About a year ago I received a Feadog D and instruction book as a gift. However, I didn’t get much practice in before other things distracted me.
Recently, though, my girlfriend has taken up Ocarina playing, and listening to her practice makes me want to play the whistle again, so I found my Feadog D and I’ve been practicing on it some. However, I want to be able to play songs with my girlfriend and was thinking of buying a C whistle so our instruments were in the same key.
Would a tin whistle sound nice played alongside a tenor ocarina, or is that combination a bad idea?
When one person plays a wind instrument, that person, just by the way they blow the note, has a lot of wiggle room to play the note sharp, flat, or in tune. Getting two wind instruments to sound like they are in tune with each other takes some work, especially if they’re in the same octave. I was never in a marching band to know how much work goes into that. I play in a folk group with guitars and keyboard and only have to play to match them, not meet in some happy medium with another wind instrument. It might make things easier on the ears if the instruments are playing different notes (like melody and harmony) or if the instruments are in different octaves. Achieving the ability to play a duet is well worth the effort. Let us know how it goes.
Yes, that’s true. I remember trying to get two or sometimes even three concert flutes to play in tune. Painful, but it can be done, and when it works it is very effective. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVztCC37wlc
I did a quick search to try and find an ocarina/whistle duet, but didn’t managed to find anything (I’m sure MT will). But, in my wanderings across cyberspace I stumbled across this: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9iTXh4pJT4w
I’m impressed. Just how many of us could benefit from some make-up to match our whistles.
I think the combination would sound nice. It will take a bit of practice, I think, because of the similarity in tone and register between the instruments.
An anecdote to illustrate: A violinist has recently begun playing in the band. I usually move back and forth between playing mandolin and whistle. We were working on a set just before going on, and the places where I was playing mando didn’t sound good (er, I should say, less so than usual!).
I switched out to whistle, and the mix was better. I think the similarity in tuning between the mando and violin made minute pitch differences more glaring. Had we had time to practice more, I think we could have had a great mix, but in the fray of the moment, switching to whistle improved the most.
You should go for it, in any case. Playing music with a loved one is fun, and less likely to start a fight than hanging wallpaper together.
