The Popokatea is a delightful handcrafted soprano C# penny whistle made primarily from aluminium. The Popokatea is named after the New Zealand native whitehead bird. It has a quite different tone to the Clarke or Feadog whistles, because of its curved windway lip. This whistle is tough, made from Al with a 1mm wall thickness. The fipple block is

The Popokatea is a delightful handcrafted soprano C# penny whistle made primarily from aluminium. The Popokatea is named after the New Zealand native whitehead bird. It has a quite different tone to the Clarke or Feadog whistles, because of its curved windway lip. This whistle is tough, made from Al with a 1mm wall thickness. The fipple block is wooden, with a sturdy laminated plywood and fiberglass cover, which reduces the amount of condensation compared to whistles with a metal cover.

Features of the Popokatea are:

• The mouthpiece is my well-proven design with the curved lip giving a distinctive mellow and slightly 'breathy' tone.
• They feature a small polished bell which helps improve the volume of the lower notes of each octave.
• Each whistle is carefully hand tuned to concert pitch A=440Hz, within the limits of variable air temperature and how hard you blow.
• Range is at least two octaves, C#5 to C#7.
• My whistle has a very comfortable mouthpiece shape compared to many PVC or aluminium whistles.

Besides the key of C#, the Popokatea whistle is easily played in Dorian mode (the scale starting on D#), in F# major and D#/Eb Minor by half-holing the C, in G# major and F minor (see chart for the G) and of course A#/Bb minor. You can hear a demo of the very similar Mohua on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELKb76rwYpE&feature=youtu.be (Cut and paste into your browser)

Instruction sheet included, with chromatic fingering chart. They are shipped in a triangular package which is very strong.