Currently I’m attempting (I stress the word) to transcribe as accurately as I can many of Davy Spillane’s slow pieces for posting on Session.org. With the aid of Roni’s Amazing Slow Downer I can slow tracks down to 20% and identify most of what he does but even at that speed there are some weird things he does which may or likely may not be normal in ITM. I’m presently baffled by the first whistle note of The Sea of Dreams (coming in at about 22seconds). You can listen to it here: http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/The+Sea+Of+Dreams/6322948. He slides into the first note second octave Fsharp but not smoothly from the E below. It’s slightly rough-sounding and, like I say, even at 20% I’m struggling to identify what he’s doing. My best guess is that he’s actually quickly sliding from bottom E through top E to Fsharp. Could that be the case? And is that a technique known to any of you?
Mike, I would suggest that you stop thinking about “what is normal”. Everything and anything is normal. You are dealing with expressive musicianship here. The player, Spillane in this case, does whatever it takes to express what he feels in the music. What I would suggest that you do is to feel the music and do whatever you feel is necessary to convey the feeling.
The slow downer is a good tool but you cannot always trust what you hear at slow speeds and think of turning it into deliberate actions. There will be artifacts which are mere blips at normal speed which get dragged out to sound like they are long deliberate actions at very slow speeds.
It sounds like he just slides into the F# to me. Think of the physics though. It is the first note. Right? He’s not filled the whistle yet so pressure is very low in the tube. He’s fingering an E note. Yes, there may be a momentary first octave E as the pressure rises to generate the second octave E. It is part of the initial attack - chiff. You may only hear that since you are using a microscope at high magnification to dissect the tune. I would doubt that Davy Spillane consciously thought about hitting one octave and then the other. He is just playing what he feels.
Mike, play what you feel. Hear it, feel it, play it.
There’s no need for a definition of a technique or a name in my mind. If there is, it’s simply called playing.
Cheers.
Feadoggie
Thanks Dennis. My reason for being analytical is that I hear in Davy’s music the sort of sounds that I want to be able to make on the whistle. It was, and is, Davy’s music alone that made me pick up the whistle in the first place simply because I heard in his slow music the kind of sounds I wished to make with a musical instrument, emotive and melancholic. So I press on trying to hear what he does even if he does it instinctively. To make a particular sound myself I need to know how to do it. I will be able to create that feeling in my own music when I have the tools to be able to do it instinctively like him. Asking whether it is normal is merely checking whether it is a known technique in whistle circles that means someone out there will know how to do it perhaps better than I can figure out.
I hear what you say about the low initial pressure in the whistle creating a momentary bottom E but I don’t think it’s any accident. Throughout the tune these “distorted” slides appear in several places interjected with “normal” slides. I’ve heard this sound elsewhere in his tunes so I believe it’s something he’s learned to do intentionally even if it has become as instinctive as a cut to create a particularly tortuous sound. He sometimes cuts on a slide too to get a slightly different effect.
I’m finding it very helpful putting his tunes under detailed analysis. Beyond cuts and rolls (not so common in the slow stuff) these are techniques I want to discover and polish and include in my own playing.
Cheers
Mike
It’s good that you find your methods helpful. Mike, we’re talking about “soul” music here. Right?
I know I sound like some hippy when I suggest this but studying and dissecting technique will only get you so far with this music. You do have to know how to play. Spillane came up with the music all around him. He’s been filled with it since he was born. It has taken him a lifetime to get to where he is playing as he does. The music is in his soul. But it comes out through his breath and hands.
Learn to play tunes, with the ornaments. Live the music as much as you can. Trust your instincts. You have and you will continue to absorbed a lot into your soul. Just let your breath and hands tell the story that you feel in your soul.
Sometimes it helps to not depend on the music of others. Many musicians spend their life playing pieces that others invent. There’s no harm in that. Many musicians strive to play just like their musical heroes. There’s not much harm in that either. But sometimes it is a good idea to create your own music, clear your own path and define your own sound.
When I was nineteen I was pretty much just a guitar player. One day I met one of the guitar players I admired in a small club. He took the time to talk with me. As we conversed I asked him how he got his “sound”. He said he just played the way he knew how to play, nothing special. He advised me to just play, play a lot, and to sound like myself. Best advice I ever received.
My guess is that Spillane plays the way he knows how to play, nothing special. He’s played, and played a lot. He sounds like himself.
Play a lot. Play what you know. Make it up as you go along. The more you play, the more you will know, and the easier it will become to express what you feel. Sound like yourself.
Feadoggie
The only thing for it Mike, is to play and get comfortable and ‘at home’ with your instrument. The more comfortable you are, the more natural and easy all these things will come to you.
You need to realise these things they don’t come all at once. You don’t become a fully formed player overnight. You need to put in the time (and the work), adding more things as you go along. And once one set of things be comes natural and fully integrated into your playing, you are ready to add the next few bits.
You may also want to ask yourself if, in the long run, you want your music to come from ‘inside’ or from the ‘outside’.
Style is the sum of a player’s life experiences and encounters, musical and otherwise. While there is no harm in acquiring and using elements from other players that you like and work them into your playing, forever referencing the music of one player is bound to leave you, eventually, with an empty shell.
[crossposted]
I like this post. Philosophical. Nice. 
Thanks guys! Understand that I’m NOT trying to emulate Davy, make myself a clone of him. That would be a pointless and impossible exercise anyway . . . even if I desired it. But slow especially melancholic music I love more than anything else and, to me, Davy can make his whistle shriek and cry better than anyone else I’ve heard. By studying his music, I can learn further “ornaments” however unintentionally he plays them, and that’s really no different from studying playing techniques and ornaments from Mary Bergin, who I’m also learning from through her books.
A Christian piper/low whistler you may know of has talked for a while about recording a low whistle album of meditations on Scripture. That idea excites me. And while I have no such aspirations, as a committed Christian, my whistle playing is inextricably bound up with my faith, and I do desire to eventually use my whistle for worship and for expressing or meditating on Scripture. It may sound very strange but I have long had vague notions in my mind of expressing on the low whistle the contrasting emotions Jesus went though in the Garden of Gethsemane before his death, from complete anguish to total peace. But I need the playing and improvising skills to do it.
With that kind of thing in mind, I’m learning and practising every kind of “ornament” I can find, at the same time as playing as much as I can. Every day I spend 1- 2hrs playing (or at least practising and trying to play) jigs and reels etc from Mary Bergin’s and Grey Larsen’s books as well as pieces by Davy, Paddy Keenan, Declan Masterson, Mike McGoldrick, Brendan Ring, John McSherry etc. I probably need to work on improvisation more but I’m doing everything I can towards creating music that will ultimately be me from MY heart not Davy’s.
Perhaps I’ve gone overboard here but I hope that makes my intentions clearer.
Mike, we all go about the journey a little bit different. But we do have to learn to walk to take the journey. Sore feet are inevitable. And we will all wear out a few pairs of shoes getting to our destination. Gather the knowledge you need any way that you can. Whatever works for you to learn is great. Progress is progress not matter how you do it. But time in the saddle, time playing is what works best overall. The whistle has to become an extension of you, what you feel and what you want to say. The more you play, the more fluent you become, the more you will be able to say. It is a language after all.
And remember it is called “playing” for a reason.
We’ve exchanged thoughts on this before. I know what you are saying. You know I support you. You also know I worked in the community of faith for a long while. Music ministry was my life most of that time. My wife and I had the mission of building meditation labyrinths at a couple churches and a campground or two. We even have a portable labyrinth we painted on a very large canvas. I won’t go into the symbolism of the labyrinth here but it is related to what you have just described. One of the things I have been fortunate to do is to play low whistle and flute during meditations at these labyrinths. I can’t describe how that feels but I will say that it can be a transforming experience. Every time is different. You should do what you have described. Don’t wait.
I’ve retired from all that now but playing in the garden here at home many days reinforces the memory of those experiences. Yes, we have a labyrinth in the yard. (Not exactly as grand as the one in Sting’s yard.)
So yes, Keep that goal in mind. The best way to get there is to play, play some more, and then again, after that, play some more. Play in the sunshine. Play in the rain. Play alone. Play for others. Play along with others. Language is for interaction and sharing, as is music. Play until you do not even have to think about what you are playing or how you are playing it. Play until you get where you want to go. Just play!
Feadoggie
All good stuff, I’d just add that playing with others will (perhaps paradoxically) help you find your own style more than anything else. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that if you play your instrument while watching the TV, for instance, you actually play much more fluently, because you’re not quite so focused exclusively on technical issues. You’re just playing. In my experience, this also works with other musicians - with the advantage that you’re also both working towards the same end. And of course you get more and more feedback from others. Playing alone is good for technical practice and getting the basics (and even the advansics) of a tune, but playing with others is when it really comes alive. I don’t mean just everyone playing the same tune on melody instruments session-style, but in a band or ensemble.
(Not an answer to your original question, alas…)
Thanks, Dennis. I remember our conversations. And the advice from you both is good. Sadly, I live in a very remote area and have as yet to find anyone to play with. And certain health issues often hold me back but I play as much as I can. We don’t have a TV but I like the idea of playing while watching, playing mindlessly. I should try that while watching something on my computer!! I’ve also just come across some virtual sessions on-line (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/). I could use them as a background against which to improvise. As you say, it’s all about playing.
I used to watch the tellie when I was learning the pipes, follow the subtitles and play for hours without stopping, hour long reel sets and that sort of thing. Occupy a part of the brain while the music flows. I know people who can hold a conversation while playing (not the whistle obviously).
As I said, if you ever want to feel truly at home on an instrument you need to put in the hours.
Wow! What an awesome commitment! You must have had a very tolerant and supportive family too. When I read your comments I thought with amusement of the lyrics to Mark Knopfler’s song “Piper to the End.”
When I leave this world behind me
To another I will go
And if there are no pipes in heaven
I’ll be going down below
I’m afraid I can’t make that sort of commitment. My relationship with God comes first, then my marriage. Playing the whistle knows its place and two hours a day is the most I can readily commit to without compromising my more important relationships. I’ve started far too late in life but I content myself with the fact I may well be able to play the whistle in heaven ( why not?), and that without my relationship with my heavenly Father, then I would definitely be an empty shell.
But, like Dennis’s and killthemessenger’s, your words are inspiring and I will continue to play as much as I can.
It’s not my cup of tea but you know what the saying is : Deartháir don phaidir an port . The tune is a brother to prayer.
Maybe look at it that way then.
I like that!!
That’d be a hell of a conversation! 
Instead of tapping your feet to the music, tap out Morse code.