Playing tunes in the key of A

[cynipid]

Hello there,

This is my first post on this forum, I normally lurk on the uillean pipe forum! Given the friendly posts I have read, I thought I would seek some advice.

I have a query about playing in the key of A. I am fond of playing mainly Scottish tunes on the whistle and many of the pipe/fiddle tunes are in A. I always play on my D whistle/low whistle(also in D). I find I can cope with half-holing the G for a G sharp but sometimes this can be tricky for some reels at speed.

I consider myself to be an improving beginner, so really what I want to know is should I stick with the D and persevere with half-holing, relying on my control to improve with practice or should I take the other route and buy a whistle in A to make life easier? (I am currently reluctant to do this as I am concerned it may be counter-productive in some way in the future, and feel this may be cheating in some way!).

I usually play by ear and my music-reading skills may be described as rudimentary, so having to transpose tunes so I can make sense of them is not really an issue.

Any opinions/advice welcome!

[Feadan]

This is why I bought a whistle in E. Makes playing a good many tunes in A a whole lot easier (using what would be key of G fingering on a D whistle). Playing Scottish music though, I often find that tunes are in mixolydian mode (i.e. pipe tunes). Since there is no g sharp it only makes sense to play them on a D whistle. If you want to persue being dexterous with half-holing then more power to you. Lazy bugger that I am, I prefer to go after the easy solution.

Cheers,
David

[Wombat]

I consider myself to be an improving beginner, so really what I want to know is should I stick with the D and persevere with half-holing, relying on my control to improve with practice or should I take the other route and buy a whistle in A to make life easier? (I am currently reluctant to do this as I am concerned it may be counter-productive in some way in the future, and feel this may be cheating in some way!).

This is no more cheating than trying to play every Irish tune in D on a G whistle; ie, nobody does. The whistles of choice for A would be A and E and which you would use would depend on whether the tune goes no lower than bottom octave A or whether that's as low as it goes. If it ducks down to G# or E then use an E or low E whistle. Otherwise use an A whistle. Tunes in A major which don't employ G# or in A mixolydian which employ G natural are fine on a D whistle.

One trick for half-holong G# on a D whistle which works well for me is to try to cover the half hole diagonally. I don't know why this works but I seem to hit it much more consistently in tune that way.

[jim stone]

Do both.

[BrassBlower]

In fast tunes the major seventh (G# in the key of A) is usually part of a run ascending to or descending from the key note, so if you're not comfortable trying to half-hole it, you may be able to get away with dropping those notes to take a breath or something. Your listeners will mentally insert the missing notes, and probably won't even notice that they're missing.

[glauber]

There aren't a whole lot of Irish tunes in A, and the ones that exist (e.g. High Reel) are usually playable on D whistles without too much fuss. But if you're going to play Scottish tradition, i'd get whistles in E and A; why make things harder?

[fancypiper]

Most Scottish tunes are in AMix (or at least the ones I know are) aren't they?

That means you stick with the D whistle and learn the half-hole (more of a stiffining and straightining the top ring finger so that it almost covers the hole) technique.

It will become automatic, but you need to learn to use the middle finger bottom hand as the balance finger quite a bit because of the ease of change from a top hand note to the E quite often.

Or, you can wimp out and buy an E whistle for the tunes not in AMix.

I can't find an E and Michael Burke didn't show up at the last tionol I went to.

[NicoMoreno]

I play all the time with a guy on A border pipes. (Welsh I think...)

Never use anything but a d whistle. Never feel I need to. Right around A in the bottom octave, most whistles start getting nice a nd bright, so it is rare that I can't hear myself over the (I would say very --> 3-4 maybe even 4-5 fiddler) loud pipes.

[Cariad]

[/quote]


One trick for half-holong G# on a D whistle which works well for me is to try to cover the half hole diagonally. I don't know why this works but I seem to hit it much more consistently in tune that way.[/quote]

Is half-holong a special Australian technique from Wollongong?

[talasiga]

There aren't a whole lot of Irish tunes in A, and the ones that exist (e.g. High Reel) are usually playable on D whistles without too much fuss. But if you're going to play Scottish tradition, i'd get whistles in E and A; why make things harder?

1. As the D key flute is the ITM flute I am sure that any pieces in A will be A Mixolydian or A Dorian and indeed we see Oro Se Do Bheatha Abhaile (forgive me -accents omitted) as an example of A Mixolydian (yes, I know its pentatonic).

2. I agree with fancypiper about the A Mixo predominance in Scottish pipe pieces so I couldn't for the life of me see why Glauber suggests an A key flute for that unless you want to be cross finger diminishing the 7th all the time and you aren't into below the tonic dips.

3. If, on the other hand you've got a lot of lydian and ionian pieces you want to play in A I would go for the E flute or whistle.

[colomon]

Well, the High Reel certainly does not have G-sharps in any version I've heard. A-mix is probably the correct key signature.

However, depsite the "inability" of D flute to play G-sharps, there are plenty of Irish tunes that have them. For instance, the Foxhunter reel is routinely played in A.

[E = Fb]

G# in the upper octave works this way on some whistles (not all):

xxo xxo