The Penny Whistle by nailgirl97

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Slide Notes

The Penny Whistle

Published on Nov 21, 2015

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

The Penny Whistle

Photo by tolomea

The Penny Whistle has many different names. Here are some of them: Tin Whistle, Irish Whistle, English Flageolet, Tin Flageolet, Irish Flute, Clark London Flageolet, and the Scottish Penny Whistle.

Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography

What is a Penny Whistle? It is an Irish instrument which is tubular and has six holes along one side. There is a mouthpiece at one end as you can see in this picture. There are many different sizes which are what makes different keys and pitches. You blow into the mouthpiece and alternate your fingers over the holes to make music. This is a woodwind instrument.

This whistle originated from Ireland where they were used to entertain the Kings in the 3rd century AD. During this time though, they were simply being called whistles or fealodans. They later got their name "penny whistle" when quite poor people on the streets of Dublin would buy these instruments for only a few pennies for their own pleasure or to try and busk to make a living.

Photo by timsackton

Penny Whistles can be tuned depending on how they are made. It the mouth piece is removable, this instrument can be tuned by moving the mouthpiece up or down. If your mouthpiece is glued on, you can remove it by putting the topside of your whistle in hot water. This lets the hot water loosen the glue. The mouthpiece can then be carefully pulled off and adjusted. You must make sure that both the body and the mouthpiece are dried well before replacement.

Photo by *nacnud*

Penny Whistles are actually a very easy instrument to care for. To care for these, you basically just have to keep them clean and unharmed. They need to be stored in a place where there are not underneath heavy objects otherwise they may get dented, especially if they are made of tin. As well, you will clean them by taking the bore (mouthpiece) off and cleaning it out with a cloth or a swab. For a quick clean in between songs, put your finger over the squarish hole in the mouthpiece (the blade) and sharply sucking or blowing into the mouthpiece. This will remove some of the saliva that has gathered there from playing.

Whistles come in many sizes but the most common is a D whistle. The longer and wider they are, the lower they sound. The smaller and thinner they are, the higher pitch they are. The picture in the background shows 22 different whistles which all have different sounds. They go from right to left, from highest to lowest. As they get larger though, they also get harder to play as they take more air to make sound. They also have larger holes which are spread farther apart so your fingers have to stretch more, especially if you have small hands. Low whistles have a more mournful sound, whereas high whistles sound more like they are lilting.

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