Does anyone play more than the two keys with one whistle? For example, does anyone use a D whistle to play in the key of E?
I’m somewhat new to the world of Irish Whistle, even though I have tooted on one thing or another for many years now.
What is the significance of a Low C whistle? Is it possible (possible is the wrong word, How about practical) to play in many keys with the one whistle?
Yes, of course - with music theory caveats …
If you mean MAJOR keys, then the simple system easily handles the root major and the major a 4th above. For a D whistle, that’s D Major and G Major. Good whistlers can also handle the major a 5th above - A Major on a D whistle.
But since Irish music is modal, the related Irish modes of the 3 major keys are also available:
D Major: E Dorian, A Mixolydian, B Aeolian (minor)
G Major: A Dorian, D Mixolydian, E Aeolian (minor)
A Major: B Dorian, E Mixolydian, F# Aeolian (minor)
So that a total of 12 modes - the basic modal inventory of the whistle.
With a combination of cross-fingering and half-holing, other keys/modes are playable - E Major, D Dorian, C Major, etc. - especially with tunes that are mode ambiguous or gapped. But in general you’d switch to a different whistle that transposes one of the 12 modes above into the mode/key you want to play - for example, an E whistle or B whistle to handle E Major.
Hope that helps …
The low C whistle is the C below the low D, and pretty uncommon because of its large size. The standard C whistle, however, is not only common, but is the other half of the standard D/C pair required for session playing. The C whistle gives 12 additional (overlapping) modes, and covers tunes in C Major, D Dorian, G Dorian etc. that are not uncommon in some session repertoires.
Thanks MTGuru.
As you might suspect, some of that was over my head, but what a great piece of information to start researching and understanding.
I have become enchanted with the whistle lately. I have whistles in several keys including D and C, and now that I know it can be done it will be interesting to figure out how it’s done.
I’m amazed at how simple and at the same time complex the whistle is.
But it does have a lovely rich - and low - tone. (Says someone with a Low C Howard for sale 
)
Best wishes.
Steve
I can only speak for myself but I would much prefer to own the whistle that plays comfortably in the key that a song needs to be played in rather than to do all that half-holing. Plan B would be to transpose a song into a Key for which I owned a whistle. I do plan B a lot.
Yes, I like the easy approach too. I have taken the path less traveled enough to know that sometimes it’s more fun to just relax and enjoy the scenery.
As far as the low C goes, I can see where that might be a lot of fun. I noticed that Alba made a Low A as well.
It’s standard technique to do a crossfingered minor upper 7th on the whistle- a C natural on a D whistle.
Using just that Cnat/C# alternation, on a D whistle, the following modes are encountered in Irish tunes:
D major, D mixolydian (major but a flat 7th)
E dorian (minor but a sharp 6th)
G major, G lydian (major but a sharp 4th)
A mixolydian, A dorian
B minor
C lydian
That’s 9 modes just using one alternation Cnat/C#.
Also, it’s very common for C’s to shift back and forth within a tune.
To play Irish music “right” you also need to be able to do a half-hole F natural since it’s also very common for F’s to alternate. This gives the additional modes on a D whistle:
D dorian
G mixolydian
A minor
C major
so 13 modes on a D whistle.
C naturals and F naturals are not any sort of quasi-pop music or classical trickery but long-established traditional Irish technique absolutely necessary to playing the traditional repertoire correctly.
The number of modes would increase greatly if one were to count all the various “gap scales” (penatonic scales and hexachords) as seperate modes.
Of course it is possible to halfhole any note on a whistle and play in any key. That, though possible, is outside of the traditional practice.
I certainly agree that C natural is pretty essential. In my experience F natural isn’t any more common than G# in Irish dance tunes – both strike me as very handy but completely non-essential on a D whistle.
Answering the original question, I’ve known three players that I know for sure could handle any accidental on a D whistle at full speed, and actually heard one of them playing a D whistle in Eb on a lark. I guess it sort of makes sense in ITM as a way to handle those Fahey / Reavy accidental heavy tunes on whistle. But it’s pretty low on my list of things to accomplish on whistle, if you know what I mean.
It’s interesting how my original premiss is coming true. The whistle is simple and at the same time complex.
I think I have more unanswered questions now than before I started. But that’s part of the adventure, at least for me.
Thank you all for your contributions.
Once again the historian aspect of me comes out, in my quoting of a source.
Breandan Breathnach (that tosser!) in Folk Music and Dances of Ireland says:
“It will be noticed that no reference has been made to accidental notes…In fact, two such notes occur. They are C# and F natural. C# occurs usually by way of variation and almost invariably in a weak or unaccented position… F natural, on the other hand, occurs only in the accented position. Its occurrence is somewhat of a mystery. It does not occur very frequently and it cannot be used at will, merely as a form of ornamentation. It is more often found in the upper than the lower octave, and its presence seems to be confined to tunes in the “G” series. It is one of the highly colourful notes of Irish music, and is made by sliding upwards, with a certain amount of vibrato, from E to F sharp. It is a note, therefore, of no fixed pitch but rather a long glide with a centre somewhat sharper than the F natural of art music. On that account it cannot be sounded on an instrument with fixed notes…It is of interset to note that it is these two notes, C and F, which are lacking in the pentatonic scale, and their mobile character may derive from this fact. The fact that tunes making use of these two colourful notes are found only in the G series may be an indication that such tunes belong to an older tradition than most of our dance music.”
Interesting. I don’t quite understand what Breathnach is describing with the F. Can someone give an example in context, audio or notated?
Are you sure Breathnach’s not trying to say that the only accidentals usually found in the key of G (and like keys – “the G series”?) are C sharp and F natural? There certainly are tunes in D that have occasional G sharps (“Lord Gordon’s” and “The Fairy Queen” spring to mind) – it’s the equivalent of C sharp in G. And then there are the tunes in A major.
(I also think I’d be inclined to argue that the tunes which bend E to F# as described are not really F naturals at all – as Breathnach says, if they had a fixed pitch, it would be a note somewhere between F natural and F sharp. Like the high F in the B part of “Rakish Paddy”, an entirely different note than the standard F natural in “Cook in the Kitchen”.)
@pancelticpiper
you have agreed with me before that full Aeolian scale melodies are rare in ITM but aren’t there still some?
I am sure I have heard pieces that shift from E Dorian to E Aeolian
(ie both C - minor 6th and C# - major 6th are used).
A few points at random (with apologies for the modern and incorrect use of that term):
Pancelticpiper, you missed out the obvious E min (or E aeolian, however you want to think about it).
In medieval church music, most of the modes of which form the basis for modal tunes in ITM, there were more notes that ‘shifted’ as it were. I.E. like those shifting C nats to C#. There were also, for instance, the flattened B, the flattened F# and the sharpened G. These could also be the other way round, I.E. a raised B flat, and a flattened F#.These were called ‘inflections’ and didn’t necessarily mean that a tune moved away from the original mode. So, a tune which uses C nats in one part and C sharps in another isn;t shifting from one mode to another, but rather using the old ‘inflections’.
That’s kind of what Breatnach is describing with his C’s and F’s. Except that the F he is describing is decidedly a different matter, and, I reckon, exclusively an Irish technique/sound. The best example I know is in the tune which was taught to me as having the wonderful name “We Will be Drinking and Kissing the Women in the Morning” - http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/3456 That F# at the end of the second bar in the second part is a prime example of the sliding F natural-ish note. It’s far enough away from F# that my guitarist automaticlly plays a chord of F nat under that note when I play the tune. But it definitely ends up higher than the normal F nat. That’s part of the tune. I can play it perfectly on fiddle, but I must admit I struggle just slightly at the moment on whistle. Only because I’m not quite good enough on it … I wouldn’t be able to play that tune without that slide - 'cos that’s how the tune goes.
The only thing that comes immediately to mind is Ennis’ setting of “Will You Come With Me Over The Mountain” (aka The Trip We Took Over the Mountain). In the B part
[Key:G] gf|g2 d2 g2|g3 b ag|f2 d2 e2|f3 gaf|
where that highlighted f is played as an “f supernatural” (as are other f’s in the part), and is slid into from the e.
Is that what Breathnach means?
Er … no. I don’t think so. That slide is, at least to my ears, a much more modern thing. The one Breatnach was talking about happens when you sort of hit the note, almost so that it jars. I’m really struggling to explain it … but I can play it … if I wasn’t stunningly busy with budget analysis, I’d post up a sound file of what I mean for you … I will do so, but not 'til the weekend, I’m afraid …
It happens also in the tune that used to be put after “We Will be Drinking”, which is “Old Tipperary”, on the second beat of the fourth bar, in the phrase d^cA ~G3 | ADE F*3 (I’ve given it an asterisk, to mark which note has the slide that Breatnach is talking about).
Many great examples of that glide up to and beyond F natural can be heard in the playing of Willie Clancy, and seen in The Dance Music Of Willie Clancy.