Poll: Hackers, do you play any musical instruments?

Yeah, I have a flaky host, unfortunately. I'm going to try to move some or all of that site elsewhere soon. For now though, it should come up after refreshing(s).

You partially cover the finger holes on a whistle, sort of rolling your fingers over them, or sliding them on or off the holes. It becomes second nature fairly quickly.

On a flute, you can do the same, but you can also bend the pitch a fair degree by changing the angle of the airstream across the aperture.

One reed only! (Soprano, alto and baritone saxes -- never got along with a tenor for some reason, even with a "doubler's" mouthpiece -- and clarinet.) Or no reed (flute, piccolo, tin whistle, zampona -- even did a wee tune on an upended Royal Doulton figurine once at a gig for a lark). It's not that two reeds are fundamentally bad, but the lack of exhalation with the oboe gets real old real fast, and the twit who decided that a thumb should be the source of all power (bassoon) ought to have been shot before it was too late.

violin(16 yrs), cello(3), piano(5), and miscellaneous bowed string instruments on the shoulder (viola, rebec, vielle).

for me, it's Bach and Dvorak to get in my creative sphere