I have heard of twin fiddling and have even seen a program that will generate scores for it from ABC files. Would twin whistling work? Has anyone tried it?
I am not sure what you mean this willie Clancy week I saw Cathal McConnell play several times on two whistles at the same time, playing melody and harmonies, definitely his party piece and very cleverly done. As close to twin whsitling as I ever saw it.
In twin fiddling, one fiddle plays the melody as written, the other fiddle plays in parallel a third above (sometimes a fourth depending on the chord). Twin fiddling was poular in western swing and country bands in the 50’s and 60’s. The style has also been employed in old time and bluegrass fiddling.
Only one way to find out, I suppose. Give me a few minutes…
Whats the difference between “twin whistling” and a duet?
Also, wasn’t there a mention several months ago about a web site with whistle duet tunes? (I tried the c&f search feature with no luck)
At first stab – it doesn’t suck.
Here’s what the program from the attached link generated for the Kesh Jig:
X: 1
T: Kesh Jig Harmony
T: Kincora Jig Harmony
R: jig
Z: 1997 by John Chambers <jc@trillian.mit.edu>
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: G
F
| “G”~B3 Bcd | “D7”~c3 cd^f | "G"ggg bgg | "D7"g^fd ^fdc
| “G”~B3 "(Em)"ccd | “Am”~c3 "D7"cd^f | "G"ggg bgd | "D7"cBA "G"B2 
|: c
| “G”~d3 gdg | "C"gc’g "G"gdB | “G”~d3 gdB | “Am”~c3 "D7"cBc
| “G”~d3 gdg | "C"gc’g "G"gdg | “C”~c’3 c’c’c’ | "D7"d’ba "G"b2
(Note the written F sharps in there – not sure why the program does that, but it was a real pain for me to read until I got rid of it.)
Playing the result on G whistle (so it doesn’t go past the second octave) it sounds pretty good, even on a crude first attempt. (For those of you keeping score at home, I transposed the harmony part into D major before printing it out, so that it came out in G major on the G whistle.) I used Cakewalk to record myself playing the normal part (well, using the D fingerings instead of the G fingerings) and then overdubbed myself playing the harmony part.
For something completely off the cuff, it doesn’t sound too awful. I’ll take another couple stabs at recording it, to see if I can get a version I’m not embarrassed to have other whistlers listen to. (Once I’ve sorted out the current bug in my day job.)
Well, colomon, that’s cool. It only took you about 30 minutes to put that together. I’m impressed. If you transpose the original tune to D, then twin it, you can play both parts on the D whistle. (I often play Kesh in D anyway, because my fingers sometimes don’t like some of the transitions in the G version.)
This is pretty lo-fi, and not exactly a shining example of my whistle playing, but I think you can get an okay feel for what the twin process sounds like:
http://www.harmonyware.com/tunes/TwinKesh.mp3
I ended up playing both parts on Bb whistle (with the tune in Bb). The G whistle slowed up my reactions just enough on the low notes to make a real mess.
Note the weird sounding thing on the second beat of the fifth bar of the first part is in the twinned part. The version of the Kesh I grabbed switched to Bm for that beat, and as a result ABCTwin changed the harmony note it used.
Overall, the twin thing strikes me as an amusing curiosity. I’ll probably play around with it some more.
Very fun!
I like to play slow airs with harmony, although I’ve never tried strict twinning (always staying a third above the lead part). I’ll have to try it.
You pipers out there, is this anything like the “second” one often hears on slow tunes?
Tom
Hmm…I’ve clicked on the mp3 file thingy two times and both times my computer froze…Dunno what’s wrong…
Brent
Very interesting & inspirational 2 part harmony piece. Congrats, Colomon.
In the true spirit of WHOA, could you, Colomon, manage a 3 part tune. For now, laying down tracks would achieve 3 part, BUT, ultimately and inevitably,
could someone play 3 whistles simultaneously to accomplish that feat ?
Dare I think it…or say it…??? 4 Part
Okay, I still don’t get it. The whistle has six holes and how are you going to cover 12 holes with your fingers? Is it done when both closely pitched whistles are tied parallel and each finger is covering 2 holes (1 for each whistle) whenever a note is played? I’m totally baffled!
Anyways, it sounds really interesting!
Eldarion, I suppose you are getting at what McConnell was doing, he played two whistles, a higher one and a lower one, covering the top holes of each with one hand, he managed to play full tunes with harmonies this way, I didn’t manage to figure out how he did it, it was quite a feat. Only he was doing it about every time I ran in to him, which was usually over lunch so after a week it got a bit much. Very clever party piece.
I once saw two trombonists on the “Gong Show” who had their slides tied together at the ends. The players faced each other and played in harmony as they moved towards and away from each other. It took great coordination. They sounded very good and were extremely fast. Unfortunately, they both got Gonged!
I have a friend who plays all sorts of instruments and makes fantastic Native American flute ( cheap shot ad for a friend!). He has made 2 differently pitched overtone flutes, which are basically whistles with no finger holes. YOu play different notes by overblowing harder and harder, generating different overtones( not just octaves). If you cover the end of the whistle, you can get an entire different overtone series.
Anyway, Eric plays 2 of them simultaneously, ripping off a smashing Polish polka!
Well, I don’t play 2 at once, but when hubby and I play our Burke Al D Pros together, it is reasonably awesome. We get some crazy wolf tones and beats in the sound. Potts and Maloney we “ain’t” but it is fun enough to recommend to all. – N