Customer Reviews

Walton's Irish Tin Whistle, Key of D (English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese Edition)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is folksy instrument. Very easy to play. I mean you just take it from package put your fingers on holes as shown on finger chart and play. Sure this kind of instrument doesn't really have all #,b notes-but it seems it never was created for this purpose either. If you want to play Irish tunes-this is your instrument. The thing is, it is not that complicated in comparison to say regular recorder, where in order to play one note sometimes several fingers should be used. Here as you open one hole after another, you have one note after another. In order to play on second octave use more breath pressure with the same fingering position you use in playing first octave. I would say playing isn't easy-it's elementary. I find myself more and more enjoying this instruments at expense of my Yamaha alto recorder. Easy, so easy. Of course, the sound of the note isn't as pure as it is on recorder, in a way it's kind of windy, so after training a little you will be able to produce this beautiful Irish-Scottish intonation, which in my opinion, not quite possible using regular recorder.

A Walton's Irish D whistle was my first after a beat-up Sweetone I got my kid. The Walton has a good full sound and just a touch of chiff. It is hard to get into the upper range when you're starting out but once you get there the notes are fairly solid and reliable.

However, I found the C to be an even better instrument, as it isn't even hard to get into the upper range.

This is my first penny whistle and I'm very satisfied with it. It has one of the shortest learning curves and a wonderful sound. It's an excellent instrument despite the misleading plastic mouthpiece. However, after a while the finish starts to come off; which doesn't affect the overall sound but does add a nice little "folksy" look.

P.S. Moisture will build up in the mouthpiece, be sure to clean it out every once and a while.

I have several tin whistles and this is the one I play most frequently. It has a fuller tone and is more responsive than my other whistles. It also is easier to play this in keys other than D because of the ease of half holing the notes. For less than 10 dollars, where else can you get a real musical instrument?

A Walton's D was the first tin whistle I purchased over 10 years ago from an Irish gift shop in Baltimore. But as much as I practiced with it, I just could never really get it to sound so great--especially in the higher octave, but even sometimes in the low. So I assumed it was me, and it really discouraged my whistle playing for some time. Then one day I picked up a $5 Mel Bay by Clarke whistle that I spotted at a local music store. Wow, suddenly I realized that I wasn't so bad after all. It turned out, I must have gotten a bad Walton's, and just didn't know enough to abandon it. Then my brother lent me a Walton's that he'd purchased in Ireland at about the same time but never played; that Walton's whistle from Ireland is far superior to the one I purchased in the U.S. The one from Ireland had a slightly wider barrel with bigger finger holes, and I could play very cleanly with little effort. Unfortunately, I can't tell you how to distinguish between the two Walton D's if they're both still on the market, but I can say that if you're looking for a great, all-around, inexpensive whistle, I highly recommend the Clarke Sweetone whistle which is my favorite inexpensive whistle.

Of the D whistles I now own, my order of preference for overall sound and ease of play is as follows: Sindt ($100), Sweetone ($8), Generation ($8), Susato ($40), Mel Bay by Clarke ($5), and Walton's ($15).

This whistle has a nice sound but even when played correctly, at times it gives an unpleasant shrill sound.It has a nice sound in the upper register. The finish does begin to wear off once you start playing but that obviously doesn't effect the instrument's sound. I much prefer the sound of my Clarke pennywhistle over this one. This is a fine whistle if you are just starting out.

I know you need practice to play the high notes on the tin whistle--still, they are a little squeaky on this one. I have another D whistle I bought at a faire 10 years ago and it seems to work much better- so maybe you just need to get to know your own personal whistle, spend some time with it and find out how much air flow it likes before it starts yelling at you. Overall it's nice and I don't mind that the finish comes off- I think it looks better that way and it doesn't effect the sound at all.

This was the second pennywhistle I've purchased (my first was in key of C, which isn't particularly suitable for Irish music). I think I'm going to end up buying another one in this key, though, because this particular whistle, or at least the one I got, has a tendency on low D and low E to have an odd buzzing-type noise within the tone, that really doesn't sound very good. Might be good to learn on if you don't care what your learning whistle sounds like, but I certainly wouldn't want to try and use this one in public.

its... an ok whistle. it comes w some instructions and everything and some nice songs. i liked it. it's fun. and portable. its... a good sound sometimes hard to get the good sound but it sounds just fine after a nice warm up. 3 octives. and fun.

Prior to this purchase, I've only owned two other flutes. That is why I rate a 4 instead of a 5, simply because of my limited knowledge of tin whistles. If you look up videos online for tin whistles, you'll see this is one of the more common ones and I can understand why. The sounds is pleasant. Every now and then though, I might get an unintentional sound. I don't feel that it hinders the song at all though so I don't mind. I'm diggin' the brass and green, nice look. It's totally worth the price here. I can see myself upgrading in the fluture. But for now, I'm happy with this one.