Hi everyone. I’m new on this section, I sometimes go the the uilleann pipes section, it’s the instrument I’m now trying (a lot) to play, I’m loosing some friends (ears problems) but who cares! The guys on my band would like to make a cover of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzqNSAbE7Fo
and I also found this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vap3dtufkAs
I’ve ordered a Eb whistle because I need the Eb Ab and Bb to be played the easiest way and in a low tone. It’s a simple whistle but doesn’t have the lowest notes. I can play the melody on the second octave but we can listen to a lot of air and that’s not nice…Can anyone give me a help identifying the correct whistle? I’ve sent a mail to the guy on you tube video and to Mark knopfler but din’t get any answer, strange…
Best regards
I can’t say exactly what whistle was used on the Knopfler recording. I can say it is a whistle in Bb, possibly a Goldie by the sound of it. John McCusker and Mike McGoldrick are listed as having played whistles on the recording. My guess is that it is McGoldrick on that track (don’t have the CD). In the cover version you link to the whistle is a Blue-top Generation Bb with a nickel tube.
Hi there thank you so much for your answer. I think that the the intro is done with the Bb (you tube cover) but the rest of the melody… This whistle in Bb has the Ab on a easy way? On you tube the guy just play the intro, not the rest, on this other link you can see Mark knopfler’s musician playing. I don’t know his name but he’s a great! Maybe I’ll have to start with a Bb and then change to a Eb.
Watching Mark Knopfler and his band on the Youtube clip … it’s actually a flute the musician is using, not a whistle. I suspect the flute has a wider range of easily-available notes than a whistle … he’s also a very good flautist !!
After looking through four or five live performances of the song on the net, I can see that it is a flute being played in all instances. And all the videos are pretty terrible and not at all professional. Anyway it probably is Mike McGoldrick judging both by the long, flowing locks of hair and the southpaw flute grip. Looks like McCusker on fiddle too. Knopfler’s website lists McGoldrick and McCusker as part of the band for the European tour and McGoldrick also played for the US tour. No matter. I stand by my original assessment. You can play the whole thing on a Bb whistle. Get a Generation Bb and don’t look back. It’s a good song and a kicking arrangement.
Do you mean you need those keys of whistle? Or do you mean that you need the Eb, Ab and Bb notes? These notes are no problem on a Bb whistle. Just half-hole the Ab using DOO OOO or cross-finger it using OXX OOO. That’s fundamental whistle technique. But I don’t find an Ab in the whole thing - but that could just be me.
Thank you so much for all the answers. I already ordered a Bb Dixon. I know that in the videos there is a flute but when I bought the entire partiture/tab of the song, written at the top of first page we have: penny whistle. By reading the six pages only two times the Ab appears..
Thanks good people here!
My thanks are due to tomas, for the interesting links, and Feadoggie for confirming the instrument to be a Bb … I’ve just learnt my first (part of a) whistle tune by sitting, listening and watching … just like I used to do with a guitar “way back when” - happy whistler
