A wonderful tune called High Road To Linton, that we play a lot in sessions has these three sharps. I am in the process of buying an A whistle but am having difficulty working out how to transpose this tune to play on an a whistle. Any suggestions? What will be the bottom note on the A whistle? I’ve only just learnt how to transpose from D to C.
[ This Message was edited by: selkie on 2002-04-10 15:10 ]
The bottom note on an A whistle will be an A.
This probably won’t be a problem. What may be a problem is how high the tune goes. If it goes above high A (i.e. 2nd octave B or C) you’ll be playing into the 3rd octave on an A whistle.
-Brett
Do NOT buy an A whistle for this tune.
There may be three sharps on the score if the transcriber decided the tune was in A major, but actually it’s not in A major.
If there are any Gs in the tune they should be natural. It’s a highland pipe tune, after all, and highland pipes have no G sharp.
It’s perfectly possible to play a good version of the tune without any Gs at all. Those G-naturals that are there are passing notes, or thrown in for a funky modulation effect.
Most versions of High Road to Linton that I’ve seen have a G natural in the second part and no G# at all. It is best played on a D whistle.
Another nice tune in A that plays like D is High reel. 
Mike
If the group you play with insists on playing this tune in A:
-OR-
Thornton Rose. I like your second comment. What do you mean by 5 half steps? Our version starts C#EEF# A Does this mean I would start on an A? Everybody here in the sessions plays it with the three sharps so I need to fit in with the others obviously.
Selkie, don’t worry about the number of sharps, but about notes that you can’t play on the D whistle. If there is no G# written in the tune, you don’t need an A whistle in order to be able to play a G#.
The Star of County Down for instance is in C, but easily played on a D-whistle because there simply is no F-natural in it.
On 2002-04-10 17:44, Bloomfield wrote:
If there is no G# written in the tune, you don’t need an A whistle in order to be able to play a G#.
What a master of logic you are!
Guy in restaurant: Bring me a coffee without cream.
Waitress: I’m sorry sir, we’re out of cream. I can give you a coffee without milk if you like.
A man comes home all out breath. “I missed the bus,” he tells his wife, “but I ran after it and so I saved the 50 cents fare!”
“Idiot!” replies the wife, “why didn’t you run after a taxi and save 20 dollars?!?”
Oh, and thanks, Steve. :roll:
First, Bloomfield is right on both points. If the tune is in A, but G# does not occur in the tune, just grab your D whistle and go. Also, there is an arrangement of “Star of the County Down” in C with no occurrences of F#, which means it can be played on the D whistle. I have run across some other tunes like this, but there titles escape me right now.
On 2002-04-10 17:07, selkie wrote:
Thornton Rose. I like your second comment. What do you mean by 5 half steps? Our version starts C#EEF# A Does this mean I would start on an A? Everybody here in the sessions plays it with the three sharps so I need to fit in with the others obviously.
A half step is the smallest interval used in western music. There are 12 half steps in an octave (8 notes). The other way to think about it is a half step is the next sharp/flat note, but you have to remember that there is no sharp/flat between B and C and no sharp/flat between E and F. Also, two half steps make a whole step. Here are some examples:
A to A#/B-flat = half step
A to B = whole step
D to D#/E-flat = half step
D to E = whole step
B to C = half step
E to F = half step
Here is a scale with all 12 half steps, starting on C:
C C# D E-flat E F F# G G# A B-flat B C
To transpose your tune from A up to D, bump up each note 5 half steps, like this:
C# E E F# A => F# A A B D
Now, transposing by hand is a lot of work. I put tunes into ABC format then use abc2abc from the abcMIDI package to transpose them.
ABC Home Page
abcMIDI
[ This Message was edited by: ThorntonRose on 2002-04-11 11:15 ]