I’m buying a low D and want to get another higher whistle from the same maker (Becker PVC), probably an alto G or A. I have a Hi D and will likely pick up a Freeman tweaked Bb Gen at some point.
After D, is Irish, Scottish, and American Traditional music more often written in the key of G or A?
Thanks!
Honestly, after a D whistle, I’d say C is your next key of choice for ITM.
I’d go with the A… You can get C-nat on a D whistle quite easily with cross-fingering, but a lot (well a fair amount) of ITM is written in A, which you can’t get to easily (i.e. half-holing required) from the D whistle. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking with it!
Pat
Scottish and Cape Breton music is a little more likely to contain tunes in A than Irish music is, I believe. Fiddle-strung instruments (fiddle, mandolin) often find it easier to play in A than G. OTOH, Irish music is very G friendly, and is the most welcoming to whistles.
Don’t rule out an E whistle for playing in A!
I have a shaw tenor A that I use for playing in D when I want to have a note or two below the tonic. Being able to play the low Bs in the A-part low, like a fiddle can, instead of up an octave gives King of the Fairies a different feel.
Thanks for all the advice so far. I have another whistle in mind for C a little later on. I’m looking for something quite a bit lower in pitch right now. It sounds like I need both. 
If you are going for “not” session playing, I’d get a low F. They just sound beautiful. Otherwise, if you already have a C in mind, I’d get an A first and G second.
If you had to choose A key…
the key to the highway
For Scottish, A and G might be a toss up – lots of fiddle tunes in both.
But most of those tunes in A go below A the same way that most tunes in G go below G.
True, but if you’re playing in G on a D whistle, you now have three notes below the tonic. On my low A whistle, playing with G fingering puts me in D.
I like all the options a low A and G would provide. Maybe I’ll ditch the low D idea for now and just go for the low A and G. Sounds like I’d be able to play more songs that way, too, since I’d be picking up some different (not D) but useful keys.
Thanks everyone!
I don’t know, but I would suspect there is a sound reason for the earlier manufacturers to offer C and D sets before the proliferation of whistles in every key. At one time, C and D were about the only whistles you could easily get.
Put another way, with an A tenor, you have all the notes on the top two strings of a fiddle, which is where an awful lot of tunes abide.
i’m new at this, but i’m looking at the same thing… american music is in c; if you ever play with musicians who aren’t playing folk music (like me 
they look at you weird if you try to play in another key… a lot of the sheet music i have for Scottish songs is in g.
but the main thing is the sharps and naturals… if you’re trying to play with other musicians and just transposing the fingerings, it doesn’t seem to work very well (for me), because the sharps and naturals will all be off. i was trying to play “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” with someone playing a harmonium (little piano they use in yoga studios) pitched in the key of c, but it didn’t work out so well… someone pointed out to me that they were starting on a c; the fingering i learned (for a d whistle) started off on an e (5 fingers down). so i switched to the c whistle. now i’m starting on a d. okay, one more, got it! picked up the Bb whistle, now i’m starting on a c with the same fingering, so i can use the same fingering i learned for playing the song on a d whistle.
the only problem is, the Bb whistle has 2 flats… so i sound off-pitch 1 note out of every 3 to the singer… argh. i tried half-holing, but it’s really hard to do that many (half-hole once every 3 notes!) so i’m reviewing my options…
one of which is to buy the g whistle; it would give me space to play the c scale and i’d only half to half-hole the one sharp (F) to stay in tune; the downside (beside still having to half-hole) is that i’d have to re-learn to finger the song. i’m not so worried about that though…
the other option i’m thinking is to just play the song on my c whistle. i’d have to move the fingering i learned down by one (not so hard) and i wouldn’t have to half-hole anything (no sharps or flats on a c whistle)… but to play the song that way, i need to be able to go down to a d so i’d have to move the whole song up an octave. i tried it today, hitting the 3rd octave e didn’t break any windows, but it’s pretty intense.
anyway, the point is, unless you want to play a song with 3 sharps, i’d probably avoid the a whistle… although if you playing a d major song (2 sharps) what’s the difference between half-holing one sharp down on the a whistle or half-holing one sharp up with the g whistle (only F#)?
unless you like Scottish songs written in g anyway, or want to play american songs in c (you’d only have to half-hole down the one sharp, instead of 3 for the a whistle).
good luck and happy whistle buying! (what’s all this nonsense about choosing anyway, get them all! hah hah hah!
So you have three notes below the tonic that most tunes played in D don’t use and no notes below A that tunes played in A often do use. Like a fiddle with only the top two strings. And for most dance tunes in D you need to push into the third octave.
I really like my Dixon A whistle, the hole spacing is no greater than a Generation Bb. But for playing tunes in the key that they are ‘normally’ played in its main use is fiddle tunes in D that use the bottom string. Most tunes in A fit better on an E whistle.
Plunk down the cash and get them all! WhOA!
WhOA indeed! I’m trying to avoid that, but we’ll see how it goes.