The penny whistle is a simple wind instrument which is inexpensive and easy to learn yet can make delightful music. My introduction to the penny whistle began last summer when I went to a local historic festival, Pioneer Days, at the historic Daniel Boone’s home in the Femme Osage Valley about 30 miles west of St. Louis, Missouri.
There was a lady in a Boone era house playing a wind instrument. As people would come through, the young lady would play a little tune on it. The one tune of which she was especially proud and which the children loved was a tune out of the “SpongeBob SquarePants,” cartoon.
Not being musically inclined, I was still fascinated by the beauty of the instrument which I learned was a penny whistle. The penny whistle was made of bird’s eye maple and brass. She had it custom made and was justifiably proud of the beauty of the instrument.
I asked a number of questions and learned that the instrument had a number of names: penny whistle, tin whistle and Irish whistle.
The penny whistle she had was in the key of D which makes a difference in the size of the whistle. Whistles are made in various keys but the key of D is the most common. A low D penny whistle is much larger. The D penny whistle is a small cylindrical or conical instrument with a fipple (the whistle shaped mouthpiece) at one end, six finger holes on the top and an open end. The penny whistle is about a foot long and can vary in width from about 1/2 to 3/4 inches.
Whistles have a long history. In the classic “The Penny Whistle Book” by Robin Williamson, the author describes how the whistle was believed to hold charms over women and that, “it was forbidden by the Medieval Church in Europe to serenade with a whistle because it would be irresistible for women to hear the music by night.
The tin whistle can be traced back to a man named Robert Clark, a farmer in England. He played a wooden whistle when he learned about a new material – tin. He went to a blacksmith and asked for help making a whistle out of the new material. He liked it so well he ended up traveling to villages where he would make and sell whistles to the villagers. He eventually set up a factory and became wealthy making tin whistles. Irish laborers bought them and took them home to Ireland where the tin whistle became Ireland’s favorite folk instrument.
The name “penny whistle,” was coined in Ireland where it became common to see beggars and tramps in the streets playing the tin whistle, although it is believed by some that the term was applied because the whistles cost a penny at one time.
The penny whistle can be made out of almost any rigid material including brass, copper, wood and plastic. I found that custom made penny whistles in attractive wood and brass can run as high as $400. Although seeing the beauty of one of those instruments is what made me interested in the penny whistle, I haven’t been able to justify the cost to myself yet.
The picture with this article shows a conical Clark’s Sweetone penny whistle and the cylindrical shaped Walton’s Guinness penny whistle. I bought each of these for under $10 dollars and they sound great. That is a great thing about the penny whistle, you don’t have to buy an expensive one to get good sound.
Although Irish music dominates the penny whistle, I am not familiar with the tunes and not being musically inclined I really needed tunes I was familiar with to learn the whistle. I was able to find a number of Christmas songs on the web, which I downloaded and used to learn the whistle. What was especially good for me is that the music was written in a special form which included the traditional music but also pictorially showing the holes to cover on the instrument. Since I knew nothing about reading music, this was a large help for me. It didn’t take long before I could play tunes that my family recognized.
If you can already read music or already play an instrument you’ll find the penny whistle easy to play and will enjoy its wonderful sound. Even if you are a musical novice like me you can quickly learn to make recognizable music. It’s great fun. Give it a try.
