I went over to the music shop in Barnet today to see if there were any sweetones in D. (I had borrowed one off a friend and i think he will want it back soon) anyway they didn’t have any
but they had this big card rack full of these flageolets in all sorts of keys. I didn’t get one because I decided i like the sweetone for now, its easier to play for me as a beginner it seems.
So what is the difference between a normal whistle and a flageolet ?? they looked very similar, made of brass (i think) with a red plastic mouthpiece.
They may not have been actual flageolets. Some people seem to use the
terms “Flageolet” and “Tin whistle” interchangeably, like on [u]this page[/u]. I’m
guessing you were actually looking at Generation whistles.
Ah. According to wikipedia, the French flageolet has 4 holes on the front, and
two on the back, and the English flageolet is an earlier name for tinwhistles
(before they were made of tin…) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flageolet
Quite the opposite. They’re some of the most popular, widely-known, and commonly-used whistles out there. In fact, there was a time when Generations were really the only whistles to be had, from what I’ve heard.
The difficult thing about Generation whistles is poor quality control, on the one hand, while on the other hand, if you can find a “good” Generation, you’ll often find yourself one outstanding instrument.
Ahh, but the one that you didn’t get could have been that Perfect Gen…so now it will be 6 years before you find it. Generations can be tweaked into good whistles. Jerry Freeman and others do great tweaks.
Are they not a good make ?[/quote]
I was just laughing because seldom is there such certainty about what someone is talking about on a forum. And here we have a picture that is EXACTLY what you are talking about, display and all! It just struck me as sort of funny. It was no comment on those particular whistles with which I have no experience. I’ve heard pretty much what everyone else has been saying.
Yep thats true, I guess my point was that even if one did get a bad generation, it wouldn’t necessarily be a waste. It could be made into a very good whistle.
I always thought that whistles were for playing music and flageolets were made mainly for beating (flagellating) people and for playing music in-between the beatings. I would think that a Serpent Chrome-Moly would be the ultimate “flageolet”.
they looked very similar, made of brass (i think) with a red plastic mouthpiece.
I’m glad I didn’t get one now.
