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03/11/2002 Entry: "Whistling my woes away"

The tin whistle - aka "pennywhistle" or just plain "whistle - is a wonderful thing. It's just a tube of metal (or some other material) with 6 holes down one side and a mouthpiece at one end where you blow so that the thing makes a noise. Often they're treated by "serious" musicians as nothing more than toys, but in the hands of an expert these instruments can produce music of great beauty and expression. I've been playing for a bit more than a year now, and I'm not at all expert - I was never one to practise. But I'm never far from a whistle, and when I feel the need I blow a few notes and the world takes on a rosier glow, at least for me. My family tend to close the doors when I'm playing, but that's another story...