I challenge you not to succumb to their portentous allure!

Whistle
1

I work at a public library that, a few years ago, gave away thousands of junky little toys whistles as reading incentives (photo below).

I was cleaning out a closet yesterday at work when I found a box with a few dozen leftover ones. I started trying them out, one by one, and all were, indeed, junk except for one, which rings pure and true on my electronic tuner, playing the very non-western scale of Bb, C, Eb, F, F#, Ab, using the fingering below, lowest to highest:

x x x x x h
x x x x o o
x x x o o o

x x o o o o
x x o o o o
x o o o o o

Those of you with pianos or chromatic instruments, play those notes. I challenge you not to succumb to their portentous allure!

2

Wow. I would love to have one of those to use when someone requests “Danny Boy” in a concert. :smiley:

Tom

3

So the idea was to get them interested in reading by turning them off music for the rest of their lives? :astonished:

Regards,

Owen Morgan

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4

Looks like you should play Yankee Doodle on them! :smiley: He he.

5

Is the “h” a half-hole? Why do the 4th and 5th notes have the same fingering? What note comes out with all fingers off?

Isn’t that just A# minor with a missing 3rd?

6

Bb C Eb F F# Ab
x x x x x h
x x x x o o
x x x o o o

x x o o o o
x x o o o o
x o o o o o

Yes, the “h” is a half-hole; and the fingerings are as shown above. The F and F# (4th and 5th) are fingered differently.

Only the fingerings shown above play sweet, pure, spot-on perfect notes and/or sound good together.

I’ve been playing this thing around my library and the staff is amazed…given the less-than-musical reputation of these toys.

7

Real easy to retune that to a pentatonic scale by enlarging the C to C# and covering the F hole. It would play all the black keys.

Mack

8

I see now – I was reading it sideways, not up and down.

9

Here you go, something especially composed for that particular set of notes! (Written at pitch, not trying to fit to the fingering of those thingies.)

And also transposed for easy playing on a standard D instrument if anyone can be bothered!

Suitably horrible?

10

…nah…pretty good, actually, Jem!



B

11

Thanks Boyd! A bit of fun, at any rate. I don’t think I’ll be learning it to trot out at my local sesh!

12

jemtheflute, can you post ABC or midi of the tune here? :slight_smile:

13

Here you go, Bregwas, FWIW! :wink:

T:Portentous and Alluring
M:6/8
L:1/8
C:Jem Hammond 21:10:2007
R:Jig
Z:Jem Hammond 22:10:2007
K:Bbmin
Bce fgf | ecB cec | Bce fga | gfe f2 g/2f/2 | agf agf | eBc cec | Bce faf | gfe c3 :|]
|: ece faf | ~e3 ece | ece agf | eBc fgf | ece faf | eBc ecB | Bce fgf | agf e3 :|]

T:Portentous and Alluring (transposed)
M:6/8
L:1/8
C:Jem Hammond 21:10:2007
R:Jig
Z:Jem Hammond 22:10:2007
K:Emin
EFA BdB | AFE FAF | EFA Bcd | cBA B2 c/B/ | dcB dcB | AEF FAF | EFA BdB | cBA F3 :|]
|: AFA BdB | ~A3 AFA | AFA dcB | AEF BcB | AFA BdB | AEF AFE | EFA BcB | dcB A3 :|]

14

OMFG! That’s really weird! :slight_smile:

15

Traumatize the poor kids for reading…Or their parents, at any rate “No, Billy, you can’t read! We don’t want one of those things ending up in this house!”