Hi guys, I am getting back into whistling and flute playing after a few years of very patchy practice. I decided that an important thing was to learn some new tunes (at least two a week), and I have decided to try and learn them from tapes and CDs. For me this is, although more time consuming, preferable to learning from notation. Although I don’t want a debate on that if possible.
The problem I am having is that I am playing with my whistles along with Uilleann pipe recordings or low whistle recordings that are seemingly in the same key, but I am finding myself out of tune. Is this a common problem with whistles which have no tuning slide? I played my Colin Goldie low F Whistle along with a tape recording of a low F Whistle and it was way out.
One other problem is that even when the pitch is right, I find when I am playing along to, for example, a slow fiddle tune on my whistle, that when I start adding ornaments (while the fiddle recording is playing the plain notes) it starts to sound horrible. Now my ornaments are fairly good, but it seems that when the music is slow, both instruments should be playing the same notes, rather than one playing the notes and the other adding ornaments. Is this correct
Without hearing your playing it’s tough to say too much but it could be an issue of intonation.
As for the ornaments, you can put ornaments on top of the straight notes as long as it’s done properly. You need to match the pulse and rhythm that the other instrument is playing.
It is quite common as so much depends on the speed of the recording and the sped of your cd player - a bit fast and you will be flatter than the recording, a bit slow and you will be a bit sharper than the recording. So turn a deaf ear to the miserable pitch mismatch and don’t book in to Carnegie Hall
Hup, I had considered that with regards to the tapes although I thought the CD would be more accurate.
Straycat. I take it by intonation you mean that the fiddle could be a different tuning. I don’t see how I can adjust the tuning of a low whistle, and the low whistle I was trying to play along to didn’t have a tuning slide when the recording was made as far as I know. Maybe Hup has a point regarding the recording quality or speed.
I am aware I can add rolls on top of straight notes, but my question is specifically when playing slow tunes along with another instrument, can it present a clash for one to be playing the basic notes, and the other to be addng rolls.
Not necessarily a clash but rather applying different ideas to get the same results. Adding to the music (regardless of it being a recording) at times can be a challenge but only in terms of how it’s being approached.
Here are a few things to consider:
1- Although it’s clearly an F whistle on the recording (tunable or not) their are various F whistles on the market. Some are quite soft compared to an Overton brand.
2- Some musicians including myself have recorded with a whistle that was OUT of tune (the whistle was great sounding and had to be used knowing it was out of tune). Other players simply tuned to my low whistle. This is NOT uncommon. If the whistle is that great it can still be used even though slightly off.
3- Pulling out the slide if tunable of course changes things a bit but not for the worse. You should still be able to play along even with a tunable whistle. There are so many like yourself that play with non-tunable instruments. Infact, I prefer non-tunable whistles because they seem to clog so much less. However, it’s a personal choice to many.
4- Try blowing the whistle into tune. Are you blowing hard enough? Some players are amazing with breath control!!
5- Try putting on ear phones. For example: I learned by hearing myself playing along with the CD with just one ear phone on my ear. The other OFF. This always allowed me to hear what I sounded like and I could also hear the CD quite well. Improvisations worked nicely with this idea. Try it.
Funny enough I always use the one ear in method with headphones.
I agree with all your other helpful points, and have tried blowing harder into the whistle. I may be guillty of not playing the whistle until it is really warmed up, but I am not sure that would even matter since it is so far out of tune with the tape.
You may have to look for a tunable whistle. Grab your CDs and whistle and jump on the tube and go to the friendly folk at Hobgoblin and they’ll sort you out even if you just browse their whistles. Excellent shop with good musicians and some nice whistles to buy.
