Quick Question

[pandabean]

When playing the whistle I usually just blow and let the fingers change the tune. But I played for a friend and she said I should be going te or ke for each note with the tongue.

When I listen to Picard's air I am guessing it is just blowing and moving the fingers.

Am I doing it wrong? :S

[GaryKelly]

But I played for a friend and she said I should be going te or ke for each note with the tongue.

Ignore her. She's probably a rec*rder player trying to lure you to the dark side, in which foul abyss lurk classical flautists and rec*rder players (not that there's anything wrong with them, of course).

Of one thing you may be sure... she's not a whistle player.

You should tongue notes where it feels and sounds right, and goes with the flow of the tune.

[Wanderer]

Gary's right. With whistle playing (especially IR Trad), the tongue is used very sparingly.

If you want to play something other than IR Trad, i suppose you could tongue every note, but it sure sounds better if you don't

[talasiga]

pandabean,
do you eat bamboo flutes?

BTW, my tongueing is more of a retroflex flap rather than ke or te. You don't get this phoneme in English. I think Gaelic has it or something close to it?

[amar]

you know, this is interesting, i never tongue the notes, i just can't do it, but i have read, in this forum, on various occasions, that tonguing the notes is the way to go

[fearfaoin]

My whistle teacher yelled at me frequently for tonguing every note.
I played the clarinet in school for years, and tonguing was deeply ingrained.
Still find myself occasionally doing it, unconsiously. But in Irish music, it is not the default.
Brother Steve has a great discussion on tin whistle tonguing <a href="http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/b ... /">here</a>.

[IDAwHOa]

I just play whatever way feels right to me. It is music, it is art and I do not think there are any hard, fast rules that MUST be followed regarding playing style, especially if you are playing solo or for your own personal enjoyment.

As one person on this board frequently responds, just

ENJOY THE MUSIC

[amar]

that's
ENJOY YOUR MUSIC

[Bloomfield]

I just play whatever way feels right to me. It is music, it is art and I do not think there are any hard, fast rules that MUST be followed regarding playing style, especially if you are playing solo or for your own personal enjoyment.

As one person on this board frequently responds, just

ENJOY THE MUSIC

I don't know about "hard and fast" and "MUST" but I do think every style does have its rules. It's like a game. If you use chessmen, but place them only on the black squares, jump over other pieces and try to get to the other side, well, you're playing checker not chess or some odd mixture. Every style has defining characteristics like that, and I fail to see how it would preclude enjoyment.

[IDAwHOa]

I don't know about "hard and fast" and "MUST" but I do think every style does have its rules. It's like a game. If you use chessmen, but place them only on the black squares, jump over other pieces and try to get to the other side, well, you're playing checker not chess or some odd mixture. Every style has defining characteristics like that, and I fail to see how it would preclude enjoyment.

Agreed. I guess my point is, don't let the rules stop you from enjoying what you do. Heck, if we were stuck by the "rules" of the first style played that could be called music.... well, I hope you get the jist of my comment.

I guess I am just a rebel at heart.

[emmline]

I guess I am just a rebel at heart.

I am too, NorCal. It's a rarified world of structured perfection our Bloom lives in. I wonder if all his socks are rolled into neat balls.

[Darwin]

I guess I am just a rebel at heart.

As is evidenced by that totally rebellious haircut.

I agree with Bloomfield that if you're striving to play "standard" ITM, you should let yourself be pretty much limited by what most ITM players consider to be the style.

On the other hand, I agree with NorCal that you should play whatever you want to play. If it's not standard ITM, that's fine.

However, you should also be willing to accept that you may not blend well with a group that's playing a more standard style. I mean, you probably don't want to be playing Sonny Terry licks on the harp with a Chicago-style band. (Nor playing like Charlie Musselwhite with a lone Piedmont-style guitarist.)

If you're brave and talented, you can do whatever you want and drag a bunch more musicians along with you, as Bill Monroe did.

All this is a bit of a heavy response for the original question, though.

As far as tonguing goes, I started out doing a lot of it in my slow airs, but now I've gone the other way and only use it for accents, or to get from a low note to a high note when the particular whistle I'm playing has trouble with the transition. In fact, I no longer use it much in non-ITM materials, either. I like the kind of burbling sound you get from cuts and taps. (I don't play anything that requires rolls.)

[Bloomfield]

As far as tonguing goes, I started out doing a lot of it in my slow airs, but now I've gone the other way and only use it for accents, or to get from a low note to a high note when the particular whistle I'm playing has trouble with the transition. In fact, I no longer use it much in non-ITM materials, either. I like the kind of burbling sound you get from cuts and taps. (I don't play anything that requires rolls.)

When going from a low to a high note, try tapping the high note instead of tonguing it, so:

A{f}g2

Meaning, get an f-sharpy blip in before the high g.

If you are playing cuts and taps there ought to be nothing holding you back from playing rolls: just divide a note evenly with a cut and then a tap and you're in business (go sloooooow).

[Darwin]

As far as tonguing goes, I started out doing a lot of it in my slow airs, but now I've gone the other way and only use it for accents, or to get from a low note to a high note when the particular whistle I'm playing has trouble with the transition. In fact, I no longer use it much in non-ITM materials, either. I like the kind of burbling sound you get from cuts and taps. (I don't play anything that requires rolls.)

When going from a low to a high note, try tapping the high note instead of tonguing it, so:

A{f}g2

Meaning, get an f-sharpy blip in before the high g.

I'll work on that, thanks.

If you are playing cuts and taps there ought to be nothing holding you back from playing rolls: just divide a note evenly with a cut and then a tap and you're in business (go sloooooow).

Since I'm playing only slow airs, and none of the ones I play have three of the same note of equal duration in a row, I haven't been too worried about it. A couple of them do have three of the same note in a row, but varying in duration, so I sometimes do play what I think of as a pseudo-roll, but other times I use two cuts or two taps, depending on how I feel.

[happyturkeyman]

I just play everything really slow and start each new note with a puff of air.

(joke)