist, song, and album that contains a tin whistle part. 75.88.54.210 ( talk) 01:59, 4 July 2008 (UTC)
I think the Low Whistle deserves a separate article (even if it's only small) and I am keen to write one. Would this be supported or has this idea been raised before and turned down? Jaybird88 ( talk) 09:42, 13 September 2008 (UTC)
In the section that talks about Patrick Steward (Jean-Luc Picard) playing the tin whistle, it should be noted that the actor didn't actually play the instrument during that episode, all-though he knew how. The tin whistle music in that episode was actually played by a professional musician. Bartholomewklick ( talk) 21:38, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
Can the editors here please explain why this edit is worth 6 reversions in under an hour? Or, better yet, agree on a compromise text? Reference to additional high quality scholarly sources might be in order. If consensus can be reached here before protection expires in a week, please request unprotection at WP:RFPP. - 2/0 ( cont.) 03:25, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
Not as far as I know. The reason whistle is called a D whistle is that it is tuned to play the key of D in open tuning. Playing the key of G on a D whistle requires half-holing (cross-fingering holes 2 and 3 gives a poor approximation of the note) -- and even then, many whistles are tuned to just intonation rather than equal temperament, which means each instrument is specifically tuned to a single key: any other key will be slightly off.
I intend to change this when the article lock expires, unless anyone convinces me otherwise in the mean time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Prof Wrong ( talk • contribs) 13:57, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
In addition to the above correction which I agree seems necessary (that G major requires half-holing), this paragraph now says "(equivalent to a concert C instrument) and F major (equivalent to a concert B♭ instrument)" which doesn't seem right, my D Clark matches concert pitch, which makes me think tin whistles are not transposing instruments. Lower on this page it says "The tin whistle is not a transposing instrument - for example, music for the D tin whistle is written in concert pitch, not transposed down a tone as would be normal for transposing instruments." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thomasballinger ( talk • contribs) 05:39, 26 September 2019 (UTC)
You're right to question the "equivalent to concert" references. They don't make sense here, so I've removed them. However, I would say whistles are expected to deliver a plausible flattened seventh (C natural on a D whistle), not a poor approximation, with cross fingering (usually OXXOOO), so half-holing isn't required. On a whistle, adjustments to breath pressure offer considerable control over the precise tuning. Tunborough ( talk) 13:32, 26 September 2019 (UTC)
There's an old play on words poem about whistles that goes: I bought a wooden whistle/ But it wooden whistle./ I bought a steel whistle/ And it steel wouldn't whistle./ I bought a tin whistle,/ And now I tin whistle. Could it be included here? Perhaps put in the article about whistles in general. 66.99.219.2 ( talk) 23:49, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
Edit revert by user 86.44.17.238 due to the nature of the term British Isles as an on going dispute, if you want to change this term you must get a consensus here taking place here failure to do so will get the edit reverted again. Kind regards Kamcau ( talk) 05:47, 11 December 2010 (UTC)
Nothing about the 3-holed whistle? Or did I miss it? Whogue ( talk) —Preceding undated comment added 04:00, 1 March 2012 (UTC).
Tin Whistle vs. Recorder. It might be small, but I believe this might help. Komitsuki ( talk) 06:16, 28 November 2014 (UTC)
Here is a simple question that does not seem to be answered in the article: how does the player change between octaves? Thanks. CountMacula ( talk) 17:00, 26 February 2015 (UTC)
Currently the article states (at the bottom of Playing technique : Fingering and range):
I don't actually have a tin whistle to hand, but as I poke around, this appears to be an octave too high. Shouldn't it instead read:
If this is correct, then a C whistle would start right at middle C, which I believe is also true. Phil wink ( talk) 02:14, 6 August 2015 (UTC)
OK. Which keys would those be? All of them? The article gives no clue, mentioning only the "D' and "C" whistles. The Generation company has for many years produced a set of whistles containing (from low to high): Bb, C, D, Eb, F, and G whistles. These are the only six keys I've ever seen penny whistles in. Do other keys exist? B, C#, E, F#, Ab, and A, for example?
Some specificity and clarity is in order, here.
"... some players, particularly when negotiating the larger holes and spacing in low whistles, may employ the "piper's grip"."
What, exactly, would the "piper's grip" be?
They hold the instrument like a plumber would?
They use a pipe wrench to grip the whistle?
A little explanation, or at least a link to an explanation, would be nice here.
In most other articles about musical instruments, at least some indication is given of the approximate physical size of a standard example of the instrument. I can find no indication of such in this article. Assuming the "D" whistle to be the standard, how long is a typical example? 3 inches? 8 inches? 49 inches? What is the diameter of the tube? Is it the same for all whistles, regardless of key? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.95.43.253 ( talk) 21:35, 5 May 2020 (UTC)
Ref 20 (as of writing), about the low whistle in the Galpin collection (FWIW, I have never heard of this, and neither had anyone involved with the 60s reinvention), points to page on tin whistle history. That page in turn has clearly been rewritten from here, or vice versa. In any case, the actual point is moot as the page says nothing about the reference in question. Calum ( talk) 23:53, 20 June 2020 (UTC)
Are there acoustic or playing differences between conical-bore whistles (e.g. Clarke) and cylindrical-bore whistles (e.g. Generation). If there are, should they be mentioned in a new section? -- ABehrens ( talk) 18:32, 29 September 2020 (UTC)