Tin whistle is an ideal starter instrument for anyone wanting to get into folk music melody playing. Starting at around £3.00 to buy, this is the same price as a starter harmonica - but, unlike the harmonica, that same £3.00 instrument is the very one chosen by many professional players!

Of course whistles can be bought from craftsman makers for many times that price - but the essential earthy yet accurate tone can be got out of even the cheapest whistle. Indeed, the reason many professionals stick with the cheaper brands is to retain that slightly “dirty” or breathy sound.

So why buy an expensive hand-made whistle? Well, you may want a clearer or purer tone, or you may want the special sound a “tin” whistle made out of wood can make. But above all, the expensive hand-made whistles have that valuable characteristic - consistency. Every one is carefully constructed to sound good and stay in tune with itself. But, as with harmonicas, even the most expensive whistle won’t break the bank, so it’s good to try a few different ones till you find the sound you’re looking for.

But first, a bit about the playing of a tin whistle. Lots of you will remember learning the recorder at school, with its half-holes and different thumb positions. The tin whistle is much simpler - it has just six holes on the front, and it changes octave by the simple method of blowing harder! Sharps and flats can be achieved in various ways, the easiest being just to slide the finger halfway across a covered hole until the pitch comes right. If you do this slowly, you can get that evocative effect beloved of Chieftains and Riverdance fans!

Because of their six-hole configuration, tin whistles are not chromatic - that means that if you want to play in various keys, you’ll have to have several whistles. But just because a whistle has the key of, for example “D” marked on it, that doesn’t restrict you to the key of D alone. By moving to “second position” you can easily play in the key of G as well. And its relative minor, E Minor.