When trying to start off playing the whistle (or any fipple instrument!), one point to note is that many people DO blow too hard. Which is why school kid recorder bands sound that way - they are slightly over-blowing - blowing harder on a fipple instrument does NOT make it louder, only sharper in pitch! :-)

A tip for trying is NOT to try to get the Lowest note: put only the top three fingers on, leaving the bottom three holes open. This note is actually the easiest to blow on the whistle. When you have got this note sounding OK, gradually work down, one finger at a time, blowing more gently until you reach the bottom note.

The key to whistle (and recorder) playing is NOT fingering, but breath control.

If you want to REALLY accelerate your breath control, do the following set of exercises:

1) Jump up and down from EACH NOTE to its octave!
2) When this is comfortable (and under control!), gradually increase the exercises to jump up and down from EACH low octave note to EACH (in all variations) note in the upper octave!

Nasty at first, but if you can't handle this technique, you have not yet begun to master the instrument! This set of exercises, while also jumping around the fingering, is impossible to handle without good breath control.

Works on all instruments actually, even strings... (but there you are not working on breath control, except to not swear...)

:-)

Robin