I disagree. There’s no reason to learn new note names
for every key of whistle. That’s why we invented the
idea of transposing instruments like clarinets and saxes.
You learn one set of fingerings and transpose music to
fit the instrument’s key.
I do that with whistles. If I have a tune in Bb, I transpose
it up 2 steps to D and play it on a Bb whistle with D fingerings
(that is, I pretend XXXXXX is called D, XXXXX0 is called E).
That is what I do with a red pencil.
key of C go up one note
key Bb go up two notes
key of a A go up three notes
the rest of the keys can be done this way but it is a little more to explain. And sometimes a key of A whistle played in the key of D to stay with in range of the whistle.
The glitch is if some one that has studied music theory looks at your added dots they start in with ‘‘you can’t do that’’ The reply is ‘‘sure can it is real simple math, my red pencil, and my sheet of music’’.
I tried that circle of key that rotates but found that a Susato whistle finger chart was much easier to use.
OK music theorist ‘‘Flame on’’. 
Oh and FWIW Fearfaoin has been my designated spelling punctuation critic for many years.
I did not meant to suggest you have to associate note names with the notes you play when you read sheet music, even though I used note names. But you have to associate the right ledger lines to your fingering (and I could not show that in my post with dots-on-ledgers images).
If you’ve rewritten the sheet music, like one step up from C to D, you transposed it and you use your normal associations of ledger lines to fingering. If you do not rewrite it, you do not transpose it. But you say you do it mentally, you imagine the dots are one step higher, and play reading your imagined dots. Fine. But you might as well learn to associate your fingerings to the correct lines, rather than following imagined lines. At least that is what I try to do, and I am not too aware of the note names when reading the dots, but I can work it out if need be.
There are some handy online programs to help with transposing, if you have the music in ABC format to begin with.
If you copy the ABC text and use this: http://www.8ung.at/abctransposer/index.html,
you can tweak it up or down whatever interval you like. Then copy that and paste it here: http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html,
and it will convert it to dots. That saves all the tedious work for the computer.
The only easier way for me is to try to pick it up by ear.
Ed
Right. That’s what I am advocating.
But you say you do it mentally, you imagine the dots are one step higher, and play reading your imagined dots. Fine. But you might as well learn to associate your fingerings to the correct lines, rather than following imagined lines.
Well, now that’s a different way of thinking about it.
Do you do that for every key whistle you have? For
me, that would be 6 different sets of fingerings to
keep up with.
When I transpose in my head, I’m still fixated on the
D fingerings. This way I can transpose to any key of
whistle or easily change the key of a tune by changing
whistles without having to think what the fingering is.
It just seems like less work upfront for a beginner to
use the transposing path (you can start by having a
computer do the transposition for you). But everyone’s
brain works differently, I guess.
I can’t imagine why. Every professional clarinetist,
saxophonist, or trumpeter has done this at some point.
Considering how confused the responses are, yeah, I’d say there’s no doubt you’re making this harder than it really should be …and for very little benefit, imo. Unless you have perfect pitch, I suspect this endeavor is going to tie your brain into knots. I think your time would be better spent learning to transpose as that will serve you no matter in what key a piece of music is written.
In the end, you’ll do what you want, but when you start asking us for money to chip in for your therapy, I’m going to keep mine and put it towards a whistle in a key I don’t have. 
I always enjoy reading how we all come at the topic of transposing differently and the skills we have all developed to address transposing for our own needs and instruments.
I am of the opinion that most of us that post on this topic have figured transposing out by ourselves individually and that this subject is just not taught universally in music programs. I also think that because instruments are so different and the combination of instruments is even more complex that a universal approach to transposing is just not going to happen.
Well said Mutepointe. 
I was talking about this subject with Jem earlier this evening. He was trying to explain to me why I can’t really understand these questions. According to him, a lot of people learn how to play their instruments and how to read music, by associating notes - including notes on a stave - with fingerings. I don’t. I think of it the other way round. I look at a stave and see the notes, as they’re written. Then, depending on what instrument I’m playing - fiddle, D whistle, C whistle, whatever - I know what that note is on my instrument and just play it as written. I have tried to understand other approaches but, as my post earlier in the thread proves, I’m probably not very good at it.
was your first instrument a non fretted string thing?
A long while back right when I was having to figure out transposing for a clarinet player who joined our folk group, I happened to meet a Salvation Army Band Director. I asked him what he did since some instruments are Bb and some are C and I couldn’t imagine that the Salvation Army would spend money on different versions of the same music. He said that he just taught all instruments as if they were C instruments.
This was in pre-computer days, so what we did for the clarinet player was that we just subtracted 2 from our capos on the songs that we used capos and for songs where this was not an option, I hand wrote transposed music for her.
Early in life, I picked up the habit of learning tunes in what amounts to a movable-doh system. (My instrument at the time probably involved a wooden mallet and 8 tin bars painted in primary colours.) I learn how the tune fits into a diatonic scale, find a suitable diatonic scale on the instrument, and then I can play the tune on the instrument. (Doesn’t mean I can play it well, of course. Also doesn’t work well for sight reading.)
Yes.
Yes, precisely! And because the tune is in your head/heart.
It would be great for easier reading traditional music, for easier learning, to have the tunes noted in a movable Doh system. If you use a staff system, have all tunes written in C signature I’d say, and an indication of the common used key/mode of the tune. And change the abc notation system to movable Doh as well: just use the C diatonic scale and give the key/mode. Then announce that all whistles are transposing instruments and only learn reading this music written in C and associated modes.
ITM players obviously would demand that D is the base, not C. But C is more universal, note names are straight forward etc.
And fiddlers of course would not want any movable Doh system, and since whistlers are forever picking up music from fiddlers and their tune books we won’t get to such a whistle friendly system and are forever condemned to be bogged down with transposition issues.
Just print the dots out on a sheet of paper without printing the stave, then print the stave onto a sheet of acetate. By moving the stave on the acetate sheet relative to the notes, you can transpose instantly!
The two methods would make an interesting poll and as well if method 2 people usually come from a “was your first instrument a non fretted string thing?” background.
I’m wondering if people who migrate to playing tunes by ear find the migration easier coming from method one or method two?
I am only just starting to break a line-on-staff to finger-on-instrument link that I think came from starting self-taught (with a tutor book) on whistle using sheet music. I didn’t use whistle tab - never saw the point since I could link the dots to fingers. Learning a fretted string instrument made the link weaker by confusing things - I started to think of note names more. What I hope is a ‘breakthrough’ may be learning to play by ear but that happened whilst playing a lot more so it may be coincidence
I too started of with one of those primary-colours coloured toy xylophones. I couldn’t play many tunes on it, there where not enough notes, even after I stole my sister’s. Ah, wait a minute, was rearranging the bars to play a tune when starting from one end the wrong thing to do ? (I really did do that)
See, now I’m struggling with another concept. Who are these people who “migrate to playing tunes by ear”? I don’t understand that. But again, some background - I was used to playing by ear and from sheet music from the start, when I was a kid. But the bit I don’t understand is - are you talking about people who have taken the trouble to learn sheet music and then kind of ‘unlearn’ it so as to make hearing the tunes easier? No, that doesn’t make sense … Sorry, I’m not trying to be difficult. Honestly, I just don’t understand where you’re coming from … I can be thick at times … 
By “playing by ear” two things come to mind:
- those that never having needed written music to pick out the tune, pick up their instrument and play it
- and those that learned using written music and over time seem to develop this pick-out-the-tune ability.
Have you ever noticed those that are musically gifted have a hard time grasping the difficulties we not-so-gifted have to endure 
When it comes to this stuff I routinely use the phrase “thick as a brick” to describe my abilities. 
I am one of those people who migrated. My first two instruments were keyboards and guitar. I can still only play them with sheet music. When I learned the whistle, I was in my car one day, without sheet music and tried to see if I coulld remember a song, and I did! And then I figured out that I could figure out songs on the whistle. I can’t do that on the keyboard or guitar. And this is where the multi-instrument complexity aspect of transposing comes into play. (Of course, THOSE PEOPLE, would be ME PEOPLE.)