Hallo everybody! :
I'm using the book "Step One: Teach Yourself Pennywhistle" and I was going through the different techniques that I'll be learning in the near future, and I found one called a "staccato" and in the book is says that when playing a note staccato you should give it "slightly less than its full value and thus detach it from the following note". I don't know how to do that and the book doesn't explain how to do it. Can any of you give me tips on how to do it?
Thanks,
S.
Welcome to whistle playing. I hope that you're having fun. For general purposes, there are two types of articulation; staccato and lagato. There are actually more, but lets limit the discussion. Staccato, as you mentioned is the articulation of a note by reducing it's overall value. On wind instruments, this most often means tonguing the beginning of the note and cutting off the airflow abruptly for the end of the note.
Think of lagato as smooth flowing. While it is possible to use the tongue in a legato manner, on the whistle we will typically see the absense of tonguing in lagato which creates a slurring between notes. This is NOT a rule, but rather a place to begin the discussion.
The attached sound clip has 4 snips.
1. Slow and staccato
2. Slow and legato
3. Faster and staccato
4. Faster and legato
Tell us something.: A long time chatty Chiffer but have been absent for almost two decades. Returned in 2022 and still recognize some names! I also play anglo concertina now.
Hey Sara! I'm learning from the same book, though I'm not going very fast because I'm trying to learn to read music at the same time. I've gotten through First March, though I get fouled up on the First Reel. I think it's becasue of all the high notes, though - my susatos don't change octave smoothly. Well, that and the whistle notation doesn't differentiate between octaves =)
Hi Sara, staccato (detached notes) and legato (flowing notes) are Italian terms normally used for describing classical music. Anyway, to play staccato on the whistle, tongue the all the notes you want to be staccato, to break the flow of the melody.
Hi Sara,
Weclome to Whistledom!
The previous posts are absolutely right.
Staccato means short & detached and legato means smooth & connected. If you listen to recordings of whistle players you will find that some play more staccato with lots of notes tongued and some play more legato with lots of notes slurred/not tongued. Most players use both in varying degrees. It is a matter of personal taste. If you can get hold of a CD from Ossian Records called Totally Traditional Whistle, you can hear many different styles of playing all on one CD! Good luck, and keep us posted!
Sue
To paraphrase the other answers ... tongue or blow a separate burst of air for each note if you want staccato, but blow one continous breath of air for a whole bunch of notes if you want legato.
Eventually you'll have to breath if playing legato. Where, should you breath? There are no hard and fast rules - it depends on how you want to phrase the tune. There are some general guidelines that could be offered, but perhaps you should ask that as a seperate post should you want advice on along those lines (in fact, I'm sure others have already asked it, so try searching the archives).
Staccato is not tonguing. And tonguing is not staccato. You can do staccato without tonguing. You can use tonguing without it being staccato.
Staccato is an emphasis on a note by clipping that note. Let's use the piano as an example. On a piano you get staccato if you hit a key and quickly release. When you let up on the key, the note does not sustain, it immediately stops. Staccato is short and crisp.
To play legato on a piano, you would hold the key down for the entire length of the note.
Both require the hammer to hit the strings (eg. tonguing) but one has half length notes and the other has full length notes.
So, don't get caught up in the tonguing issue. Playing staccato on the whistle most often involves tonguing the note, but it must also be associated with cutting that note short.
Thank you all for clarifying what staccato means. It helped me greatly. I tried to play one of the songs that had the staccato technique in it today and I was able to do it! I was so happy about it! Thanks again.
<~^*_*^~>§aRa<~^*_*^~>
Can any of you give me tips on how to do it? 
