I am new here and new to whistling…I am learning so much here…I am wondering if there is some kind of gossary..as I work my way through the posts, I have come across a few terms that are new to me…
intonation?
bell note?
thin-bore? (could be my accountant, but I think not)
piper grip
session
whOA?
Just dig around Chiff & Fipple, it’s all in there somewhere.
Hello Lizzie,
WhOA= Whistle Obsessive Aquisition Disorder
intonation=being in tune (i’m pretty sure…)
bell note= the note that comes out when you have all fingers down…on a “d” whistle it’s a d, on an “a” whistle it’s an a, on a “Bb” whistle it’s a Bb, etc.
piper grip= the grip most people use on the low whistle…it includes having your top two fingers covering the holes with the second pad and covering the third hole with the first pad (on the both the right and the left hand). Personally, I use the second pad on all of the fingers (just on the low whistle…i use the first pad on high whistle) of course…i didn’t have a teacher to show me how to do it correctly…not to mention i’m a kid which means i probably have smaller hands than most people that would be playing the low whistle)
session= it’s a jam (just in case you don’t know what that is i’ll tell you in even more detail) it’s when people get together and play music! it could be any number…from a few to a hundred!(i wish i could attend a jam with 100 musicians!)
thin bore= i myself don’t really know what this is…so i’ll learn something from this thread also!
hope this was at least a little bit helpful…if anybody feels that my explanations aren’t on go ahead and post the correct one. bye!
Brent
thin bore: a smaller diameter of the whistle barrel.
Most whistle makers use a larger diameter (bore) for lower whistles. However, some, expecially higher-end makers (Michael Burke comes to mind) offer narrow-bore and wide-bore whistles in the same key. The narrower bore is quieter, and most beginners find them easier to play, especially in the lower keys. Most experienced players find the wider bore more satisfying.
Charlie
My feeling for the word ‘intonation’ isn’t so much being in tune, but the quality of the tone itself, the difference between a thin, reedy quality, a ‘well rounded’ sound, chiffiness, flutiness, etc.
This word and it’s descriptives are pretty subjective, like trying to describe wine notes, but without the long history and agreement on terms.
I might add that ‘session’ is generally used in reference to Irish session music, and can sport some pretty bizarre spellings (a la seisiun). If I’m correct, ceili is more in reference to Scottish dance music. What a feis is, though, I’m not certain.
Tyghress
…And I go on, pursuing through the hours,
Another tiger, the one not found in verse.
Jorge Luis Borges
[ This Message was edited by: tyghress on 2001-10-23 10:54 ]
“My feeling for the word ‘intonation’ isn’t so much being in tune, but the quality of the tone itself, the difference between a thin, reedy quality, a ‘well rounded’ sound, chiffiness, flutiness, etc.”
Uh… well you see, I too am disadvantaged since I am a non-musician. I can imagine a thin reedy quality and well rounded but…
chiffiness makes my head spin.
Flutiness I guess refers to flute like qualities.
I love it when answers prompt more questions. It’s and adventure and a constant state of discovery!
On 2001-10-23 10:51, tyghress wrote:
My feeling for the word ‘intonation’ isn’t so much being in tune, but the quality of the tone itself…
The word intonation (in reference to music, rather than speech) means being in tune. That’s how most people use it, anyway - check with a dictionary. A good word for what you describe is “timbre”.
As for ceili, this spelling is Irish. The Scots haven’t reformed their orthography and they write the word in the old way, as “ceilidh”. As I understand it the word means a gathering, originally an informal evening in someone’s house with music, dance, song, stories, etc. Nowadays it tends to be used to mean an organized dance. Hence “ceili band” - plenty of those in Ireland.
There are other interpretations, but my sense of the meaning of “chiff” is that it refers to the rustling sounds an instrument may make in addition to the tone of the note. They may be particularly audible as the note is begun, and are therefore part of the attack. Some whistles are chiffier than others, and I expect some players are as well. 
A session for me takes place in a pub (or a Bar when in Ireland) or someone’s house, and for my money has to be with unpaid musicians, i.e. playing for the pure pleasure of it, not the money, or it becomes a performance. I’ve attended “sessions” in Dublin & Galway with paid musicians, and they don’t have the same feel at all.
Sessions may include singing (you can get singing only sessions too), and story telling, but not usually dancing. Also, and perhaps most important, sessions encourage participation from anyone, whatever their ability, if they want to contribute.
I’m still plucking up the courage to play anything (on whistle, mandolin or guitar)in a session, but I have sung once or twice & not been thrown out.
I think it is great that one can ask a question and get much more in response than bargained for…how helpful you all are!
Hey,
I think a glossary of musical terms would be great. We can’t go around thinking that intonation means anything other than what it means: playing in tune. I do like StevieJ’s reply to the general sound of the tone as timbre (like in a forest, TIMBER!!!, or tamber, however you want to pronounce it), which, according to the Harvard Dictionary of Music, means, “tone color”. There’s also another word to describe tone quality, and that word is sonority. (Generally referring to loudness, it rhymes with Sorority.) But the word chiff must be beneath the Harvard Dictionary, since it doesn’t even show it at all, but neither does my unabridged dictionary. I do have a book on organ stops (great bedtime reading, but we recently moved, and it is still boxed up), and once I find that book, and if it has a good definition of chiff, which I think means the nonharmonic tones at the onset of a tone, you’ll be the first to hear about it! JP
[ This Message was edited by: JohnPalmer on 2001-10-24 02:00 ]