I don't understand music theory

sharrison · Post by **sharrison** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 3:09 pm

If I have a C whistle and I have an Aminor whistle, do I have two identical whistles?

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 3:13 pm

No...because if you had an A minor whistle you'd have one that played the A minor scale if you just played up the holes (Do Re Mi, etc.). A C whistle plays a C major scale under the same conditions. I believe you can PLAY in A minor on a C whistle easily enough...but it's still a C whistle. To be honest, I've never seen a pennywhistle that was based on a minor scale.

Or...let me see if I can say this a little better. A whistle's "designated" key (i.e., the key it's "named" for) is based on the scale you get if you just play straight up the whistle from the lowest note to the highest. That's not the only key you can PLAY on this particular whistle, however...for example, on a D whistle you can easily play in D major and G major (and, if I'm remembering correctly, and I may not be, A major), as well as their relative minors.

Redwolf

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Redwolf on 2003-01-31 16:18 ]</font>

AaronS · Post by **AaronS** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 3:28 pm

One thing to consider is that the Aminor whistle will start six notes higher than the C whistle, then play the scale from there.

C Whistle:
C-D-E-F-G-A-B-c-d-e-f-g-a-b

Aminor Whistle:
A-B-c-d-e-f-g-(a)-(b)-(c)-(d)-(e)-(f)-(g)

Where "C" is one octave above middle C, "c" is 2 above and "(c)" is 3 above middle C.

Tyghress · Post by **Tyghress** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 3:34 pm

On 2003-01-31 16:09, sharrison wrote:
If I have a C whistle and I have an Aminor whistle, do I have two identical whistles?

tain't no sech thing as an A minor whistle. The C in 'C whistle' or D in 'D whistle' is the bell NOTE, not the key of the whistle. There is no NOTE called 'A minor'.

The easiest whistles to play A minor tunes in are a G whistle and a D, I believe.

Aodhan · Post by **Aodhan** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 3:45 pm

On 2003-01-31 16:34, tyghress wrote:
On 2003-01-31 16:09, sharrison wrote:
If I have a C whistle and I have an Aminor whistle, do I have two identical whistles?
tain't no sech thing as an A minor whistle. The C in 'C whistle' or D in 'D whistle' is the bell NOTE, not the key of the whistle. There is no NOTE called 'A minor'.

The easiest whistles to play A minor tunes in are a G whistle and a D, I believe.

Bell notes being the lowest note the whistle plays, with all holes covered. (Just to be pedantic about things...Fridays do that to me!)

Aodhan

AaronS · Post by **AaronS** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 3:47 pm

Aodhan- We have a Cminor Flute..its awesome sounding.

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 3:55 pm

On 2003-01-31 16:09, sharrison wrote:
If I have a C whistle and I have an Aminor whistle, do I have two identical whistles?

It makes more sense to ask what key you can play in on a specific whistle without half-holing. C major & A minor have the same key signature, and can be played on the same whistle.

Two things though: There isn't "a" minor scale. There are at least three, depending on how you count. Then there are all the so called modes which are fun and used in really old music, in Jazz, and in Irish Trad. IMO, best thing is to look at a specific piece of music to find out what whistle you can play it on. Reason is, apart from the key signature, you'll be thinking about range: how high or low does the music go.

ChrisA · Post by **ChrisA** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 5:50 pm

Generally speaking, whistles -are- named for their Bell Note, but generally speaking, whistles are in a major key, and the bell note and the key name are the same. In otherwords, one could make an A-minor whistle, even though none are in mass production, and it would make sense to call it an A-minor whistle since calling it an A whistle would make everyone assume it was in A-major.

The above ABCish example of what an A-minor whistle would play with natural fingerings is handy, but such a whistle would be impossible to play. You'd have to go down two notes instead of up 6. Trust me, I have high-G whistles, and I can barely play them because of finger-collision... you're not going up a step and having anyone older than 4 able to finger the thing.

(Okay, I'm nitpicking, and the only real purpose of the nitpick is to help relate physical shape of a whistle to the theory... )

Anyway. To try to add something instead of
sounding like an echo: The easiest way to understand the difference between A-minor and C-major is to sit down with a piano, or a C whistle, and play, 'C-E-G-C+-G-E-C' and then 'A-C-E-A+-E-C-A' (where X+ is the octave higher from your start point...)

These are the primary notes of the key, the ones that make up the chord of the key name. If you're at a piano (or other chord instrument) you can even play the Cmaj and Amin chords just by playing C/E/G simultaneously and A/C/E simultaneously.

--Chris

JohnPalmer · Post by **JohnPalmer** » Fri Jan 31, 2003 9:01 pm

Someone said that there is no A minor whistle. Mack Hoover told me that he made a whistle with the holes spaced so that he can play it in a blues key.

SteveK · Post by **SteveK** » Sat Feb 01, 2003 2:40 am

Jubilee Whistles (Daniel Bingamon) makes whistles with a variety of scales including melodic, harmonic and natural minor. For the reasons noted by ChrisA it is perfectly appropriate to label these whistles as "C minor" whistles.

Steve

hank123 · Post by **hank123** » Sat Feb 01, 2003 4:53 am

gee,
I got a bunch of whistles, they get carded at bars cause they look young, but they're all adults. Not a minor in the bunch.

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Sat Feb 01, 2003 6:03 am

Dang! at first I thought Aminor Whistle was another new brand to fuel our WHOA...

Roger O'Keeffe · Post by **Roger O'Keeffe** » Sat Feb 01, 2003 12:13 pm

Sharribaby, I think you know far too much about music theory!

It was ignorance what led me to the whistle and that's just fine by me - the people with guitars etc. can work out what key I'm in since I always play a D instrument.

I recently tried to learn the Mooncoin Jig and decided it was impossible to play on the whistle, but after hearing Joe McKenna's recording I discovered that it is.

Several hours later, after using the Amazing Slowdowner and Magix Notation to transcribe it as he plays it, I discovered to my amazement that it's in D Major, which must be about the most difficult key to play on a D whistle if your fingers are used to playing Irish music.

_________________
An Pluiméir Ceolmhar

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