Clarke Celtic Tin Whistle - D

by Clarke

Product Features

• Tin Whistle - Key of D
• Includes a Fingering Chart

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 12 x 1 x 1 inches ; 3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B0002I8Y6W
• Item model number: CWD
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #382 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)
  • #1 in Musical Instruments > Folk & World Instruments > Wind Instruments > Whistles

Product Description

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

130 of 130 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Whistle for Beginners!, October 29, 2008

By 

Buck Bauer (ELDERSBURG, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clarke Celtic Tin Whistle - D

I wrote to Clarke and they verified that this whistle is just their Sweetone model, with the added cost of a Celtic paint-job, a song sheet and a pretty box.

If this whistle becomes unavailable here, or if you'd like a different color, 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!

130 of 134 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Beginner Flute for a Cheap Price, October 23, 2009

By 

Honest Abe (New York) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Clarke Celtic Tin Whistle - D

Length:: 0:48 Mins

I decided to add a video review to this page, to show how the flute sounds, rather than write it.
It has a nice tone, is a little shaky at points, but overall, a FANTASTIC buy for such a reasonable price!
I recommend to anybody who wants a new instrument. [...]

I did add reverb to this video to make it sound more... i don't know... hills of ireland-y :)

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty, indeed., November 7, 2008

By 

Tonya J G Ross (Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clarke Celtic Tin Whistle - D

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.