All of the turnings that the threads have taken to lately has me wondering something. Now my frame of reference is in recorders ( and I am damn proud of it 
) but perhaps the same reasoning can be applied to whistles.
Among the âgoodâ recorders you have instruments that are considered best for beginners. These typically, are made out of a soft wood and are designed to blend in well with others. The more advanced recorders are designed to sing out clearly and often are of a harder wood. Being made of a harder wood the notes are not âabsorbedâ as much by the instrument allowing for clearer tones.
That said the mistakes made by a beginner would resound much more clearly and loudly on an advanced instrument than on a âtypicalâ beginners recorder or even an advanced recorder that has not been designed for ensemble work. An advanced player can still get a beautiful, if some what quieter, tone from the beginners recorder but a beginner on an advanced one would sound fairly poor.
Could this same hold true for whistles? Where the advanced player can get good sound from nearly any whistle where as the beginnerâs mistakes are more obvious in some of the advanced models.
I agree with the first part of what you say - a good player can make almost any instrument sound better than a beginner can make it sound. But Iâm not sure I agree with the second part - a beginner would sound poorer on a highly crafted instrument.
The more expensive instruments have had a lot of work put into making the top notes easier to play and the bottom notes stronger. My personal experience and what Iâve seen with other beginners is that, given an instrument that willingly gives up a high A and high B, they are less timid about trying for those notes and less likely to squawk. You start learning to control your breath better.
This is also the point where you go back to the Genâs and such and find out they sound pretty good after all.
Ah, but thatâs why I put it as a question.
Iâm in agreement with Tyghress here. My first three whistles:
- Freeman Tweaked Sweetone;
- Freeman Tweaked Shaw;
- Burke (DAN) D Aluminum Narrow Bore.
I was having a great deal of fun with he first two, and bought the Burke because I wanted to treat myself.
I just happened to be at the perfect slope in the learning curve for the DAN. The Burke is not to loud, sweet voice, and hangs on pitch really well - very forgiving for a beginner. I gained confidence and started practicing more, and learning more. 
Two years (and a few more whistles) later, I still pick up the Sweetone and Shaw for their charming quirks. And they donât sound half bad. 
And thus my question is answered..yet another difference between the two instruments.
Many thanks
I think the Susato is a whistle that is misplaced in the hands of a beginner, but which an advanced player can make sound wonderful.
âJames
I agree with James on the Susato. A Susato is quite good when played by someone experienced. This is very well demonstated at the Kerry Whistle site. However, it is not very forgiving in the hands of a beginner. There are some makes that are more forgiving than others some are demanding of control. Price isnât even a factor.
Ron
I started with a Feadog Pro⌠and now that I have more whistles to compare I found that itâs not an easy player. Burkeâs, for example, are a lot easier to play, but as always this has itâs good and bad sides, a good side is that youâll learn to play it faster, a bad side is you wonât develop so much breath control as you would with a difficult (or handicapped?) whistle.
Anyway, I donât think that difficulty to play is directly related to price. Some cheap whistles are easy to play, like Megs for example. And some not-so-cheap whistles are not so easy to play, like my NT Water Weasel, which has a lot of backpressure and needs quite a bit of breath.
Funny thing is, the NT Water Weasels are the only ones with that amount of backpressure. My other Weasels, both Water and Thin, have perfect back pressure according to my taste.
Burkes are often cited as a whistle thatâs forgiving and easy for a beginner to play.
Thatâs true, as far as it goes.
But it should also be said that an accomplished player can make a Burke do things that a beginner never dreamed of.
In my opinion, âeasyâ does apply to Burkes, but âlimitedâ does not.
âJames
I think the easiest beginner whistle is a Sweetone. Your breath control only has to be âballparkâ. I only wish it were more in tune.
There is a clear difference between whistles that are easier to play and recorders as described above which seems to be just emerging. For players who want an easy whistle to control there is absolutely no reason to think it will get to be unsuitable down the track as you improve. A Sindt and a Humphrey will make a beginner sound as good as they can sound. But a highly advanced player wonât have to move on to a Susato or something else. I think which whistles blend well with others in ensembles is an interesting issue but not one that we tend to ask much since ITM doesnât involve whistle âchoirsâ playing in harmony. Iâve done some experimentation in other styles and I have found some very interesting combinations, but I wonât report them here.
Agreed. But thatâs one easy whistle youâll want to ditch fairly quickly. It wonât sound better in an ensemble than it does solo though.
My take on this is that whistles are so cheap (relative to just about every other musical instrument) that there is no point in trying to save a (very) few pounds/dollars/euros/drachmas/bolivianos/etc. by buying something at the absolute bottom end of the market. If you are a pianist, the difference between a Steinway and some knackered piece of junk from the local shop is a very great deal of money. If you play the whistle, the difference is a relatively small amount of money. Buy a crapper car and get a good whistle. Grow your own vegetables and get a decent whistle. Sell your car and get a second-hand bike and get two decent whistles. Good instruments have an infinite range of responses. If you attack them they can take it. If you caress them they reveal colours you didnât know they had. And plenty in between. Sell all your furniture and get a quena as well.