She asked me for a whistle so we went to thewhistelshop.com and she picked this one.
http://www.thewhistleshop.com/catalog/whistles/inexpensive/Waltons/rainbow/rainbow.htm
Is it any good and if not can I tweak it so she can have that one?
These are generally pretty good without much tweaking.
You could do much worse for a first whistle.
Best,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
Oh, it should be fine, especially as a beginner’s whistle. If nothing else, I suggest you brew some chamomile tea and then loosen the head, just in order to pull it out a bit, maybe an eight of an inch (3 or 4 mm). That improves them. Don’t expect tuning to be great, especially on the bell note. If it plays poorly you can dull the blade a bit, but no other tweaks are like to be necessary, if my experience with Waltons is any sort of guide. (Blue tack doesn’t seem to make much difference.)
Sweetones are a more reliable bet for quality, and they can be bought in different colors, too.
On 2002-10-31 13:20, Bloomfield wrote:
Oh, it should be fine, especially as a beginner’s whistle. If nothing else, I suggest you brew some chamomile tea and then loosen the head, just in order to pull it out a bit, maybe an eight of an inch (3 or 4 mm). That improves them. Don’t expect tuning to be great, especially on the bell note. If it plays poorly you can dull the blade a bit, but no other tweaks are like to be necessary, if my experience with Waltons is any sort of guide. (Blue tack doesn’t seem to make much difference.)
Actually, both my Little Black D, and my Waltons brass D were helped a lot by the blue tack. They were both prone to squawk. Did the blue tack thing and now the’re much better.
YMMV, not valid with any other offer or where banned by law, not approved by Major League Baseball, etc.
cheers,
matt
How old is your daughter and how serious is she about playing? Walton’s have three classes of owners: Those who love them, those who hate them, and those who force themselves to love them because Andrea Corr plays one.
As Blackhawk says, Sweetones also come in many colors. They’re also easier to play early on. If you think she’ll stay with it, though, the Walton may give better flexibility - especially with some tweaking on your part.
If she is just beginning, one of the cheapies is your best bet. I would vote for the Sweetone or the Meg. As someone said, the Sweetone comes in multiple colors (it was actually designed to be a children’s whistle).
If your daughter gets into playing the whsitle, I would recommend an Elfsong whistle. I have thought about getting one for my daughter (age 7) if she continues her interest in the whistle. They are more expensive than the cheapies ($75 I think), but they are absolutely gorgeous, have a clear sweet sound (from what others say, I haven’t played one), and are supposedly easy to play.
Plus, I have emailed Sandy Jasper, who is very responsive and very nice. When I asked her about a whistle for my daughter, she even said that she can drill the holes closer together to make it easier for smaller hands.
Just my .02
John Mac
Kaci will be 8 in April. She seems to want to know how to play. She watches me and plays with my Sweetone but does not like it. I work with her on her finger placement and how hard she presses down on the holes. She seems to want to play…
My Son, Logan, wants one as well but until he stops using mine a sword, he will not get one. He is why I don’t have my tweaked Clarke from TheWhistleShop anymore… 
Its not so much the quality of the instrument as the quality of the teaching that makes a difference.
Boyd
I don’t think I fit into Chuck’s classification. I have a Walton. I like it okay. I play it every so often. That’s about it.
I’d agree with Michael. I have a brass Waltons and I play it quite often (more than the little black dog 
) but I can’t say much about the LBW though.