I got a Generation Bb (nickel) whistle today. I tweaked it a little by using the sticky tac under the windway. It sounds great now!
Question: Is there a fingering chart online somewhere for a Bb whistle? I know I can play the same tunes I learned on my D whistle, but I also want to play off sheet music in the proper key, and a ready-made chart would help a lot, I think.[/i]
Bb XXX XXX
C XXX XXO
D XXX XOO
Eb XXX OOO
F XXO OOO
G XOO OOO
A OOO OOO
Bb OXX XXX
same as on a D whistle except that you start on Bb instead of D
Bloom, StevieJ, we need a huddle here guys. We’re not getting through.
[quote=
Bloom, StevieJ, we need a huddle here guys. We’re not getting through.[/quote]
Yeah, you are. But you see, I am very “play by ear” challenged, and can’t memorize a tune to save my soul, therefore I rely heavily on sheet music.
Thanks, illuminatus99, for the fingering chart!
Yeah, you are. But you see, I am very “play by ear” challenged, and can’t memorize a tune to save my soul, therefore I rely heavily on sheet music.
Thanks, illuminatus99, for the fingering chart!
no prob, it works for any diatonic whistle in any key, the lowest one is the bell note and you just work your way up the scale from there.
I think there is a tendency on this board to run together two quite distinct questions about how to go about learning the whistle. If you want to play ITM on whistle, or any other instrument, developing your ear and translating what you hear into hand and mouth movements is the main ingredient in learning to play well. Whether or not you do this exclusively or employ sheet music as well doesn’t seem to me to matter much. The question that I think people fail to separate from this one is how best to go about learning a new instrument from scratch. Whether it’s whistle or piano, in my opinion using sheet music is very useful in getting familiar with the layout of your instrument and developing basic competence on it. Nobody who picks up an instrument for the first time plays in any particular ‘style’—that is something that comes later.
We all are, before we sit down and start doing it. How much time have you actually spent trying to learn something by ear? Get a nice polka or simple jig, slow it down by half, put on head phones and give it 30 minutes or an hour. You’ll be amazed how “play by ear” challenged you actually aren’t.
Forgive me Underhill - lost my head for a moment. 
Here’s the Bb scale. Start playing from all fingers down & there you are.
Most tunes you see written in the key of Bb will still only go down to D on the sheetmusic, so you won’t use the bottom two notes on the whistle.
Check out this link: http://www.lunasa.ie/album1.htm
The tune Inion Ni Scannlam is played on this recording on a Bb flute, and I play along on a Bb whistle. Try it, it’s a gorgeous tune. Try to pick out the notes by ear as you play. I did that first, then resorted to the sheet music in panic when I couldn’t get all the notes sorted.
Here’s the sheetmusic. However this is shown in the key of G, not Bb. But all you need to do is play your Bb whistle, fingering exactly as if you were playing on a D whistle. The tune is not played exactly as shown here, but it’s close and you will recognise the differences.
The point I didn’t make but should have, is that most whistle music will be written in a whistle friendly key, and all you do is change whistles and keep the same fingering to change to lower keys. If you see music in the key of Bb, you may still run out of notes at the top or bottom end of the whistle’s range, because the music isn’t written for the whistle but fiddle or some other instrument with a greater range.
OK, I’ll stop now, I hope this answer was more useful than my last!
Martin: forgive my stupidity, but if you run out of notes at the top or bottome end of the whistle’s range, then what does one do then?
I don’t have a Bb whistle or anything, but just want to know for possible future reference.
All the Best, Tom
Hi Tom,
One suggestion is you don’t play fiddle music on a whistle, but I guess that’s not very helpful. Actually, there is some truth in this, I’ve seen a great whistle player sit out on a tune because he knew he wasn’t going to be able to cover it on his whistle.
A D whistle’s range can be covered on the top 3 strings on a fiddle, but the fiddler has the G string with G’, G#‘, A’, Bb’, B’, C and C# available to him. In short, any note lower on the stave than a D.
On common tunes going below D, the whistlers options are a) to skip the note & take a breath b) to up the note an octave c) to up the note a 3rd or a 5th, thus at least hitting the chord.
For solo play the first option is not really going to work, and the second may not sound good either, so I’d usually adopt the third choice, but others may disagree.
Running out of notes at the top end of a D whistle is a blessing as it saves your hearing. That probably won’t happen if you’re playing a D, but following Bb fiddle music on a Bb whistle it might. I guess the same options apply (I’ve never actually tried this), except you’d drop the note an octave, or lower it by a 3rd or 5th to hit a note in the chord (is this right? Maybe dropping a 5th isn’t going to be a chord, I’m a bit rusty) .
Martin: Thanks. I’m really way to new to even worry about this, but I figure a bit of learning can’t hurt.
By the way, I really appreciate the clarity of your posts when explaining things like this, or like reading music, etc. You are an excellent teacher.
All the Best,
Tom
Shucks, thanks Tom!
It may be because I’ve never had any formal teacher training.
Anway, I try to explan things the way I understand them, so could be that’s it, or maybe we just understand stuff in the same way so my explanation works for you.
Yes, it was. Many Thanks!
Careful with that c) option there Martin… if you want to take the note up to something that would harmonize, this generally means the 3rd, the 5th, or the tonic of the chord that will harmonize with the note you can’t reach (or with the passage in which the note falls) - not the same as a 3rd or the 5th above the note itself.
Say your out-of-reach note is a B below the bell note of your whistle. Your imaginary guitar player (I make him imaginary for Peter’s sake) is likely to be playing a G chord - or maybe an Em chord - or maybe a Bm chord, depending on the tune. (Or conceivably even a E major chord, or B major, or A9, etc. etc. )
The note you choose to harmonize will differ depending. If the chord is G, you’d choose a D or a G to harmonize with your note of B. If the chord is Em, then you’d want an E or a G. For Bm, go for a D or an F#.
So you have to be careful. If the tune is a G-type tune and you choose to up your B a fifth to F#, it may not sound too pretty…
Just a point to add to Steve’s account Martin. Some tunes in D duck down to the C# below the bell note. Now, the chord behind that C# is very likely A major. You could choose to go up to E to harmonise or you could leap further to A.
If the passage is from D to C# and back, I’d almost always choose E because it’s closer to D and involves no jarring leap that the original melody lacked. The less obtrusive the departure the better I think unless you want to substitute some elaborate countermelody.
Fair play to you and StevieJ - I didn’t actually have a whistle in hand to test this out as I wrote (plus my boss may have objected, ahem). When I have the “note too low problem” I just try different options until one sounds right, when practising obviously! I used to do a lot of singing & harmonising (well, the teacher made us) so I can generally feel when the replacement note is right.
…or maybe it’s because I lived in London for three years, 1981 - 1984.
Tom
I thought this was a question of playing the Bb note on a D whistle.
I found a fingering that works on my Burke and Sweettone.
XOXXXX. It’s pretty close. I suppose half holing is better.
It’s the only way I can get the Ahava Rabba scale which I’ve taken a hankering for lately.
Easily the best way to get the Ahava Rabba scale is to buy a whistle specially designed for the purpose from our very own Daniel Bingamon (Jubilee). No cross fingering or half holing required leaving you to get on with the music without worrying about difficult matters of technique.