Just wondering how you all came to be playing the penny whistle. With me, someone left one at our house and never came back for it so I tried tooting on it. I found I could play Amazing Grace in about 3 minutes of tooting and that was IT! I ran into the guy 12 years later and he told me I could keep it. Honesty pays off.
The need to learn a Celtic instrument because of my choice in Spiritual Path. I’m stuying to be a Druid so I needed to learn a Celtic instrument 
See how that works??
I’ve spent years playing stringed instruments, mainly banjo. I was playing a small gig recently – the fiddler had worked up a medley in which she had to switch from the fiddle to the whistle. It was superb! I loved the sound! Went out and bought a D and a C. I’ve been enjoying the new learning experience!
Darryl
Spider Stacy of The Pogues was the first person I ever saw playing a whistle.
If I ever met him in person, I’m not sure if I’d shake his hand or punch him square in the mouth for sparking my interest in the instrument! 
It looked easy! Hey there’s only six holes right? I’ve got 8 fingers plus two opposabal thumbs, so I figure I’ve got four extra digits right? Just think about the poor pianist, they’ve only 10 digits to cover 88 keys, that just seems terribly hard.
Later,
Monster
Well I`ve always loved Irish music but never got into playing it. I bought a couple of whistles maybe 25 years ago but never got into them. But I kept them for some strange reason. Then Dick Gaughan mentioned a news group that delt with Irish music on his web site so I checked it out and someone in the group mentioned this place so I checked it out and fell in love with just about everyone here so I would say that the Chiffy board members are the ones that started me down this road. And of course the whistle leads to harder stuff like the flute and heck might as well try Bouzouki and … Anyway tis a lovely road to be on.
Tom
Our very own Dale Wisely (thank you Dale). I dabbled with recorder in my teens and knew of the whistle having passed up not a few at Celtic fairs, but ultimately Dale’s unbridled enthusiasm for this simple fipple flute finally infected me. Starting with my first Walton’s and progressing through many makers and brands until finally settling on my ultimate four, it has been a wonderfully satisfying musical journey. The whistle has been my faithful companion across the world, through trials and tribulations, and in the best of times. Bless you, sir!
I’ve always been a fan of Ian Anderson. I dated a girl in high school, who played the flute and listened to Jethro Tull, and she had a Clarke lying around her house. After that, whenever I listened to Mr. Anderson I felt compelled to own/play a whistle.
these strange subconscious compulsions drove me to whistling/ insanity. 
In the early 90’s I saw a fellow every once in a while down at the COunty Cork Pub here in Atlanta wail away on a Generation-style whistle. That’s when I bought my Waltons which looks just like his did. I tinkered with it for awhile and could never get it to play in the second octave. Then this girl Juanita told me to shave a little bit of plastic from out of the fipple. (She also told me that she was a famous Irish musician which was a lie, but I had a few drinks and I believed her). It was a miracle! (the fix for the whistle, NOT Juanita) 
Well, I ended up sort of forgetting about the Walton and the few other Whistles I managed to accumulate during that time… I just kind of put them all away for several years.
In 2000 I ordered a set of Uilleann Pipes from Andreas Rogge in Germany. While waiting for them, 
I am still waiting (Hey, I knew about the wait when I ordered them. 
) I would often frequent Patrick D’Arcy’s messageboard on his Uilleann Pipe Obsession Pages website. I heard about C&F there and decided to check it out. After coming here and hanging out pretty much all the time on the UP board and lurking sporadically I came over here to get a look at the Whistleboard. It was then that I got those whistles out took them all back out along with the little banged-up Sweetone and the Ralph Sweet C and G whistles and the Walton and started playing them again. I am not really great on them yet, but I have found a certain measure of focus here. Thanks.
-Paul
I bought my son one of those hand made souvenir ones in Colonial Williamsburg, VA. He put it down.
couldn’t afford bagpipes…
I needed a hobby desperately and decided on a hammered dulcimer, needless to say I couldnt afford one.I went to the Rennessaince(sp?) Faire and listened to this woman playing these little Flutes…Ha! not flutes but whistles. Now I am hooked and wouldnt give them up for any hammered dulcimer…Maybe? At least not my Dixon…
'Nuff said?
Im sure I’ve answered this before 
ah well, who cares!
Lets see, a year ago I was being forced to take a 3 month break from playing drums, so I needed a new instrument to play during that time period. My best friend had just been in a music store and bought a sweetone as an impulse buy, so he (jokingly) suggested I try that. I didnt get the joke and took it up away, absolutely loved the sound and ease of playing so I decided to keep it 
Its been a long and slippery journey through whao, but I now have enough whistles (and even more knowledge) that I can regularly freak him out oh yeah, im getting pretty good at playing it too
Other things that have inspired me to keep playing in the face of adversity: Chiff and Fipple & Flogging Molly
Oops, double post 
James Galway playing Baby Elephant walk on a red topped whistle during a Mancini concert on PBS.
Oh, there were others, but that’s the one that tipped me past center.
I’d always kind of wanted to play a wind instrument. When I was a teenager, I fell head over heels for the Irish Rovers, and when I saw a Generation penny whistle in a music store and recognized it as the same kind of “flute” that Will Millar was playing, I bought it with my babysitting money. I learned some of my first tunes off those old Irish Rovers albums too
Redwolf
I was very heavily into music through junior high, high school, and college, playing piano as a child and then saxophone, and entering every form of band I could find (you know the type…) but especially jazz bands and wind symphony. After college, I basically never touched my sax again for lack of practice space (read: loud instrument) and compatriots with whom to play. The last time I picked it up, the wind shot out the sides of my mouth and I could play for only about 10 minutes, and regretted it for a couple of days; a very disheartening experience for someone who used to play for a few hours a day. Last Thanksgiving, with the angst of the New England winter bearing down upon me and feeling extremely musically deprived, I decided maybe I would try one of those “Irish flute things, the kind that you blow into not across”; I must have seen one somewhere, probably Riverdance or something. It couldn’t really be that hard, and certainly couldn’t cause as much pain as my saxophone. After determining that what I was after was actually a whistle, I was extremely pleasantly surprised to find that most cost less than $20–I had expected to pay around $200 for one! I went to The Whistleshop to order one, found a link somewhere to Chiff and Fipple, and the rest is history…
Robin
It’s all Tom Dahill’s fault. He opened the door to ITM for me, and I played sax in the past and adjusted to the whistle easily.
Eric
I was extremely pleasantly surprised to find that most cost less than $20–I had expected to pay around $200 for one!
So what did you do with the $180 left over??