Clarke Celtic Tin Whistle - Key of D
From Clarke
One cannot hear a slow air played with depth of feeling on a tin whistle by a true Celt without being drawn into, and sharing, the emotions expressed by the player. When Robert Clarke invented the Tin whistle in 1843, little did he know that it would become the perfect wind instrument to be played universally in all the Celtic lands. It can be heard in concert halls, broadcasts, churches and, above all, especially in Ireland, in the pubs. It is easy to play; inexpensive; and can be carried so as to be available for performances on all occasions. The Clarke Celtic Tin whistle in the Key of D comes with its own fingering chart and five traditional Celtic tunes, one each from Wales, Scotland and Brittany and two from Ireland. The whistle comes decorated with a Celtic Knot and is individually gift boxed.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #229 in Musical Instruments
- Brand: Clarke
- Dimensions: .11 pounds
The Best Whistle for Beginners!
I wrote to Clarke and they verified that this whistle is just their Sweetone model, with a Celtic paint-job and a pretty box.
So if this whistle becomes unavailable here, try to find a Sweetone elsewhere.
If you're a beginner, the Sweetone is the whistle for you. Music teachers have told me that there's nothing more frustrating for a beginning student than trying to make music on a poor quality instrument. This is a high quality instrument, at a relatively low price. It has three things going for it:
(1) It's in the key of D, the preferred key in traditional folk music. Also, length determines key, and the longer key-of-C whistle requires a wider stretch of the fingers to cover the holes, which players with small- to average-sized hands can find uncomfortable.
(2) Unlike other lower-priced whistles, it has a conical bore [tapered tube] rather than cylindrical bore [straight tube]. This gives it a more secure and consistent tone -- no squeaks, squawks, and honks on particular notes. I've thrown away more thin-metal straight-bore whistles than I've kept, because of "bad" notes. Buying them, it's luck-of-the draw -- you may get a good one, once in awhile. A great player can get a good sound out of a poor instrument -- master of the French horn Dennis Brain once famously got decent Mozart out of a garden hose -- but we are not at that level.
(3) Unlike its famous predecessor, the Clarke original, it has a plastic mouthpiece, so each Sweetone has the same tone quality. The Clarke original has a mouthpiece formed by hand, by wrapping tin around a wooden block, so some sound much better than others. This can be adjusted or corrected by an experienced player, by judicious bending of the metal, but we don't know how to do that successfully.
When you're a more confident player, you may want to try a Clarke original model. It has a different tone -- softer, sweeter, more "breathy." And it weighs less, making fast complex passages easier to play -- lets your fingers "fly." On the original, I can play Yankee Doodle start-to-finish in 10 seconds.
I learned to play using Bill Ochs' book "The Clarke Tin Whistle." The "Deluxe Edition," available from Amazon, comes with a CD. The excellent book begins by explaining musical notation, for the student who doesn't already read music, but that doesn't get in they way for those of us who already do. The CD follows the text step by step, including dozens of tunes, so you can actually hear the sounds that can come out of a Clarke tinwhistle in the hands of an expert. Something to aspire to!
Pretty, indeed.
I actually bought this tin whistle at a little roadside shop and proceded to annoy all the other passengers in the vehicle as I worked out the fingerings using the little chart provided!
As an experienced flute player I'd wanted a tin whistle for a long time, and this one is a very nice one indeed. It is of sturdy construction and is definitely prettier than those plain metal models (in my opinion anyway). I've had no problems with it: no squeaking of any kind. Overall, a very worthwhile purchase for any wind player.
Great Whistle
I am a beginner to the Tin Whistle, and only owned a Feadog before this one. The tone of this one is MUCH better. Easy to play, and has a pretty finish. This is the same whistle as the Clarke Sweetone, it just has a different paint job. After having looked at more reviews, the Sweetone is one of the most highly recommended whistles for beginners, as it is a high-quality, cheap instrument.
