I recently started playing the Low Whistle (after reading all the extremely useful posts here on this message board I bought a Dixon Low D and am very happy about it as my first whistle).
The high notes in example #4 are just second octave notes and all attainable on your low D. The highest note is second octave C natural ( I’m assuming key of G here ) and you can get that by half-holing the note. More often than not, an Uilleann piper would use a c natural key for this note. The c natural key is only used for the second octave c on the pipes, but the half-holing method is a cinch on the whistle.
I’d suggest that first you get hold of the recording and find these spots on it, and listen to how they are played.
You should be listening for tiny flicks of sound in front of the main notes, not full notes. If you can use a slow-down device that might help.
example 1 - {AG}F2 from looking at the notation, I would finger a low F (don’t blow yet) and then pick up your top hand tall man and ring man. Then blow and flick them down, first the tall man and then the ring man, ending on the F.
{GA}G2 looks to me like you would finger a low G and then flick the top hand ring finger up and down fast like a little flap.
example 2 - {GAGF}D4 This looks like you would start fingering a low D and then lift the bottom hand pointer and tall man to give you your G. Blow and then quickly flap your top hand ringman up and down (that gives the AG) and then just as quickly tap your bottom hand pointer down (that gives the F) and then close all the holes to get to the D.
example 3 - {fga}g Here you would be in the second octave. Finger your high f and then just flick that bottom hand pointer up. Then in the top hand flick your top hand ringman up and down, which lands you on the g.
example 4 - b c’ {bag}b2 If you dont’ want to half hole, you could play the high c as top hand oxo bottom hand ooo (there are many ways to finger this note, not just that). To play the grace notes b a g, just flick the top hand pointer, tall and ringman, and then go back to the b again.
I hope this was what you were looking for, if not please forgive me its Saturday!
some very useful information. The half-holing did the trick and actually works particularly well on this one since I get a very nice transition from B’ to C’ and back to B’
Thanks for the explanation on the grace notes - I guess that will take quite some time to practice that (since I just started I am still stuggling with the motor skills in my fingers to play very fast)
What I wrote was the thing to aim for, but actually not how to practice it, sorry!
Do the finger combinations very slowly at first so your fingers begin to remember them. Notice as you play how evenly your fingers are moving and whether there is any tension at all. Always keep the rhythm going, but go slow, no faster than playing it perfectly. Do it a little bit or a lot every day. It will take less time than you think!
I have an MP3 whistle version that I downloaded from MP3.com if you are interested. It’s about 706k if you want me to email it to you…I’ll also need an address as well.
