CAN AN FEOCHAN IN ( E ) MINOR BE PLAYED ON LOW D

Whistle
1

Hi all,

I have just printed out some sheet music a tune called An Feochan,
its in E minor, would it be better to transpose all the notes into the
key of D, if so does any one know where to find a chart of keys so
that I could go through and change the notes, I prefer to write the
ABC above the original sheets notes as I am trying to learn the notation
by sight

any help greatly appreciated.

Sponge.

2

No transposing needed!

Have a look here: http://www.chiffandfipple.com/whistlekeys.html

Em is the minor key on a D-major-whistle. Even if it’s low D. Just play along the notes.

3

Forgot to say: Have a look at the fingering chart on this above mentioned page (scroll down to the middle).

4

You can’t learn a slow air from sheet music. Sorry, it’s just impossible. Learn the tune by ear. It’s on the album Horse With a Heart by Altan, played on D flute by the late Frankie Kennedy.

5

While I agree with Rob, I think a middle ground may be appropriate: you must listen to the tune.

For one thing, you’ll never “get it” without you hear the air, and for another, if you don’t listen to it, you’ll have missed some of the most beautiful flute playing ever recorded.

Don’t throw the sheet music away, though–use it to make sure you have the notes right.

–James

6

Combine both and it’ll be it.

Study the sheetmusic for knowing which tune to play and listen to the mentioned or any other recordings how to express it.

7

Thanks again to everyone, some good suggestions on using my ear as well as the notation, I have a version of an feochan played by innisfree,
the first part is as my notation but it has different ornamentation after that so I will ue my ear and try and get it, any tips on trying to get a tune by just listening, without burning out the cd player???

thanks sponge :boggle:

8

You need to hear that air played by the late, great Frankie Kennedy. Really. You will not regret it.

As for your question as to how to avoid burning out your CD player, well, if you’ve a computer of your own, rip the CD to MP3 files, then get Audacity, which is free from audacity.sourceforge.net , and use Audacity to open the MP3 of the track. You can control playback speed, pitch, and tempo independently of each other. It’s great for just this kind of learning.

–James

9

Or the easy way (but maybe not as good) is to just rip it down in Windows Media Player and open in the same. In the later versions of the media player you will be able to controll speed.

But really, if it’s a slow air it’s probably very slow from the beginning. Try to just listen to it until you think you have the whole tune in your head. How it sounds when they play it, you should be able to hum it all trough. Then try to play it on the whistle.