Fun_People Archive
12 Oct
The Tin Whistle Comparison

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 99 23:58:58 -0700
To: Fun_People
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Subject: The Tin Whistle Comparison

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Forwarded-by: Kevin Johnsrude <kevinj@roguewave.com>
From: http://www.chiffandfipple.com/norelco.html

CHIFF & FIPPLE:  A SPECIAL WEB EDITION OF THE NEWSLETTER

Subject:  A special comparison chart

I.  LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:  THE CHIFF & FIPPLE GREETING

Hi.


II.   A CHIFF & FIPPLE SPECIAL COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Bob recently wrote:

Dear Dale,

After reviewing your...uh...unusual website, I don't really understand why
tinwhistle players don't take a little extra time and learn to play the
recorder.  It's a much more flexible instrument.  Let's face it, the
tinwhistle is a watered-down version of the recorder anyway.

Bob

Now, Brother Bob here expresses a common if somewhat deranged point of view.
For fear of offending those Chiff & Fipple subscribers who play both
instruments ("cross-fipplers" as they are known in the trade) I won't be
too partisan in my reply.  Instead I thought it might be helpful to readers
to provide the definitive comparison of the tinwhistle and the recorder.
However, as you all know, here at the Chiff & Fipple Musicology Desk
(currently "manned" by interns Gwynneth, Rachel, and another intern named
Rachel) we strive to go the extra mile.  So, I recently gathered the interns
together and gave them my vision of this definitive comparison.  "Gwynneth,
Rachel, Rachel," I recall saying, "the easy and obvious comparative analysis
would be between the tinwhistle and the recorder and all our competitors
would stop there.  But not us.  A fairer and more interesting comparison
would be between the tinwhistle, the recorder, and the Norelco Triple Rotary
Head Electric Shaver (tm)."

So, here we go.

 Feature                    Tinwhistle   Recorder    Norelco
                                                     Shaver
-------------------------------------------------------------
 Blow into it?              Yes          Yes         Yes[1]

 Has 6 holes                Yes          No          No

 Has, like, more holes      No           Yes         No

 Has trio of floating heads No           No[2]       Yes

 Self-cleaning              No           No          No

 Free long-distance         No           No          No

 Chromatic                  Not really   Yes         No

 Tunable                    Maybe        No          No

 Rechargeable               No           No          Yes[3]

 Users have sense of humor  Yes          No          No

 Sounds crappy              Rarely       Usually     Always

 Comes in cashmere          No           No          No

 Removes facial hair        Yes[4]       No          Sort of

 Makes you look slightly    Yes          No          Yes
 seedy

---------------

[1] Only when cleaning
[2] Although I saw a recorder ensemble perform once that could have easily
    been called "Trio of Floating Heads"
[3] Model 500 only
[4] Generation High G only

© 1999 Peter Langston