I overheard a most terrible statement today. Someone pics up a whistle from a table in my livingroom and states:
“This is a recorder . . . right?”
I replied that the whistle isn’t even a distant cousine to the recorder.
The other person did not agree and argued that the two at least were woodwinds and therefore closely related.
-The truth is folks . . . the relationship between the recorder and the whistle is roughly the same as you’ll find
in cockroaches and human beings,-both being carbon based lifeforms.
-That’s as far as I’m willing to go regarding the relationship between whistles and recorders.
I guess we all have our opinions, but I think the recorder and the whistle are cousins at the very least. They’re similar in a LOT of ways.
And I proudly play both.
~Crysania
I think the original post is just playing on the long-standing jokes on the forum about recorders and how playing them gives you hairy palms.
(I used to play lots of sacred music on the recorder. Did I have hairy psalms? 
)
Recorders, whistles, and flageolets are all very close cousins, all being fipple flutes.
Many people who play one of these also play one or more of the others.
This practice is known as “cross-fippling,” and seems to be gaining a slow, grudging acceptance in mainstream whistling society.
–James
Hairy psalms. lol.
I’ve played recorder a lot longer than I’ve played whistle (some 13 years vs. nearly 4). I know the jokes – I just don’t get them. Ah well…
~Crysania
-The truth is folks . . . the relationship between the recorder and the whistle is roughly the same as you’ll find
in cockroaches and human beings,-both being carbon based lifeforms.
There were six-hole fipple flutes in Europe before the recorder, and they were pretty similar to recorders from the same time, so that it seems like the recorder was developed out of some kind of whistles. So no, that’s not true. If you were talking about, say, the whistle and the contrabass rackett, then you’d be on to something.
I’m never offended when people ask if my whistle is a recorder. First off I’m honored since I consider the recorder a beautiful instrument (tho when I do play it, or whistle for that matter, it’s not exactly so), second off I can’t blame people for not knowing a semi-obscure folk instrument from a foreign country, and third off… whatever. Why bother to get irritated? Don’t get irritated if you can help it, it’s no fun 
I just think people get confused when they see whistles made out of anything other than metal (“tin”). People often mistake my soprano saxophone for a metal clarinet!
Honestly, I was just surprised at how many people don’t know what the tin whistle is. I just assumed it was common knowledge.
This isn’t the recorder forum?
I think the original post is just playing on the long-standing jokes on the forum about recorders
Your comment is on the spot,-my intention was making a joke.
If you look at the fingering for the first octave key of D scale on a C recorder, you’ll see there’s a vestigal D pennywhistle in there.
The fingering is the same, except maybe for a crossfingered F#. Then, if you look at the fingering for the key of G scale, you’ll see again, the fingering is the same, except for the crossfingered Cnat, you use OXO OOOO on the recorder instead of OXX OOO that a lot of whistles use.
Best wishes,
Jerry
shhhh… they are pretending it’s a whistle forum…
Yes. Recorders are obvously a more highly evolved instrument, played by more highly evolved musicians.
This is a set of recorders.
This is a set of whistles from one of the world’s most popular makers (maker of the above recorders).
Curiosity, Walden: did you ever get a Susato recorder?
How does it play?
–James
No… I went with a Dreamflute recorder instead. Dreamflute has a nice tone.
My curiosity still wants to try a Susato.
If one collects recorders do they have the fipple obsession that can’t be named?
Actually, it’s the Fnat that’s cross-fingered, so except for Cnat, from D-C# the fingerings are exactly the same 
(O|OXX|OOOO is actually an alternate B)
Oh, unless you mean those wierd recorders with the straight F… but does anyone actually play those?
One of the special events coming up at Grinnell College is a concert by Quartet New Generation. I’m really looking forward to it.
Actually I do. It is my only one (of the 13) that fingers that way..and made my initial transition to whistles easier on my poor brain.
You must be playing very different recorders than I ever have been. The ones I played, fingered Fnat as X|XXX|XOOO and F# as some variation (depending on pitch) of X|XXX|OXXO. Was this different on the ones you played?
~Crysania