Your first scale, one note at a time
A tin whistle is the simplest fingered wind instrument there is. Six holes on the front, none on the back. Left hand on top, right hand on bottom. With every hole covered and the gentlest blow, you get D5 — the home note. Lift fingers from the bottom up and you climb the scale.
This lesson walks through the eight notes of the D-major scale one at a time. For each one: glance at the diagram, hold the fingering, and blow gently for a couple of seconds. The trainer will tell you when you've got it. There's no rush — work through whatever pace feels comfortable. The final exercise is the whole scale from the music.
Now play D5
All six holes covered. Filled circles = fingers down.
💡 If the sound squeaks up an octave, you're blowing too hard — back off. A little air is enough.
One more: the whole scale, played from the music.
You don't need to read music for this. Just follow the green cursor — it marks the next note to play. Each note has its fingering drawn right underneath, so you don't have to remember from earlier in the lesson.
Hit Start, play the highlighted note, and the cursor jumps to the next as soon as you've got it. Wrong notes flash amber and the cursor waits — no rush, no penalty for stopping or starting over.
Play the full D-major scale
Finish the note drills above first.
Play the D-major scale, ascending. The cursor will move with you.
Bonus tune: Hot Cross Buns.
Three notes (F♯, E, D — all in your D-major scale). Same cursor-follows-you rules. The middle 'one penny, two penny' section repeats notes — play each one as a separate breath.
Play 'Hot Cross Buns'. Just follow the cursor.
That's a real song under your belt. Every D-major tune in the library uses some combination of the eight notes you just practiced. Once you mark this lesson complete, the calibrate page is a good next stop: it'll measure your specific whistle's tuning so the trainer grades against that instead of a generic average.
Complete the exercises above to unlock the next lesson — or mark complete manually to come back later.