HunterGatherer wrote:I have a seven holed whistle in the key of D, and I'm having a lot of trouble finding fingering charts, and sheet music for it
![cry :cry:](./images/smilies/icon_cry_144.gif)
. It seems everyone else has a six-holed whistle.
More specifics about your whistle would be helpful: Who made it, or where did you get it? What is the hole layout? Maybe post a photo.
If the 7th hole is a thumbhole, then it's probably a C-natural to be played by lifting the top thumb.
If it's at the very bottom of the tube and reachable by the pinky finger, then you may have a "D+" whistle. The hole is a low C or C# and can be ignored for the purpose of fingering charts. If it's unreachable, it may just be a "tuning hole" (as on a Chinese dizi), and can also be ignored.
If it's somewhere else then it's ... something else.
HunterGatherer wrote:Also, just a random question: why is a D whistle so much better than other keys?
It's not
better ... But there are reasons that it's the "standard" whistle:
o D is the concert pitch whistle. Which means that the note you finger will match the same letter-name note on other concert pitch instruments - e.g. piano, fiddle, guitar, accordion, etc.
o The other main Irish trad wind instruments - flute and pipes - are also D instruments with the same basic fingerings. So the D whistle matches them.
o Most Irish trad tunes fit within the 2-octave range of the D whistle, and with the keys/modes that the D whistle can play.
[ Note to nit-pickers: Yes, that's a lot of fudging of details. But I think a simplified answer is most helpful for now! ]