Greetings to the group, and thanks to the web master for a site with a sense of humor (I particularly like the comparison of the Penny Whistle, Recorder, and Norelco Shaver) and the kind invitation to the board.
I got a whistle sort of by accident. My wife is Polish, and we participate each year in a traditional Christmas play with carols in Polish. Two of the songs this year are by a Polish group called “Arka Noego” (Noah’s Ark), and they perform with children doing vocals while adults play instruments including, among others, penny whistles.
The parts for those songs seemed rather simple, so I picked up a Clarke D and an Oak C for these two songs, and to my very great surprise and pleasure had a great deal of fun learning the parts. I was very surprised at how forgiving an instrument the Penny Whistle is – our Christmas play, having small children in all the costumed parts, is not a Cecil B. Demille production to be sure, but we’re having a great deal of fun with our kids and the others.
In the meantime, my wife is playing the guitar and I’m working on “Hector the Hero” using Mick Woodruff’s notation, and tonight we played it for our two kids as a lullaby, and the kids loved it (wonderful audience, small kids – they never mind mistakes.)
What can I say – I’m hooked.
And the Penny Whistle is ever so much easier to get a nice sound out of than a Norelco Shaver (though when I still had hair I could do a fair Mazurka on a Wahl hair trimmer 
I look forward to learning from and with you all.
Robinson Mitchell
near Memphis, TN
