Fellas, I asked this before, maybe someone knows now. The Corrs play a beautiful wee tune called lough erin’s shore, very fine whistle playing, does anyone know what whistelkey they’re (I think Andrea) are playing in, it would “work” on a soprano d if the d would go a little bit lower, and it definately does not sound like a low D, what else could be used in between?
Thanks alot, Amar.
Just a note to say that Cathal McConnell
also covers that song on Long Expected
Comes at Last. Playable.
Try to report later about
the key. Jim
thanks for the tip jim
Amar, try playing it on an A whistle, but in the 'G’position. This is what I do for Ashokan Farewell.
tyghress, I’ll try that, I’ve got an indian bamboo whistle in A, not too great, but the only A I’ve got, I’ll try, cheers.
I almost forgot, I’m really sorry about your leg, hope it doesn’t hurt too much anymore.cheers.
[ This Message was edited by: amar on 2002-03-18 15:05 ]
On 2002-03-18 14:54, tyghress wrote:
Amar, try playing it on an A whistle, but in the 'G’position. This is what I do for Ashokan Farewell.
Wow. No matter how many helpful websites people point me towards for help understanding different keys, I can still do no better than to follow Peter’s suggestion to “just pick up the whistle and play” (and I’m paraphrasing him here, sorry Peter).
Tyghress, first off I was very sorry to hear about your accident. And second, in the interest of my continuing quest to grasp the whole “different whistles, different keys” mystery, could you explain a bit more what you mean by “playing it on an A whistle, but in the 'G’position”?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks for the well wishes. . .what I mean by picking up an A whistle and playing in G position. . .(I’m sure there is a better phrase, but I can’t think of it. . .the blessings of Percocet)
If I’m playing Mary Had a Little Lamb on D in the key of D, I start with 4 holes covered, F#, go to holes covered (E) then six holes covered (D).
But I can play in the key of G easily on a D whistle. The same three notes would be B, A, G (one hole, two holes and three holes covered). I could do key of A also, but I’m not going to go there today.
Now, lets take the same tune, but on an A whistle. If I finger 4,5,6 holes, then I’m playing the tune in A…JUST THE SAME AS IF IT WERE A D WHISTLE PLAYING IN D. Now if I finger it as if I was playing in the key of G (covering one two and three holes), it will play actually in the key of D.
I don’t know if its possible to move this particular tune, Lough Erin’s Shores, higher on the whistle (if it doesn’t go about a high high D as written, I would try it), but Ashokan Farewell plays FAR better in this second key. If I try to play IN D ON D, I lose some of the lovely low notes of the tune. So I play it higher, and can reach from the soulful bottom of the tune up into the sweet high notes. One problem is that I’m now playing it in the key of G if I’m on my regular D whistle. And as nice as that may be, ALL THE REST OF THE MUSICIANS are still going to play in D, whether or not I like it.
What am I to do? Either sit out the tune (and I adore this tune) or play it in D on a D and octave jump where I can’t reach (which changes the whole feel of the tune for the worse in my taste) OR, I pick up my A whistle which has a secondary key of D, and play it there…in this secondary key which I misterm “G position”.
A much better answer to the original question is probably to look at the tune itself, and if a single note dips down below the low D, swerve up instead, so you’re not doing D, C#, D but D, E, D or something of the harmonic equivalent.
Can I say “Wow” again? This is great, and very clearly written, you seem to be handling the percocet like a champ!
I knew that I could play in G on a D whistle, but I’ve only been playing tunes that I learned in G, which were written in G. It never occured to me to transpose them as you’ve described (I really do have to learn how to play by ear, I think some of this might have occurred to me before if I were playing that way).
So, if I understand you correctly, if I can train myself to transpose them this way, I can easily play tunes in D on an A whistle, and get a few lower notes out of the tune than I would on the D.
Tyghress, I can’t thank you enough. I’m going to go home tonight and experiment a bit, I think you’ve actually led me to a real breakthough here. You’ve blown the lid off of the different whistles/different keys mystery for me!
OK, I’m back. You seem to have received
plenty of good advice, however:
The fingering,
if it were on a D whistle,
starts E,G, A… To play along
with Cathal McConnel I use that fingering
on the Bb whistle.
So hopefully the fingerings have been worked out, where can I find the lyrics to this song??? BEAUTIFUL!
Brian~
Cathal McConnell’s version on “Long Expectant Comes at Last” has the lyrics in about as clear (and beautiful) a form as anyone could ever want.
Tom D.