I wonder if anyone out there could give me a little guidance to help widen my repertoire a little.
As we all know, there’s enough Irish stuff to keep most of us occupied for a lifetime, but I’m beginning to feel the need to try other styles just to keep things fresh, if you know what I mean.
Am I correct in assuming that the non Irish folk repertoire is suited to the whistle? The thing that springs to my mind here is Morris music, but perhaps there’s other stuff too, such as song music of some kind. Can you recommend any audio or printed material that I could check out?
Is there any older stuff to work from without resorting to strenuous bouts of half-holing, or playing a recorder? I know some of you are cringing at the very thought of THAT option!
I haven’t had time to research these options much, and any guidance you may be able to give could save me from fruitless research, or point me in the right direction at least.
Any ideas, folks??
Best wishes, Adrian
[ This Message was edited by: adriancarrington on 2003-01-24 17:46 ]
Well, take this for what it is, my opinion. Personally, I do not play a lot of Irish tunes on the whistle. Nothing against them, I play a lot of latin music because that is what I’m most familiar with. Music from the Andes in South America that is usually played with pan flutes can be arranged to play with the whistle. Some flute arrangements for latin music could be potential targets as well.
Personally, I play the following tunes by ears on the whistle (Yes, I can read music… I could transcribe them, if I get some time).
“En Mi Viejo San Juan” - Puerto Rico
“Condor Pasa” - Peru
“Tu vives en mi pensamiento” - Puerto Rico
“Guantanamera” - Cuba
The other thing that comes to my mind would be to play baroque period music that is usually played on recorder. Some people might cringe about it, but being that they sound about the same to the untrained ear, I do not think that it would be that far fetched. I have seen some books on the music stores here in the US.
For those purist. I heard once that in Ireland people are using Puertorican cuatros to play Irish music. I am not sure how true it is, but it would not be that far fetched, it sounds like a mandolin with a lower tone. I played cuatro for many years.
But, to make everybody happy, I’m still trying to play Banish Misfortune (jigs are hard, man) for St. Patricks Well, I guess I can always fall back with Guantanamera.
Excellent suggestions from Luis. (Hope to hear from you more often!)
I might suggest Renaissance Dances. You’ll find lots of hits with these 16th century publishers:
You could try old time American music. In some ways this is more like Irish music than Latin music is since it’s a related form of dance music. Here’s a web site that has a bunch of tunes. Also some country rags like Pig Ankle Rag are suitable for whistle. Often they are in C or F so you have to use a different whistle to preserve the original key.
My new fiddle book (Robin Williamson’s “English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh Fiddle Tunes”) has a lot of stuff in it that’s suitable for the whistle that’s not in the stock Irish repertoire, including morris music, country dance music, strathspeys, etc.
A huge number of American folk songs work nicely on the whistle, as do hymns. Right now I’m learning “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” for St. Patrick’s Day .
It’s good practice to try picking out songs you already know by ear. That will build your repertoire faster than just about anything.
I actually play alot of… (prepare to hear the purists faint ) ska! and yes, I know its dead, but a D or C whistle is perfect for playing the horn parts in most songs. I also play along with whatever is playing on the radio (I once got into a really nice groove playing along with “crawling in the dark” by hoobustank, wish I had recorded that) Play along with Irish and Celtic Punk bands (flogging molly, pogues, drop kick murphy)
On 2003-01-24 18:13, thurlowe wrote:
Excellent suggestions from Luis. (Hope to hear from you more often!)
I might suggest Renaissance Dances. You’ll find lots of hits with these 16th century publishers:
I play a lot of folk songs on my whistle: Irish, English, Scottish, American, and some other things that I like. I play some Renaissance French and Italian dance tunes. Renaissance music that doesn’t have a lot of chromatics works well on the whistle. I play some old-time Gospel and some cowboy songs too.
You can find a variety of small tunebooks at this site http://members.aol.com/kitchiegal/
They do cost money but they’re not terribly expensive and they should be whistle friendly since it’s a hammered dulcimer site and the dulcimer plays in the same keys. I found some renaissance tunes at this site. You’ll have to search around a bit. http://www.bcpl.net/~cbladey/guy/html/music.html
(quote)The other thing that comes to my mind would be to play baroque period music that is usually played on recorder.
You can play some baroque recorder music on a whistle, but most of it is too chromatic. Renaissance dance music , as suggested, is a better choice for whistle. One of my very favorite things to play on a whistle is indeed Baroque though-- it’s the opening theme of the Goldberg Variations, also found as an air in the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. On a whistle, it is simply gorgeous.
On 2003-01-24 18:36, SteveK wrote:
You could try old time American music. In some ways this is more like Irish music than Latin music is since it’s a related form of dance music. Here’s a web site that has a bunch of tunes. Also some country rags like Pig Ankle Rag are suitable for whistle. Often they are in C or F so you have to use a different whistle to preserve the original key.
I played around with some of these tunes last night, and some are pretty fun. I especially liked “The Forked Deer”.
Forked Deer is probably my favorite tune. A friend and I recorded it with bouzouki (me) and wooden flute for the first Citterns on Ice project. That’s one of those things where people on a mailing list submit their tunes and then a compilation is made. We put it with Bonaparte’s Retreat. Lots of fun. It used to be available online but I don’t know if it still is.
I checked and it still is. At this site click Citterns on Ice CD and then find COI I. All the submissions are there. There are some good ones but our tunes aren’t all that great. I had only just gotten the bouzouki and we did a home recording job.
Hey, Steve, why aren’t you promoting Canadian tunes? For someone looking for non-Irish reels and jigs, your country has a wealth of awesome tunes: the Dionne Reel, Payne’s Choice, Andy DeJarlis, Jim Hodder’s Reel, etc., etc.
is there free sheet music for the renaissance stuff available on the web or will i have to purchase it?
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Hi French,
There’s lots of free stuff, and many people have taken great care in presenting these old dance manuals on the web. Very fun to explore. Here’s a link to the Playford Dancing Master: http://www.pryanksters.org/playford.html
On 2003-01-25 12:48, colomon wrote:
Hey, Steve, why aren’t you promoting Canadian tunes? For someone looking for non-Irish reels and jigs, your country has a wealth of awesome tunes: the Dionne Reel, Payne’s Choice, Andy DeJarlis, Jim Hodder’s Reel, etc., etc.
I don’t know very many Canadian tunes. I learned to play the banjo a long time ago when I was living in Atlanta. Much later, I got interested in Irish music. I’ve heard the Dionne Reel but apart from that I’ve never heard of the others. Are there online sources for them.
Andy Dejarlis, certainly, is out there. (Dervish called it “Jerry Holland’s”.) Payne’s Choice is on A Crowd of Bold Shareman, Jim Hodder’s is on Snotty Var, both from Newfoundland; I don’t know if either tune is on the 'net.
Coloman-I’ve got to find some time this semester(ha ha) to get down to Ann Arbor and tape some of those excellent Newfie tunes that you know…have you learned the Quebecois tunes off of the “Chauffears la Pied”(the feet driving guys, can’t remember the right French spelling) CD? There are some great tunes on there, but of course, I learned them and I can’t find anybody else who knows them…except for one of the reels(which I can’t remember the name of) that’s a Don Messer tune and a lot of Ontario fiddlers play. Seriously-I’d like to get a tune exchange going prior to Goderich next year.
Just so ya’ll know, and I don’t mean to be critical here, this is just for your information: the tunes that I tried on that link to American Tunes are pleasant enough arrangements of musical notes, but sound NOTHING like the real tunes when played by real honest to goodness mountain old time musicians. I tried Cumberland Gap( I live about 30 minutes from there), and Bonaparte’s retreat and Little Footprints in the Snow.I would not recognized these tunes. I know that traditional music of any kind is hard to pen down on paper and suppose that is the problem here.
Now I’m not knocking them as fun tunes to learn. I suppose it’s just like the tunes I learn from music in Irish tradionaltunes. I check out the written music, but, I also find a recording of someone well known who plays a “real” version. Although true folk music is always evolving so who’s to say what the “real” version is?
The mountain tunes are very playable on whistle. I’d recommend getting a few of these tunes by folks like Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Doc Watson,Uncle Dave Macon, etc. and learn some by ear . Then you’ll know the tune.
On 2003-01-25 19:31, cowtime wrote:
the tunes that I tried on that link to American Tunes are pleasant enough arrangements of musical notes, but sound NOTHING like the real tunes when played by real honest to goodness mountain old time musicians.
I found a lot of the ones that I have tried to be odd too. But that always seems to be the case. I bought a tune book from soneone in Seattle or somewhere on the West Coast. It purported to be mainly an old time book. When I go through tunes I already know they seem to be strange and often incomplete versions. There aren’t nearly as many resources for this music as for Irish. That link is the only one I know of with a large number of tunes. There’s another with MIDIs but no dots.
Another thing is that no matter how “correct” the printed version it’s not going to sound very authentic when played solo on a whistle. It’s hard or impossible to capture the feel of southern fiddle playing on a whistle.
Steve
[ This Message was edited by: SteveK on 2003-01-26 05:46 ]
On 2003-01-25 19:20, janice wrote:
Coloman-I’ve got to find some time this semester(ha ha) to get down to Ann Arbor and tape some of those excellent Newfie tunes that you know…
Great! Looking forward to seeing you sometime.
have you learned the Quebecois tunes off of the “Chauffears la Pied”(the feet driving guys, can’t remember the right French spelling) CD?
I haven’t heard of it. I’ll check with Jen and see if she has it, she’s more into the Quebecois stuff than I am.
By the way, I haven’t forgotten about that Thursday night session at Goderich last year. I’ve got it all on computer now, and about half the work needed to break it up into useful tunes has been done for months. Just a matter of getting back to it and finishing the job.
Seriously-I’d like to get a tune exchange going prior to Goderich next year.
Sounds like a great plan to me. (Though I think I’m actually going to miss the first couple of days this year – at the moment, I’m actually planning on being in Newfoundland the Monday the college starts.)
I heard once that in Ireland people are using Puertorican cuatros to play Irish music. I am not sure how true it is, but it would not be that far fetched, it sounds like a mandolin with a lower tone. I played cuatro for many years.
) ska! and yes, I know its dead, but a D or C whistle is perfect for playing the horn parts in most songs. I also play along with whatever is playing on the radio (I once got into a really nice groove playing along with “crawling in the dark” by hoobustank, wish I had recorded that) Play along with Irish and Celtic Punk bands (flogging molly, pogues, drop kick murphy) 