How many whistles can play in a session?

[sbhikes]

Someday, definitely not today, I would like to play in a session. I went to hear one the other day in my town. They already have a whistler and he was very good. How many whistles can there be in a session? I would think one is enough, except if he was playing a low whistle (or even just a Bb) you could not hear it.

[Scott McCallister]

The session I was at last night was set up like:

2 fiddles
2 pipers
2 guitars
1 Octave Mando
2 full time whistlers
1 bodharan
1 accoustic bass guitar (which I doubt he could hear himself)

At one point, it was only guitars and 4 people playing whistle. Because the pipers knew the tune on whistle and the fiddles didn't know the tune at all.

The tune played an important part in determining the instrumental mix based on the players at hand.

[Whitmores75087]

I play on stage with another whistler. It takes a lot of attention to tuning, and you need good quality instruments. But it can be done.

[BrassBlower]

I guess a lot of it depends on how "pure-drop" the session is and whether there is a designated leader or if you go around the circle starting tunes.

All of the sessions I have participated in have been pretty much "anything goes" as far as the type of tune played, and tunes were called around the circle (and there were 25 fiddlers). In that case, I would bring whistles, but would usually end up playing guitar until it was my turn to start a tune.

[fearfaoin]

The session I was at last night was set up like:
_________________

How ... Poststructural.


I' ve played in sessions with up to 5 whistles. If there's enough other
instruments for cover, you barely notice. The problem is when there
are exactly 2 whistles which are very out of tune with each other.

[sbhikes]

I imagine more than one flute is less a problem than more than one whistle then?

[TheSpoonMan]

Someday, definitely not today, I would like to play in a session. I went to hear one the other day in my town. They already have a whistler and he was very good. How many whistles can there be in a session? I would think one is enough, except if he was playing a low whistle (or even just a Bb) you could not hear it.

Well, a Bb wouldn't be in key with everyone else... that could sound cool tho.

[Scott McCallister]

The session I was at last night was set up like:
_________________

How ... Poststructural.


I' ve played in sessions with up to 5 whistles. If there's enough other
instruments for cover, you barely notice. The problem is when there
are exactly 2 whistles which are very out of tune with each other.

Power outage. darned thing blinked out in mid post.. Don't know how it actually made it to the board.?

[sbhikes]

Well, it looked like he played a Bb. From afar, it looked exactly like the Bb I have. It's possible that he did play a Bb, since everyone started playing a tune that sounded sort of different from all the others. Different enough that there was applause from the few people just listening because the tune sounded unique. I saw him play that whistle a couple of times, plus he pulled out a huge low whistle about half the time. Unfortunately I could not hear that low whistle until the very end, when everybody was putting away the fiddles and the guitars and he started on one of those slow tunes with the bendy, slidey notes. It was beautiful.

When he was playing his D whistle I could hear it, and I couldn't help thinking that if there was another D whistle it might be annoying because if both whistlers were filling the tune full of ornaments, but different ones, that instead of having the whistle give the whole tune some clarity, they would just add noise.

[colomon]

When he was playing his D whistle I could hear it, and I couldn't help thinking that if there was another D whistle it might be annoying because if both whistlers were filling the tune full of ornaments, but different ones, that instead of having the whistle give the whole tune some clarity, they would just add noise.

Actually, when done well ITM whistle duets are really nice sounding. And super fun to play.

While it's certainly possible he was playing a Bb -- they could be playing one of those G minor fiddle tunes, or maybe that Donough Hennessy waltz in Eb, or just about anything -- an A whistle would probably be more reasonable in a standard Irish session. And I don't know how you'd tell the difference just by looking at a distance.

[pipersgrip]

the one last night was 4 fiddlers, 2 whistlers, 2 accordian/concertina, 2 guitars, mandolin, and bodhran.

[Carey]

Here's a good example of a pair of whistles - sounds cool to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDI-McOzpj8

Also, at times in our session we've had two hi D's and a high recorder going with only a fiddle and guitar to round it out. If the whistles are not in tune with each other there are notes that I have to stop playing - it's just too painful. The "beat" gets really loud. But if the tuning is good, it's pretty cool. Almost like a choir.

[emmdee]

I remember playing in a session once, close to Christmas. One of the guys sang Fairytale of New York and there were 5 of us playing whistles, no two of which were in tune together. It must've sounded like absolute ass to the punters, but we were happy as Larry and full of the, ahem, festive spirit!

Tuning is ESSENTIAL!
m.d.

[Jayhawk]

FWIW - Multiple flutes are a lot like multiple fiddles...just fairly common. More than one whistle is fine from my session experience, but is not as common as multiple flutes. The only time I have issue with too many of one type of instrument is with bodhrans (rhythm can get a bit dicey unless they're both good and play nicely together...a third would just be disaster).

Eric

[coupedefleur]

Do you think there's more of a tuning problem mixing different designs / brands of whistles, or is it mostly players who aren't listening?