How to play notes you can't play?

monkey · Post by **monkey** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:57 am

HI

I have been teaching myself to play Greensleeves.

but some of the notes are not playable on my D whistle notably the notes with the '#' after them, any way round this or is it best to just try and play round them and miss them out??

Thanks.

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:00 am

On a D whistle, I would play it in A-minor. That just gives you one off-scale chromatic to deal with, the G-sharp leading tone.

For that one I would half-hole.

--James

dapple · Post by **dapple** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:02 am

Here's a link to a more whistle-friendly version of Greensleeves:

http://www.tinwhistler.com/sheet.asp?code=greensleeves

And here's a link to an excellent site that shows how to finger sharps and flats on the whistle:

http://www.fullbodyburn.com/

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:33 am

thanks for the link to the simpler version. every christmas i have to play that song at church and i've come up with a few cheats over the year. i play the harmonica and guitar too and borrowed from those instruments. i play with a group of people, so this is easier to pull off. here's my two biggest methods of cheating. i just hold the previous note and jump right over the trick note. i check which chord is being played at that point in a song and play a different note on that chord progression. i usually play a lower note, they blend in better. every now and then, there may be a note lower than d and i don't want to raise the song a whole octave, so i just may play the d or play a better sounding note to cover for the too low note. can you tell i'm an amateur? i'd sure like to hear from other folks.

monkey · Post by **monkey** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:43 am

Hmm.. i find the easier version harder!

i like the one i posted as it contains more lower notes, typical awkward me !

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:29 am

monkey wrote:Hmm.. i find the easier version harder! i like the one i posted as it contains more lower notes, typical awkward me !

If I play that version, I half-hole the D# (not too hard), and raise the
lowest B up an octave. I just skip the low C# altogether, and cut the
D# in its place.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:52 am

But you can't play the low C or low B on your whistle at all! It doesn't go that low. Your only choice there is to play them an octave higher. You can't just leave them out. It sounds a little strange to play them an octave higher, although on many tunes you can do that and the notes work in nicely. The first low B seems to sound okay an octave higher. The low C# 3 measures later sounds a bit odd an octave up. But you know, if right now this is best for you just play it with those notes up an octave. Then you have to half hole the D to get D#, but it's a pretty slow song.

If you should be working on high notes, but just don't like them, then I think you should be playing the A minor version as suggested. It just makes more sense. Then you just have to half-hole the G#. Here's a slightly different version. Also, just play it by ear but start on A. You'll know when you need to half-hole the G. No other note will work.

http://www.cpmusic.com/tradgif/greenslv.gif

Oh, I'm so slow and I see fearfaoin has pretty much addressed all this while I've been writing. Oh well!

BrassBlower · Post by **BrassBlower** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 11:44 am

peeplj wrote:On a D whistle, I would play it in A-minor. That just gives you one off-scale chromatic to deal with, the G-sharp leading tone.

For that one I would half-hole.

--James

This is how I play it, too. However, most of the sheet music I've seen is in either E minor or F minor, in which case I would play an A or B-flat whistle, respectively.

ThorntonRose · Post by **ThorntonRose** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 6:33 pm

Play it in A minor (http://www.cpmusic.com/tradgif/greenslv.gif) and use XX0XXX for the G#.

s1m0n · Post by **s1m0n** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:20 pm

You can play low C# on a D whistle by closing all the holes and partially obstructing the end of the pipe with your littlest finger. It will drop the sound by a half-tone or so.

This is a party trick, not a technique. I don't know anyone who can do this in any tune faster than a very slow air, but I also don't know anyone who's tried all that hard.

Ostekjeks · Post by **Ostekjeks** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 4:13 am

s1m0n wrote:You can play low C# on a D whistle by closing all the holes and partially obstructing the end of the pipe with your littlest finger. It will drop the sound by a half-tone or so.

This is a party trick, not a technique. I don't know anyone who can do this in any tune faster than a very slow air, but I also don't know anyone who's tried all that hard.

I've been doing this on my low whistle by putting the end of the tube on my lap sometimes. It works.