Let’s say I get a C Whistle. I know that means that it’s tuned to the proper sharps/flats of that particular key, but does it ALSO mean that the root note (with all fingers down - xxx xxx) is now a C? Or is the root note (xxx xxx) of ALL whistles a D, regardless of key?
Is the note played with all fingers down even called the root note? I just picked the first label I could think of.
Hi Jeff! If you get a C whistle, all fingers down would be a ‘C’. You would have no sharps or flats as you move your fingers up, as the C scale contains no sharps or flats. To do sharps on a ‘C’, you’d have to half-hole or do cross-fingering.
I believe the term you’re looking for, instead of “root note”, is bell note.
All tone holes covered produces the “bell” note which on a C whistle is C, on a D whistle is D, on an F whistle is F, etc.
The root note will sound a C, but will be called, and read, as a D. In other words, you’ll be playing what you consider a D scale, just like you would on a D whistle, but it will sound like a C scale. Same for Bb.
It’s not like band instrument trasposing so that everyone can play together no matter what key their individual instrument is in. When you want to play in a different key on whistle, you just find a whistle in that key, more or less.
Wouldn’t that make it very difficult to move back and forth from key to key? On one, three fingers down is one note, and on another, three fingers down is a totally different note.
Why couldn’t you have a whistle with the same bell note, just adjusted slightly for the sharps and flats of other keys? For example, when making a D whistle, adjust the C and F hole placement to remove the sharps. Then you’d be able to seamlessly switch between the two?
I think you’ve got the “band instrument transposing” thing backwards. It’s just that so much whistle playing is done by ear that you don’t see music written in a key just for, say, C whistle. Some folks (not including me) can transpose concert pitch (D for a D whistle) into another whistle key while looking at the dots.
But if it were up to me, I’d treat odd-key whistles like E-flat clarinets and transpose the music to D so xxx xxx is shown in the D position, whatever key the music’s “concert” pitch is really–and then play it on the whistle that goes with the original key (A or C, for example).
M
You’ve got it backwards – it makes it very easy to change from key to key. For instance, if someone says “lets play this tune in F instead of D”, you can pull out an F whistle, make your fingers do the exact same things they do on the D whistle, and presto! you’re playing in F.
If, on the other hand, the root note stayed the same but the key (and thus scale pattern) changed, playing a tune in a different key would require completely relearning how to playing the tune; the finger patterns would be completely different.
It would also make it harder to play by ear, because the intervals between fingered notes would be different on each different key of whistle.
Okay, I see what you’re saying. I was thinking of it from the standpoint of note identification ("the music says play a G, now where is it?), not fingering patterns. Sorry…it’s my classical training creeping in. I understand now.
I was asking because I’m thinking of getting a few more whistles in other keys, and I want to know what I’ll be getting into.
Thanks for the help!
Marguerite has it right – the proper way to write whistle music for non-D whistles is to transpose it, so you can read the music like it is for a D whistle, and the right notes will come out.
The tricky bit here is that other trad instruments, like fiddle, would prefer to have the music written out in its actual key, rather than the one that makes it easy for whistle players to read. The Lunasa tunebook solves this by giving each such tune twice, once in concert pitch for fiddles, and once transposed for whistle players.
But in general, lots of traditional music sources only give tunes written out for fiddles.
Thanks 
You’ll run into the same dilemma, on a smaller, uh, scale, if you start playing a keyless Irish flute, which is basically a transverse low D whistle (minus fipple, plus embrochure, of course). There are a few simple flutes in other keys, I think, like G or A, or maybe B-flat.
But anyway, you should be training your ear so you can play along in whatever key and just use the dots as a means to learn the tunes.
Seems like this is the most concise answer I’ve ever seen on this topic. Good job folks.
Marguerite, I have a question about a restaraunt in Gettysburg I may ask you about sometime.
Maybe after hashing it out several times we’ve gotten the bare bones sorted out
Re: restaurant…fire away–either PM or e-mail will do unless you think anyone else on the forum is interested in it too.
M