note not on whistle

Whistle
1

If you are trying to play a piece of music and find that one or two notes are not on ur whistle (usually to low) what do u do? I realize that many of you play by ear but I have to play by the “letter” (i change notes to the letter) and am running into this problem a lot. Have wondered about playing the whole piece in the second octave but haven’t tried it yet.

And yes .. very much a beginner.

Thanks,

jim

2

Hello, Jim,

Irish flute players refer to this situation as “faking it”. The main approaches are:

  • Play just those notes 1 octave up
  • Shift the whole musical phrase 1 octave up
  • Substitute the notes with something you have, for example, instead of a C you can sometimes play an E

Whatever sounds ok.

g

3

Or transpose the tune from D to G.

4

I believe this topic was discussed in an earlier thread.
The consensus:

  1. When you get to the low note, burp the note out.
  2. Produce the note “some other way”. (see “below the belt notes”)
  3. Bump up the note an octave.
  4. Use a note that at least sounds right.



    A combination of 3. and 4. is probably the most usefull. Although 1. and 2. definitly have entertainment value, to say the least.

Ps. I forgot. Some people keep a tuba or bass trombone around to whip out and play the offending low note.
I suppose you could maybe duct tape a high d whistle to a low d whistle to take care of the problem too.

5

stop playing those damn fiddle tunes!

6

Here goes for the thousandth time. My stock answer is to play a note in the corresponding guitar chord which is within the range of the whistle. For example, if the note is A below bottom D, and the chord is D7, play D, F#, A, or C. If there are no chords notated, then play around until you find a note that sounds okay. Otherwise, you could just leave it out or go up an octave, or just forget the fool tune and play something else.

7

Understatement alert!! :slight_smile:

There are many threads started on this topic, but basically, do what those guys are telling you!

If you look through the other threads, you will come across more technical discussions that go into harmony, chords, etc to help explain why and which notes will sound good instead of others…

Good luck

8

I prefer to transpose, when possible. If you really need to be in the original key, then you also have to find a whistle in the appropriate key.

For example, at http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/findtune?P=dear+irish+boy&F2=find+(wide)&L=1000 you can find three versions of “The Dear Irish Boy”, claiming to be in C Lydian, D minor, and A major.

The “C Lydian” version (actually A Dorian or A minor, I think) is in a decent range as written, but the fingering seems a bit clumsy to me (and I like to avoid C natural when I can).

The “D minor” has a low C (not to mention Bb), so that’s out.

The “A major” version has not only G#, but an E# accidental, as well. It appears to actually be in F# Dorian or F# minor.

I play it in E Dorian/minor (it’s hexatonic, missing the scale tone that would distinguish the two). This gives me the tune with no cross fingering, but sometimes I want to play along with a recorded version that’s in B, so then I’ll switch to my A whistle.

All this looks rather complicated, but in practice, it’s not. I can just paste the ABC into BarFly (Macintosh ABC software), and transpose it over and over again, until I get it into a useful range. Of course, I can usually tell what the best result will be from looking at the music, but I could do it by trial and error, if I had to. I’m sure there’s some Windows software that’s just as useful for this.

I think that this is more of a problem with songs and slow airs, where you don’t want to monkey with the tune too much. For fast tunes, Ridseard’s solution is probably as good as any.

I play lots of songs by ear, and it sometimes takes some experimentation to find the best key for my level on the whistle. I suppose I should be striving to increase the level of my playing instead, but I’m kinda lazy.

9

If you are playing a low D whistle, and need the C or C# below the lowest D, you can get it by leaning the end of the whistle into your leg.

10

You could also sink the mouthpiece into your mouth until your lip hits the top of the windway and bend the note down. This isn’t a very serious answere, but it’s somewhat possible.

11

Now I understand why you call yourself “Vomitbunny”… :astonished:

Robin

12

Oh, no, don’t stick it that far down you’r throat.

13

I appreciate the suggestions .. and will give “most” of them a try. I think one or two might be hard for me accomplish but I have snorkled before it and it could be that Vbunny is on to something. It may even sound better underwater. :smiley:

Jim

14

I appreciate the suggestions .. and will give “most” of them a try. I think one or two might be hard for me accomplish but I have snorkled before it and it could be that Vbunny is on to something. It may even sound better underwater. :smiley:

Jim