fingering on Ballybrolly

Whistle
1

Ok, the the first part of Flook’s “Ballybrolly Jigs” is called The North Star, I think. I believe Brian Finnegan plays an Eb whistle. Right in the very first measure (and in subsequent repeats) he does a super fast little triple-tongue maneuver-- you Flook fans know exactly what I’m talking about.

My question is actually about the fingering right there. Try it. (If you don’t have an Eb whistle, just try it on a D.) The only thing I can figure is that he’s half-holing right through the middle of the triple-tongue. Almost like he’s sliding his finger across the hole in sync with his mouth… do you know what I mean? Sorry I can’t describe it better.

Sorry to be so obscure and vague. But I figure some of you have surely been working on this tune already. Just want to know if I’m on the right track…

2

Overton Eb, yes. I think does the triple-tongue across a slide, and it sounds a little different each time. Can’t say more without slowing it down, and it’s not a tune I am working on right now (The Jolly Tinker, Cross the Fence, and The Tempest are first… :wink: ).

Let us know if you figure it out!

3

It’s a B/c/d passage, very standard stuff, except for the addition of the tonguing.

I don’t hear any slide and I’d bet my best Eb whistle that the C-natural is cross-fingered.

Perhaps some of those who swear that half-holing is the only way to play a C-natural would like to demonstrate this passage for us :wink:

4

I see I had applied my usual gutter mind to the thread title. But since it came up, what is a Ballybrolly? Because I want one.

5

I don’t know but Bally was one of the great makers of pinball machines, immortalized in The Who’s ‘Pinball Wizard’.

I thought I was
The Bally table king.
But I just handed
My pinball crown to him.

According to Dictionary.com
brolly

n : (British) colloquial terms for an umbrella [syn: gamp]

So we can see that a Ballybrolly is an umbrella for a pinball machine. I suppose so you can play outside.