Chiff and Fipple Forums

Hello everyone!
I love the easy melody of this tune from The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem album "Finnegans Wake". What I'd like to do is play it on my Dixon D whistle and I'm currently trying to get the notes by ear. Problem is I can't get the lowest note of the tune on the D scale. If I start it on XXX OOO (G scale) then it sounds too high. I have a Generation Bb and think this might work but I'm not as skilled on this whistle as on the standard D whistle. Anyone with suggestions on how I might approach learning this tune on either of these whistles?
Thank you, John

Going by a quick listen of a few seconds of this, it appears to be played in F. You may want to try a C whistle

"]Going by a quick listen of a few seconds of this, it appears to be played in F. You may want to try a C whistle[/quote].

This may be an opportune time to clarify an issue which has niggled at me for a while although it’s not strictly on topic.

If I pick up a C Whistle and play a tune using sheet music (I cannot play by ear at this stage although not for want of trying - maybe one day!) and the sheet music is written in D and I play the C whistle using D fingering and the D sheet music what do I get?

I have read bits and pieces about that but comments seem to go around it without actually definitively answering the exact question above. I suspect I know the answer and I must be actually playing the tune in D on a C whistle. As an ordinary musical battler I am struggling with the logic of that answer. I would be grateful if one of you seasoned players could spell it out for me in simple terms so I can mentally put that issue to rest.
Cheers
JTU

JTU wrote:...
If I pick up a C Whistle and play a tune using sheet music (I cannot play by ear at this stage although not for want of trying - maybe one day!) and the sheet music is written in D and I play the C whistle using D fingering and the D sheet music what do I get?

...
JTU

My understanding is you get the tune in C!

The suggestion from Mr. Gumby that I play the tune on the C whistle is because the F scale can be played naturally on the C whistle starting at XXX OOO. Am I right, Mr. Gumby?

Yes I gave a listen as well, thanks for the link, and it sounds like the tune is in the key of F and played on an F whistle.

Yikes on a C whistle you're right at the top of the range, to play that in F. I prefer playing around the middle of a whistle's range.

About whistle keys in general, no matter what pitch of whistle I happen to be playing I think of the notes as if I were playing a D whistle.

So I think of the notes like this

xxx xxx D
xxx xxo E
xxx xoo F#

and so forth.

Not that when I'm playing I'm thinking of the names of the notes! I don't. I just play.

When playing with a folk band that does songs in many different keys I'm aware of which whistle I need for each song.

I know that for a song in F Major I can pick up either an F whistle or a C whistle. If it's a song that's new to me I'll try both whistles to find out which suits the range of the song better.

But after I know what whistle I prefer for a song I just pick up that whistle and play the song and know that I'll be in the right key for the singers. I'm not thinking of the names of the notes at all.

As an aside, due to playing Highland pipes

xxx xxx

is either D or A to me;

xxx ooo

is either G or D to me, and so forth.

So there are two positions I can fluently sightread in.

Due to time spent on other instruments I can sightread to some extent in a couple other positions.

Basically, you read as written, & transpose by the key of whistle you play it on. So, if you normally read & play in 'D', then pick up a whistle in 'C', but play as if it were your 'D' whistle, you are actually playing it in the key of 'C' - you have transposed it to 'C'.

fatmac wrote: if you normally read & play in 'D', then pick up a whistle in 'C', but play as if it were your 'D' whistle, you are actually playing it in the key of 'C' - you have transposed it to 'C'.

If you're playing in the key of D on a D whistle, yes, then you will be playing in the key of C on a C whistle.

But at least for me, I'm only playing in the key of D on a D whistle around a quarter of the time.

I'm more often playing in G Major, E dorian, and A dorian.

(Which become F Major, D dorian, and G dorian on a C whistle.)