My usual session ‘kit’ is a keyless D flute, and an O’Brien ‘Rover’ set of D/C whistles. The ‘C’ seldom sees use there unless someone happens to be singing in C (or F), and I feel like adding some color.
Never the brightest crayon in the box, I’ve been sitting out tunes like ‘Julia Delaney’s’ because I didn’t think I could play in Dm without keys. Of course, that sits fine on the C whistle using Em fingerings. Duh.
What other tunes should I be dragging out the ‘C’ for? What other whistles do people bring to sessions?
Good question, CT. A D/C whistle pair are standard kit for me, too. C whistle for the DDor/Dm tunes (Porthole of the Kelp, Road to the Glen), as you say. Also GDor (Paddy Fahy’s, Eileen Curran), CMaj (Graf Spey, Old Road to Garry), maybe a few Am and F.
Searching ABCs (Norbeck, e.g.) for those keys/modes may turn up a surprising number of tunes that you already know, and that are just waiting for your C whistle to wail on them.
FYI, MTGuru, Ed Reavy actually called it the Lane to the Glen. I’d hate to find out that the Glen Fiddler now has a thoroughfare to his house… Also, I never understood how playing that one on a C instrument would be easier. It has some nice C#s (low and high) in it that you either have to ignore, or halfhole the hardest note on the whistle…
Ah well.
Julia Delaney’s is actually one that wouldn’t be hard to do on a D whistle, either, and it’s good practice at the halfholing.
Right, I knew that. I’m just doing my part to contribute to the folk mangling process. We don’t have no steenkin’ lanes in California. Eight-lane Freeway to the Glendale Galleria, maybe.
I never understood how playing that one on a C instrument would be easier.
Hm, are we thinking of the same setting? Mine is very close to the “Frisbee” setting you posted on The Session. And with Bb and lots of F-nats, and the range down to C, it more or less calls for a C whistle. I learned it from fiddler Bella Issakova, and the flow was always better when I switched to C.
But yes, I agree that DDor and GDor tunes shouldn’t necessarily sideline you on D whistle. If you can’t be with the whistle you want, love the whistle you’re with …
Well that setting is reasonably close to how I play it, which is more or less what’s in the book, with a couple little twists as I feel like it. But, that version has the C#s I’m talking about… And no Bbs, which I don’t play either.
There might be no sense in struggling in public, but there’s plenty of sense in struggling in private.
I have some questions revolving around sets: Do you choose to play only a set of tunes that can be played on C whistle? Do you not bother to start any sets of your own, and just switch whistles when the leaders go on to a tune that you can’t play on the D whistle? If the last is true, do you typically just “follow along” with the leader or leaders on tunes? Or do you actively contribute to the musical conversation?
One of my current favourite sets is a Gm(ish) reel into a Gmajor reel… besides being completely unplayable without keys (in my opinion) it would also totally preempt the fun of the set if I had to switch between whistles(or instruments) in between. There are quite a few sets I play with tunes that have one or two notes needing to be halfholed (on whistle or pipes) and I can’t see how they’d be nearly as fun if I had to switch. Julia Delaney is one of those tunes that would be good practice to develop your fnat halfholing skills.
Well, people do play the variant |dcAG FEDF|EDCE FEFA|*. But there’s no reason one note out of range (or many, for that matter) need automatically send you to a different whistle. There are so many perfectly normal ways of dealing with that.
(* This is like fearfoin’s setting)
Depends entirely on context, really. In the sessions I play, instrument switching in sets is dirt common, so changing whistles in mid-set doesn’t even raise an eyebrow. If I’m leading an entire set on whistle, I’m not going to pick C whistle tunes. But more commonly, sessions sets here are unplanned and round-robin, with someone else often picking up the next tune. And if it’s a fiddler or fluter who happens to pick a D-unfriendly tune that entails a whistle switch, it’s no big deal.
I’m pretty comfortable on whistle playing the major keys up to 4 sharps and 2 flats: Bb, F, C, G, D, A, E (major) and related modes. And I can play fully chromatic scales up and down the whistle. So that gives a lot of flexibility, and often makes switching whistles as much a matter of artistic choice as necessity. And I agree it’s a skill worth working on.
Jolly set of Angus Fitchet jigs that fit the C whistle:
Harry C Ogilvie
Elizabeth Adair
Princess Margaret’s Jig
and I think the jolliest jig of all time: Christian Catto goes on the C
Found myself using the C whistle last night when the session played 100 Pipers in G, and I know it in A on the D whistle, so it was easiest to swap whistles and stick with the fingering I knew.
I use my C whistle on Coleraine Jig (A-min). I still half-hole the accidental G#s (fingered as b flat). On either whistle there will be a need for half-holing…but I find it easier on the C whistle.
Tuttle’s Reel sets well on a C whistle also.
And to answer a question that wasn’t really directed at me. I probably wouldn’t lead a set where I need to change whistles for the second tune, but if I wanted to it would be fairly easy to let the rest of the group play the last measure of Brenda Stubbert’s while I pulled out the C for Julia Delaney’s and Tuttle’s. (That transition would probably not make it onto the CD, but neither would any of our other sets.) Being adept at chromatic scales is a wonderful skill. But I don’t think you need to be able to do that before you can contribute to the musical conversation.
I find I get a lot more use out of my E whistle at sessions than my C whistle – and feel perfectly comfortable going to sessions with just D instruments. (Of course, part of that is simply not minding sitting out occasionally!)
Thanks for the responses, which I’m just getting to.
To answer NicoMoreno: No, as stated earlier (or elsewhere) I’m usually happy to sit out tunes that I’m not proficient at, and go home to learn them. I usually stick to the D instruments, except when backing singers or the like. Or, often, I’ll play mandolin, which I’m somewhat stronger with. Your advice to work with the half-holing on tunes like this is good, and I am following it — just not in session so much.
As a relatively new session player (about six years) I consider myself to be very much in the early learning phase, and I’m taking the slow, scenic route. This advice is all helpful and welcome.
As a recorder player, whistler and flautist amongst other things, I’ve got to disagree! Think it depends on the recorder and what you do with it but, with the right recorder and style (something between standard recorder and whistle techniques), it can be very effective… think Marc Duff in early Capercaillie and (acknowledging the mix of Scottish, Irish and other repertoire there) you’ll maybe get my drift?
I guess I really have to agree with Nico on this one, Peter (and welcome, BTW ). It’s mainly the tone, not an issue of technique, IMO. Short version: It depends on if you want a “canonical” sound, or are exploring new ground. The latter would be a matter of running it up the flagpole and seeing who salutes (basically a performance gambit), but the former would be a non-starter in the realm of the Pure Drop. So keeping those realms - and one’s goals - unconfused is essential for starters, I’m convinced. Would recorder become a canonical ITM instrument among Pure Drop cognoscenti ever in the future? Partly for historical reasons alone, I hesitate to ever think so. But mostly, if ITM’s all you’ve ever studied, somehow recorder just doesn’t fit. Really, it’s a tone thing. Like flugelhorn or marimba. What you would have is at best a guest, but not family.
Lest I be accused of being witlessly parochial and blinkered, let me point out that a bit to my surprise I’m lately working in a Scottish project. All of a sudden I am having to rework what I do and how I think: I’ll catch myself playing “Irishly”, and I know it when I do because that’s just what it sounds like: Irish. It’s nice and it doesn’t necessarily suck, but it ain’t Scottish. The difference is sometimes way subtle, but it’s real enough to me, at least. At certain levels, sound does count. If we’re pushing envelopes, sound may count for less. In any case, knowing what we’re after - and why - counts a lot. But, that’s just my opinion.
And then there’s the separate issue of the session and whatever that means at any given place and time. Of course it will depend on the session if session-playing is the whole point of your assertion. In that case it just depends on how easygoing people are and what they consider a “fit”.
). It’s mainly the tone, not an issue of technique, IMO. Short version: It depends on if you want a “canonical” sound, or are exploring new ground. The latter would be a matter of running it up the flagpole and seeing who salutes (basically a performance gambit), but the former would be a non-starter in the realm of the Pure Drop. So keeping those realms - and one’s goals - unconfused is essential for starters, I’m convinced. Would recorder become a canonical ITM instrument among Pure Drop cognoscenti ever in the future? Partly for historical reasons alone, I hesitate to ever think so. But mostly, if ITM’s all you’ve ever studied, somehow recorder just doesn’t fit. Really, it’s a tone thing. Like flugelhorn or marimba. What you would have is at best a guest, but not family.