Cathal McConnell, of Boys of the Lough fame, has for many years now played a solo piece in his concerts using two whistles at once. The effect is stunning to see and hear live! My question is how on earth does he do it?
I have been seated too far back from him to see the whistles clearly, but it seems to me that he has to tape some of the holes on each to make it come off right. Perhaps its the top three on the right hand and the bottom three on the left?
Anyone ever had a chance to talk to him about this, or seen it close enough to dispell some of the mystery?
As you can see, Cathal plays left-handed. So he tapes up the top three holes of the left whistle and keeps his left three whistle fingers on the bottom three holes of the left whistle. He plays the top three holes of the right whistle. (If he were right-handed, it would all be the other way around). He plays the meoldy of the tune wherever it falls (whichever hand covers that note, and with the other hand, he makes sure to switch to a note that harmonizes with the melody, so as not to clash. He learned it from Bill Ochs.
This is a now standard saxophone party trick and isn’t particularly difficult once you get the hang of it. The great Roland Kirk could play three saxophones at once and continued to do so after he lost the use of one hand following a stroke. I have no idea how he managed that but saw it in concert shortly before his death.
There are several ways of doing it. One would be to tape over the top holes of one whistle enabling one to play a full scale by playing D, E and F# and G on the taped whistle and G, A, B and C# on the other. That takes care of melody. Harmony notes are chosen from the notes available on the whistle not currently playing melody. A suitable choice will always be available. (I’m assuming that you are using two D whistles, but the trick only requires that you use whistles of the same pitch.)
Another way would be to play two whistles in the same key and play top (left hand) notes only on both without taping. This would be a severely limited way of approaching it but I guess that this is how the English sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith pulls off the trick as he uses tenor and soprano saxes, both of which are Bb instruments pitched an octave apart.
Roland Kirk used a number of tricks but I think the main one was to play left hand notes only on both saxes but to pick saxes pitched about a fifth apart. This would allow the playing of a full scale and would not require taping which is an advantage as it allows the player to abandon either one of the instruments at any point in teh tune and to continue playing normally on the other. This would be my preferred way of employing the trick on whistle. I’d use perhaps a high D and A whistle which would work well. If you really want to have the audience gasping, throw in another A or D as a drone but from time to time change the whistle you’re droning on if you feel like it.
I have no idea which of these techniques Cathal McConnell uses but now you know the options you might be able to work it out just by watching his fingers.
Having just seen Jessie’s post with pic, I see that he’s using the second method, as she correctly pointed out. I still think the third method would be better but, it’s really only a party trick so it doesn’t much matter.
No, Wombat, Cathal uses the first method (one whistle taped at the top, that whistle played on the bottom three notes, and the other whistle plahyed on the top three notes).
In his Homespun Tapes whistle tutor, Cathal says he tapes the bottom two holes of the upper-hand whistle. Or maybe that’s what I thought he said, way back when I was learning to play. Anyway, that’s how I did it, and it works a little better IMHO because it gives you a choice of droning on G or D. The downside is you have to adjust to using your upper-hand pinky to play the bottom D.
I’ve seen John Williams, who is also coincidentally left-handed, do this double whistling also. He did it during a show with Tim O’Brien and The Crossing, on a song called A Mountaineer is Always Free. On the CD (The Crossing) Seamus Egan plays low whistles in harmony, and without another whistler on stage, John’s approach was the only way to get that nice doubled up sound. I mention that just to say it wasn’t a show-offy trick, though it was a lot of fun to see. He taped the whistles together and taped some holes, too. It sounded great!
I figured tape was involved somewhere…just curious to know which holes I guess. The three top on the bottom handed whistle I can see, but the top handed whistle… I suppose taping the two bottom holes would make the most sense. I’ll just have to try it I guess.
A guy named David Brewer also plays two whistles at once quite well. He plays for Isle of Light ( http://www.isle-of-light.com/ ). It’s on the newest album “Winter’s Welcome”. Unfortunately, they don’t have an MP3 for the tune that he plays it on. You’ll just have to trust me that it is well done.
Whether or not you use tape depends entirely on which whistles you choose and which harmonies you are looking for. With some choices you might even choose to tape over half a hole. It’s something you need to figure out on a song by song basis.
I haven’t tried that one; I should give it a shot. I have played around with a couple of combos: holes for thumbs, two playable bodies, one fully playable body, one with only the bottom three holes.
I suppose taping the two bottom holes would make the most sense. I’ll just have to try it I guess.