Tin whistle The whistle's fingering system is similar to that of the six hole, "simple system English flutes" ("simple" in comparison to Boehm system flutes). The six hole, diatonic system is also used on baroque flutes, and was of course well known before Robert Clarke began producing his tin whistles. Clarke's first whistle, the Meg, was pitched in high A and was later made in other keys suitable for Victorian parlour music. The company showed the whistles in The Great Exhibition of 1851. The Clark tin whistle is voiced somewhat on an organ-pipe with a flattened tube forming the lip of the
Tin whistle perfect fourth apart and the natural minor key and Dorian mode a major second above the lowest note. The whistle is identified by its lowest note, which is the tonic of the lower of two major keys whose tonics are a perfect fourth apart that the whistle most easily plays in. Note that this method of determining the key of the instrument is different from the method used to determine the key of a chromatic instrument, which is based on the relationship between notes on a score and sounded pitch. Whistles are available in a wide variety of different keys.