I received Burke’s AlPro Low G whistle yesterday. It is a wonderful whistle with beautiful sound and appearance. I like to play Chinese folk music and romantic popular songs; majority of those songs is C Key. Use Low G whistle to play C tune is perfect for those Chinese songs. I am still at the warm up stage to learn how to play the Low G whistle. Low G whistle needs more air than high D whistle, I am learning to adjust my breath when play Low G whistle.
Everyone has his/him opinion about inexpensive and expensive whistles. I have some inexpensive whistles and Mr. Burke’s Al Pro D and Al Pro Low G whistles. My experience taught me that good craftsmanship’s whistles do make difference, they do have much better performance. I appreciate the inexpensive Sweetone whistle brought me into the whistle world, but it is Burke’s whistle made me to love and enjoy playing. Today, I sent an e-mail to Mr. Burke and wrote, “Thank you very much for those wonderful whistles you made for me and all the whistlers.”
On 2002-06-09 14:42, KCJiang wrote:
I received Burke’s AlPro Low G whistle yesterday. It is a wonderful whistle with beautiful sound and appearance. I like to play Chinese folk music and romantic popular songs; majority of those songs is C Key. Use Low G whistle to play C tune is perfect for those Chinese songs.
KC, does the Irish whistle lend itself well to Chinese folk music? Is it common to use them in that genre?
Hi! Hawk
I haven’t seen any Chinese musician publicly using tin whistle playing Chinese folk music. The closed Chinese music instrument to tin whistle is vertical bamboo flute. Tin whistle hasn’t been played by Chinese musician is simply because they haven’t had chance to know this western music instrument. I enjoy Irish music for many, many years. My favorite type of Irish music is “slow air”, because the melody of Irish “slow air” (Danny Boy, Sally Garden, etc.) is close to most Chinese folk music and popular romantic music, they are full of passion and feeling. I started to play Irish slow air using the high D whistle then tried to play Chinese folk music. The melody is very nice to use D whistle (G major) playing Chinese folk music, however, some high pitch on D is too sharp for Chinese music. A lot of Chinese music is C key. The Low G whistle can play C major. I played several Chinese folk songs using C major on Low G whistle since yesterday. My personally opinion is that the Low G (C major) (or whistles with other keys) is a very, very good instrument to play Chinese folk music, specially, it can easily express the passion and feeling of the Chinese music through the haunting effect of the whistle.
Well, KC, now you have me wanting to hear some of this haunting Chinese folk music. I’m glad you joined our Chiffboard here. You bring a whole new side of the music with you, my friend.
Hi! Hawk
Thanks. We both live in the SF bay area, someday when I will be ready to play Chinese music using tin whistle in front of public. I will be glad to let you know and to introduce to you those beautiful Chinese songs played by tin whistle.
Hello KC,
I would also love to hear one of your Chinese “airs”. It would be great if you could up-load one to “Snips and Clips”
Doc
On 2002-06-09 20:43, KCJiang wrote:
Hi! Hawk
Thanks. We both live in the SF bay area, someday when I will be ready to play Chinese music using tin whistle in front of public. I will be glad to let you know and to introduce to you those beautiful Chinese songs played by tin whistle.
****Hi KC! I’ll be looking forward to that day, KC.
[ This Message was edited by: blackhawk on 2002-06-09 22:40 ]
On 2002-06-09 21:31, Doc Jones wrote:
Hello KC,
I would also love to hear one of your Chinese “airs”. It would be great if you could up-load one to “Snips and Clips”
Doc
Hi! Doc
Thanks. I would like to up-load Chinese “air” to “Snips and Clips”. Do you know what kind of software and hardware I need to load the music to “Snips and Clips”?
KC
Check out the new Chieftans CD “The Wide World Over”. It has a Chinese orchestra playing a Chinese song with them. It’s really good. I borrowed the CD from a friend and have given it back or I’d look up the tune for you.
On 2002-06-10 15:14, KCJiang wrote:
Thanks. I would like to up-load Chinese “air” to “Snips and Clips”. Do you know what kind of software and hardware I need to load the music to “Snips and Clips”?
KC
All you need is a computer, a microphone, and some simple audio editing software that can save your recording as an MP3. Audacity is open-source (FREE) software that is really good and is easy to use (if you use Audacity make sure you get the LAME MP3 encoder which is also free). Save you file as an MP3 and submit it.
I’d love to hear some Chinese tunes played on a whistle!
Hi! Gary
Thank you for the information. I am going to set up the software and buy a microphone. I hope it will work for my computer and I can load up the music.
KC