After receiving a Low whistle in F last week and trying to decide if its for me, me and my wife played this little tune we had made up, nothing spectacular but fun.
thing is I played the Low F she was playing a Bb whistle. same fingering patterns, the 2 together kinda sounded like a background to a Conan the barbarian movie 
Im guessing the 5th combo would give a more major sound IDK, any combos you have tried and enjoyed?
Steve
A fellow and I played a tune on D and C whistles simultaneously. It was a premonition of Hell. Rather fun, actually, but of limited practical application.
Bagpipe harmonies are usually thirds. So if you have two whistles a third apart you can mostly play the same tune with the same fingering. You will find occasional spots where it won’t work and you need to change a note on the harmony part.
Yes, be very very careful! Playing in parallel 4ths or 5ths will soon have you wearing hooded druid cloaks and parading around the house with candles and pentagrams.
Actually, parallel 5ths won’t sound more major. Perfect 4ths and 5ths are exact inversions of each other. So the effect is almost the same; even a trained ear has to listen carefully.
For a major/minor sound you need parallel 3rds and/or 6ths. Try Bb and D whistle (M3/m6). Or D and F whistle (m3/M6).
thank you,
when I was young I said, theory smeary,Now I wish Id learned then before my brain started fossilizing
Ill try it.
Honestly, if you want to do good harmonies it would be best to use two whistles in the same key, or closely related ones like A and D. Parallel 3rds and 6ths is generally a good rule for harmonic function but it can lead to some funky tonality shifts that are undesirable if you are playing two differently keyed whistles. All about the context of the chords that you are playing. Best of luck to you! If there are any tunes that you would like some harmonies written for the two of you then just let me know!
Yes, for sure. Playing diatonically in “parallel” harmonized 3rds normally uses a mixed pattern of major (M) and minor (m) intervals. For example, for a major key: MmmMMmmM. Using two parallel 3rd instruments gives you either all majors or all minors: e.g., C and E whistles (all majors) may suggest a Lydian feel (C D E F# G …) or even a whole-tone scale (C D E F# G# …). Funky! But, of course, often exploited in jazz and other “modern” harmonies.