Tin whistle all the holes closed, the whistle generates its lowest note, the tonic of a major scale. Successively opening holes from the bottom upward produces the rest of the notes of the scale in sequence: with the lowest hole open it generates the second, with the lowest two holes open, it produces the third and so on. With all six holes open, it produces the seventh. As with a number of woodwind instruments, the tin whistle's second and higher registers are achieved by increasing the air velocity into the ducted flue windway. On a transverse flute this is generally done by
Tin whistle that describe a fipple-type flute include the Roman tibia and Greek aulos. In the early Middle Ages peoples of northern Europe were playing the instrument as seen in 3rd-century British bone flutes, and Irish Brehon Law describes flute like instrument. By the 12th century Italian flutes came in a variety of sizes, and fragments of 12th-century Norman bone whistles have been found in Ireland, and an intact 14 cm Tusculum clay whistle from the 14th century in Scotland. In the 17th century whistles were called flageolets; a term to describe a whistle with a French made fipple headpiece (common to