I recently entered the wonderful world of whistles last week when I bought my first whistle, a ‘D’ Feadóg. I am now in love with them and looking at a couple Clarke’s and Susato’s for purchase over the next couple months. Now, I’m a flute player so I’m used to its chromatic-ness and the whole diatonic thing of the whistle confounds me at times…I don’t like not being able to play notes :C I know there are ways to half-hole and cross-finger some accidentals depending on what key your whistle is in.
I have a ton of flute music in keys like Ab and Db that would sound fantastic on a whistle but I don’t think there are whistles made in those keys. What would I do about songs like that…you think I should just transpose them to a key usually found in whistles? Is there a particular key of whistle where something like cross-fingering would be possible for ‘odd’ keys? Are there any whistles in those keys?
You could buy custom made whistles in G# and C# to play your Ab and Db music in the correct key. Or you content yourself and play the music transposed on your D whistle, by pretending you play a Db/C# or a Ab/G# whistle. If you find it difficult to read the music for the whistle in those keys you may need to transpose the scores into more D-whistle friendly keys like D and G.
Of course Hans is correct. And there are a other options to think about as well.
First, whistle makers like Mike Burke make whistles in all the keys and in various materials. Order them from his website: http://www.burkewhistles.com/ There are other makers that do the same. I carry a set of about 16 whistles (they happen to be mostly Burkes) with me when I do accompaniment to cover what ever might come up. I had to make a low F# whistle for a recording session recently - it happens.
A couple of makers will make a whistle head for a either a piccolo or flute body. That way you have the fingerings you are familiar with but it will have more of a whistle sound. But you don’t play it in the transverse position. David O’brien comes to mind for the piccolo - http://www.obrienwhistles.com/OBPWwhisolo.html
And Daniel Bingamon comes to mind for the flute: http://www.bingamon.com/jubilee/pagesmith/26
Also, you did not mention how much of the music you play is written for a diatonic major scale or another type of scale. There are particular whistles made for some of the more “exotic” scales. A fellow named Hans makes something he calls a Gypsy whistle : http://music.bracker.co/Whistles/Gypsy_Whistles
That’s just one such example.
Cross fingering of accidentals is done on the whistle for those occasions when you need the F nat not the F#, and so on. You should accquaint yourself with how to play those notes. Here’s a fingering chart (that I seem to link to every day now).
Unless you are playing with other instruments, the key of most music is relative. Mostly players just transpose as Hans has indicated.
Of course you could always buy the poor second cousin to the whistle - a recorder.
Transposing seems to be the best option, just wanted to see what others thought. I’ll play around with things…experimenting is half the fun of playing anything.
Someday I might consider investing in a custom because there are a few keys that I just love and are my go-to when I’m looking for something to play.
I play whatever the music in front of me says (so, whatever the song my wind ensemble director hands me is in, I play). Personally, Eb major, D major and F major have owned my soul for many years and I’m always happy to play anything in them.
Oh recorders…I think I still have one lurking about from elementary school.
All this reminds me that I really need to get back into studying music and theory again…haven’t done anything in years and sometimes, makes me feel a tad clueless.
My point about Mike Burke making whistles in all keys was less about Burke whistles and more about the fact that you don’t need to resort to custom whistles to play many keys. There are a lot of off-the-shelf whistles available in a lot of keys. For instance you mentioned Susato who also happen make whistles in every key too.
The best place to start diversifying the keys you own is to get a set of Generation whistles. They are made in Eb, D, C, Bb as well as in high F and G. Those last two are quite small, high pitched and perhaps not as useful as the others.
The Eb whistle will play easily in Eb and Ab as well as the relative minor scales of those keys, Cm and Fm.
The D whistle plays in D and G as has been said, as well as Bm and Em.
The C whistle plays C and F with Am and Dm
The Bb whistle will give you Bb, Eb, Gm and Cm.
That’s a lot of keys, including most of those you mentioned. Best part is that the Gens are not at all expensive and readily available(and I do realize all things are relative).
Nah, don’t study too hard. It’s a whistle! Just play, play and play some more. Have fun on your journey.
