Blue and red whistles on ebay

Whistle
1

Anybody have any idea who makes these whistles. Colorful :astonished:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=624&item=3740769131&rd=1

2

:slight_smile:
No idea as to the maker but thirty odd years ago, these whistles were standard issue in Irish schools as the way to learn whistle.
The mouth-piece stunk to high heaven,but many a good player started there,on those very whistles.
Ahh… Memories…

Slan,
D.
:sniffle:

3

I bought those whistles off E-Bay,they are marked ‘Viceroy’ -made in England on the underside of the red plastic head.
They are a wide bore whistle,similar to a Walton’s ‘mellow D’.
The most surprising thing about these whistles is that they have a hole in the back,similar to a Recorder octave hole!
And,that is how it seems to work,but needs very precise venting.
Also,peculiarly,it is set to the right,which may have favoured a ‘right hand on top’ approach.Did Mary Bergin learn on one of these,I wonder?
Dubhlinn-or anyone else who was taught on these whistles-,going back to your schooldays,how was this back hole used?

4

:slight_smile:

Kevin,
Viceroy rings a bell with me concerning the name of those whistles but in my schoolday there was no hole in the back of the whistle,on that I am certain.
I am not suggesting that the back hole was not a later innovation,but it was not there in the late 60’s/early 70’s.

Hope this is some help,

Slan,
D.

5

Thanks for the quick reply Dubhlinn.
The more I look at these instruments makes me think that they are like Bstrd off-spring of whistles and Recorders! :laughing:
Still,they only cost £5 for the pair,so I can’t complain.
Thinking back to the teaching of music in schools in those days (I’m about the same age as you),I remember that at primary school(in England) we had a Choir and a Recorder group,and that was it.
Music was compulsory for the first three years at my Secondary school.
You had the chance to join the school orchestra in the first two weeks-after that you had ‘missed the boat’.
The vast majority of pupils,who hadn’t ‘joined up’ then spent the next three years’ music lessons futily copying notation from a blackboard without any explanation of what the notation meant..
Very,very rarely,we got to listen to short recordings of classical composers’ works.
Hardly a regime to encourage a love of music.
Like a lot of my mates,I got into Rock music in my teens,then moved on to Jazz and taught myself some rudimentary Sax.-no thanks to School whatsoever :imp: