So, this is my first full day as the proud new owner of an A whistle. What should I play on it?
Please give me some ideas of tunes in A or D that sit well on an A whistle.
So far I’ve played ‘Neil Gow’s Lament on the Death of His Second Wife,’ a beautiful air* that’s in D but needs the low notes of the A whistle to do it justice. I had the great joy of playing it last night with a viola-playing friend whom I rarely get to see.
*I would add an apology for mentioning a Scottish air on the ITM forum, but that would belong in the apologies forum, so I think I’ll just drop it and hope no one notices.
Thanks for the ideas! I even know some people who play Atholl Highlanders, so if I learn it I’ll have someone to play it with. (And I almost know it already from having heard them play it a bunch of times. It’s become one of those ‘‘gee I ought to know that by now’’ tunes. I managed to play large chunks of it the last time I heard it, though I’ve never actively tried to learn it.) I’ve heard of the jig but don’t know it, and never heard of the reel – I’ll have to look those up.
I have an A flute on order so this is a topic dear to my heart.
TO cut to the chase, all the notes one can easily play on a D whistle exist on an A whistle too - except for the C-natural. So basically, look for tunes in the key signature of D, and you’re golden. You may have to do some messing around with octaves, however.
THe problem is, most “A” tunes played on a D whistle go down to G first octave for that low mixolydian seventh - which you won;t be able to play on an A whistle.
If you don;t care about keeping tunes in the same actual key, play whatever the heck sounds good
Cliffs of Moher in D, but on an A whistle, can sound pretty cool, even though you can;t play the cnats easily.
Most Polkas I know sound good in A (I noticed that Polkas are often
done in many different keys, depending on the fiddler you’re playing
with), so Britches Full of Stiches, Bill Sullivan’s Polka, Jessica’s Polka
Another neat use of an A whistle is transposing G tunes to D. If you
take a G tune, say The Kesh Jig, and play it on the D whistle, then
play it on the A whistle using the same fingerings, viola, Kesh in D.
I play it in the standard key, which is some form of A. I think I usually use cross-fingered G-natural on that tune. I play it in the lower octave. The only tricky bit is for one of the parts (the third?) it goes a little bit below the range of the A whistle, but it’s very easy to work around that, and I assume that’s how it would be played on highland pipes anyway.
The lowest notes are the Gnats in the last section, but the GHB chanter includes that note. As far as I know you can play it as written on the GHBs without half-holing as the GHB scale is already mixolydian and extends down to the G below the A mixolydian scale.
I suspect that a lot of A-mix tunes common on whistle started off as highland pipe tunes for this very reason - you get that low-G mixolydian-7th which is a huge part of the pipe repertoire.
Ah, you’re right, the last section is the one that goes low. At any rate, it is very trivial to work around, think I just replace the BGB BGB measure with a couple of B rolls, or something to that effect. Easy enough to do that I never actually think about doing it any more, it just happens…
I got to play The Atholl Highlanders with several other people last night, and have virtually learned it now. (As in, I’m sure I can play along with them again, but not quite sure if I’d remember all 4 parts on my own quite yet.) I remember in the 4th part there was a place where I had to twiddle a bit because I was missing that low G, but it wasn’t a big deal. It is a nice tune, and fun to have something for my new A whistle. Pipe tunes are a great idea – I learned several on my hammered dulcimer to play with a friend who plays shuttle pipes; I can dust those off in my memory and try them on the A whistle.
Tunes written for GHBs/small pipes should work fine on a D whistle, too. Actually, they might work better since the Gs are natural and you have the G below the lower A, neither of which are true for an A whistle. Pipe tunes are in A, yes, but it’s A mixolydian, rather than major.
This is all presuming you don’t want to play along with a (Scottish) piper. For that you’d want a Bb or Eb whistle, since the “As” on Scottish pipes are much sharper than the As on most other instruments.
This is a bit wonky, but I think the scores for Atholl Highlanders which show the A major key signature are in error. It should use the D major signature, since the tune is in A mixolydian. Pipe tunes scored for pipers generally don’t show a key signature at all, since A mixolydian is presumed.
Two slow songs I particulary like because they make good use of the low notes are Down by Yon Sally Gardens played in the key of A (instead of the more usual G) and The Water is Wide played in the key of D starting on the low A (bell note).
You can make use of this technique to get the notes below bottom D on certain tunes. A good example is The Mountain Road. Played in the normal key of D on a D whistle, the first part sounds a little weak and you can’t dip down to a low B.
It sounds better on whistle played in G - starting on B rather than F#. Play it using this G fingering on your A whistle (where your “B” is an F#) and it will sound in the normal key of D.
Another example is Lafferty’s reel. If you transpose it up a fourth, so that your first note is E on a D whistle, and the last note is A, you can get those lower notes. Use this fingering on your A whistle and the tune sounds in the usual key.
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!
I found Boys of Malin in a tunebook I own. I went through the reel section of that book and came up with a couple others that I like to fill out the set, all on A whistle. So, this is what I’m currently working on:
High Road to Linton (A)
Connie O’Connell’s (D)
Boys of Malin (A)
They are all a little unusual – none is ‘‘square’’ (by that I mean a tune that is played AABB with 8-bar A and B sections) – but I like all three and think they go well together. I’ll try to get these down, then add some more. I need to develop an A-whistle repertoire to justify my ownership of A whistles.
