True, but bear in mind that these accidental holes are easier to add than any of the other holes on the instrument, because each one affects the pitch of just one note in each octave (the accidental being played). This is unlike the main 6 holes, all of which affect the pitch of multiple notes in each octave.
Says the person who has never made a wind instrument?
The only reason I made this thread (and started a small scale civil war between ye olde conservative whistlers and radical anarchists) is because I love the harmonic minor scale, and it frustrates me that in some passages, moving from for example xxoooo to xxxxx- is rather cumbersome.
However, when I feel like it’s the whistle’s fault (and subsequently trying to find a maker who would accomodate for my lack of patience) I listen to Toccata on a tin whistle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOmba730e0A
There’s numerous drawbacks to adding a 7th hole to a whistle. For one, I play right hand up. I could play a whistle from someone playing left hand up and literally have no problems whatsoever. Practising the D# for at least 15-20 minutes everyday is what I do lately for some songs I’m practising. It takes real dedication.
Some people simply lack the time or the energy to master the instrument to such a professional degree as to play perfect D#. Others spend maddening hours repeating same motions till they get it right. Both of them have a right to have fun. 
The whistle is already about the easiest instrument to learn to play that exists. Learning to play an instrument well is a challenge, deal with it.
If you don’t want to master half-holing the missing notes, get a recorder, they don’t sound that different and it’s about playing music isn’t it? The tunes don’t know the difference, and frankly neither do most listeners.
“Right to have fun”? Not sure about that but if we follow that logic then the makers also have the right to enjoy what they do and how they do it, and apparently double hole whistles aren’t part of that fun for 99.99 % of them. Must be some reason this is the case…..
BTW, I believe there are still a few people who make harmonic minor tuned whistles, if that’s your thing. Or just go ahead and learn to play flute, where there are lots of bamboo/cane flutes made in a wide variety of tunings and keys.
Sir, who hurt you?
Depends what year and which sparring session 
In all seriousness, it’s about exploration. Recorder doesn’t have 2+ octaves, and I already said I’m practising the D# diligently, haven’t I? So I’m “dealing with it”. But without exploration we’d be stuck with sticks and stones in a neandarthal age (even though there’s good arguments that that’s when the civilisation should’ve stopped…)
I’ve also looked into harmonic minor arrangements for flutes and they’re really not good at playing anything else. Having a strong D# on an otherwise basic whistle makes it play major, minor, harmonic scales very elegantly. If there are elegant solutions to this problem, it only means more people can play more nice tunes on their instruments without significant effort (which is one of the greatest points of whistle - being able to play a lot of good music without the terrible practise it requires to, say, playing the turkish flute, which I do, and I doubt most whistle players could even get a single note out of, just saying).
So just because something is hard doesn’t necessarily mean it’s automatically more valuable. If we have a discussion and exploration, it only enrichens the experience - that’s the whole point of music, isn’t it? It’s the connections. And I understand “fixing” the whistle is a tiring subject to veterans, but like music, everything is in repetition and patience, and who knows, maybe our discussions will spark an instrument one day that is as widespread as the whistle is. The important thing is having fun talking these points, so let’s try to keep it all civil. 
so let’s try to keep it all civil.
And we do that by using terms like ‘ye olde conservative whistlers’, ‘dinosaurs’ etc?
I was hoping to have a playful demeanor, as I didn’t think radical anarchists was particularly flattering either. I’m sorry if my playfulness sounded insulting.
Are you implying my post wasn’t civil?
Right when I’ve praised players for playing D# exceptionally, admitting putting in practise myself diligently, but also just wondering if there were any makers who tackled this issue and trying to learn, and you coming out saying “Deal with it”, well, there are more civil ways to encourage people to practise and learn.
Yes. 
Because I’ve talked to many people who make whistles, and this is what they’ve told me. Also, it’s just really obviously common-sense.
I’ve played many instruments, and no, it isn’t. It’s a very difficult instrument, if you’re trying to play the music it’s designed to play at the caliber that most professionals play it. And when it comes to playing accidentals specifically, it’s harder than most other instruments (like recorder and flute) that have easier ways of playing these notes.
And anyway, who cares? So maybe it’s easy. Is that a reason it shouldn’t be made easier through more artful crafting? Nope. It makes no sense to handicap yourself unnecessarily just because your instrument is “easy.”
As for learning to play instruments in other tunings, in the abstract this seems like a silly solution to a problem that is so easily overcome by simply purchasing a more flexible instrument. I’d rather have an instrument that can play in any key than 5 different instruments with different keys/tunings, thanks. That said, given that the only chromatic whistles being made currently are extremely expensive (or else they’re in the wrong key or aren’t tunable), perhaps this is a good solution if you’re trying to save money.
Well, I don’t know if you want to drop $350 on a whistle, but I can tell you that Morneaux whistles work brilliantly for harmonic minor; much better than recorders, in my opinion. They do require you to play with right hand down, but he’d probably make you a custom one if you asked.
I’d rather have an instrument that can play in any key than 5 different instruments with different keys/tunings, thanks.
So why do you want to play the whistle?
This sort of discussion usually seem to be started by people, often relative newcomers, who appear to like the notion of playing the whistle but can’t, for some reason or other, accept the whistle for what it is : a very simple diatonic instrument. Why not accept the instrument on its own terms, learn to play it well and take it from there?
Now, if you want your chromatic instrument, you have makers like O’Brien and Nick Metcalfe, I believe, who tack a whistle mouthpiece onto the body of a Boehm system, keyed bodies (flute and piccolo, if memory serves). So there you have it, your chromatic whistle, or whatever it is. Mind you, you may have to put a bit of effort into mastering the keywork to get the best out of it.
What kind of question is this? I want to play the whistle because it’s fun to play.
Imagine if you asked the first person who ever played a valved trumpet, who said he wanted to play chromatically, “sO wHY dO yOu wANt tO PlAy TRuMPet?”
I’m not a newcomer. And your argument doesn’t make any sense. I’ve played whistle for a very long time, and I see no reason why it should be confined to being a “simple diatonic instrument.”
“What the whistle stands for”: Well, what does it stand for? Tradition? Simplicity? If we think tradition is the be-all/end-all for musical instruments, we should all go back to wooden blocks and heavily tapered tin bodies, as whistles started out. And if you randomly value simplicity for its own sake, you should also object to keying up wooden flutes, accusing people of “not accepting the flute for what it is: a simple diatonic instrument.”
This isn’t complicated. I don’t want it to be a simple, diatonic instrument. I want it to be chromatic. I like pushing boundaries. I like playing chromatically. I like more advanced fiddle tunes that break outside the traditional diatonic structure. But, I ALSO want to be able to play the diatonic ITM repertoire as simply and easily as I would on any 6-hole whistle. This is what I want. And there’s nothing weird/wrong/irrational about wanting this.
There are several reasons why this isn’t as good an option as adding extra holes to the existing design. First of all, it’s completely unnecessary. You can achieve the same result by adding extra holes, so complicated keywork is redundant and unnecessarily expensive. Second of all, this option makes the whistle lose its traditional-looking aesthetic, whereas keeping the 6-hole design and simply adding extra holes doesn’t really affect the aesthetic (and note that I’m valuing the aesthetic here; I’m not valuing tradition for its own sake). Third, the Boehm system forces you to learn to play with different fingerings for the notes you’ve (probably) already learned to play on the diatonic whistle, whereas adding extra holes allows you to play with the same fingerings you’ve always used. And finally, keys don’t allow you to do ornamentation as cleanly as open holes, nor do they allow you to do slides or vibrato in the same way.
On a more general note, I’m not sure why you would defend these Boehm-system designs as somehow being better options than the 10-hole chromatic designs that makers like Morneaux and iVolga use. It’s not like the Boehm system options are somehow more in keeping with the spirit of what a whistle is or stands for.
Wow 
Well I guess he told us Peter! 
I heard this rumor on social media that on Saturday, January 20, about 754,700 chromatic whistle players playing fully chromatic whistles,
in many different keys, and with drummers, bellydancers, singers and guitar players with them, are going to arrive in Ireland and England and invade
every pub, recording studio and public lobby, to play chromatic whistle music, get people dancing and singing and buying chromatic whistles.
I don’t believe a word of it. Surely it won’t be quite that many.
This could very well happen if there’s ever a huge migration of Ukrainians to Ireland. They all play their sopilkas, which essentially are chromatic tin whistles 
.
Bellydancers, you say? 
if there’s ever a huge migration of Ukrainians to Ireland.
Haven’t kept up with the news have you?
I have to say that coming from the classical world it’s funny to hear some of the talk of chromaticism in the trad world. Playing in different keys, with accidentals, etc. is de rigeur to the point that it’s hardly worth mentioning. And yet in the trad world some people get obsessed with it, throwing accidentals in willy-nilly and constantly shifting key signatures, not to mention funny time signatures and syncopations. Personally, I find a lot of it quite boring, like music that’s trying to be something that it’s not. I get the same feel from a lot of classical attempts at “folk,” which end up sounding stiff and sap the actual interesting parts of traditional music out.
That’s my personal opinion, and I know that a lot of others don’t feel the same way. That’s great, there’s room for everyone! But I think it’s a mistake to think that those of us content with six holes are not “ambitious.” Not only is chromaticism not in any way more or less complex or ambitious than diatonicism, that is just one small aspect of music. And I don’t think I’d be the only one to argue that to a large extent, focusing on that aspect is actually missing “the point” of this music, and of the whistle as an instrument.
All of this to say, do what you want and have fun with it. I just wouldn’t expect everyone else to follow, just as we shouldn’t expect you to stick to the confines of D major if you don’t want to.
PS: About whistle being “easy,” I used to teach skiing, and we had a saying about it: “easy to learn and hard to master.” Give me an hour and I’ll get you making basic turns down a bunny slope. It’s honestly not that hard! But if you want to be the next Bode Miller? Well, that’s a different story. And just like music, a lot of people look to their gear to make the difference. I see a lot of Atomics on the mountain, but let me tell you, none of them fly like Mikaela Shiffrin! In most cases, time/effort/thought put into gear can be better spent elsewhere.