When the top F is sharped, is the bottom one automatically sharped, too? All the sheet music I have has the top F sharped, but not the bottom one.
And also, when you’re playing a song and it has plain F is it really that noticable if you finger and play it F#? That’s what I do because it’s easier. It doesn’t sound awful to me, but I’m not trained or anything.
The sheet music only sharps one of the two F’s on the staff, but the implication is that they both are sharp. Otherwise, the staff would get too cluttered.
If the key signature indicates a sharp F, assume every F in the piece is sharp, unless it is preceded by a “natural” sign. There are some other little rules in there once you throw a natural in but for the most part that’s all you need to know.
As far as playing F# instead of Fnat, I’d try to avoid it as much as possible. Some people may not be able to hear it, especially in faster pieces, but I’m guessing a lot of people will notice it, especially if it is a familiar tune. I haven’t run across many Irish tunes with Fnat in them yet…what tunes do you know of that use it?
I haven’t run across many Irish tunes with Fnat in them yet…what tunes do you know of that use it?
I was going through some music books (non Irish), and a lot of the songs use Fnat(it has a few hundred pages so I can’t remember the exact songs), but I tend to use F sharp instead because that’s what I’m used to. I need to fix it now instead of way later when it will be harder, I guess.
Sounds like the music you found is in a different key. I’m guessing C. If it were me, I’d get a whistle in the key of the tune. Then you will have fewer problems, and once you learn it on the other key whistle, you can use the same fingerings on a D whistle and you’ll be playing it in D.
Kind of a neat trick, actually..
I am confused. If the song only goes down to D, it can still be in the key of C? I thought the key was determined by the lowest note played?
And on another topic, I found 2 songs in the book listed as Irish. One is The Rattling Bog, and it uses F#, but the other one is The Wee Falorie Man, and the only sharp or flat that it uses is Bb.
Yes.
I thought the key was determined by the lowest note played?
Nope. The key of a piece of music is determined by what sharps and flats are present. The key of C has no sharps or flats. The key of D has two sharps, F# and C#. A whistle in the key of D, with a lowest note of D, is made so that it plays those two sharped notes. A C whistle, with a lowest note of C, is made so it plays no sharped or flatted notes.
A whistle in the key of D, with a lowest note of D, is made so that it plays those two sharped notes.
You know…I think I knew that. Does anybody make a whistle that’s like a piano, with the little black keys as little holes across from the bigger ones? Or is that basically the recorder? 
The books I have are old school books for little kids, so I figured they would be easy, kids are meant to play them afterall. But they’re not written for whistle, they’re written for recorder or xylophone. I think I should just buy a xylophone. LOL.
The only Irish tune I play with an F-natural is “The Chicago Reel” which has an F-nat near the end of the tune that’s pretty easy to play since you can slide up to it from the E below.
In general, the E hole on most whistles is pretty big and makes playing F-natural one of the easier 1/2 holed notes to play. This means it’s really not that hard to play tunes in C with a little practice (unless they go below the range of the D whistle…then you’ll need a Silkstone D+).
G#'s aren’t too hard either with a little practice…
Makes the whistle a pretty versatile instrument…if you can manage the F-nat and G# you can play in A, D, G, C and related modes. Who needs keys!
-Brett
Ok…I have another (stupid) keys question. You know how sometimes a song will have a D or C at the very beginning to show it’s in the key of D or C, and sometimes it won’t have any letter? What about the times that there are D, C, G, A, and all the other ones just about every other measure, does it change keys that often? Or does it mean something else?
I’m not sure I know what you mean (but I rarely use sheet music). Can you find an online example to show?
I found a “cheaters” tip a short time ago that is useful.
Most songs end on the key note. In other words, if the last note is G, odds are that it’s in the key of G. It doesn’t hold true all of the time, but often enough to be useful.
That’s the Guitar chords. You can safely ignore them. 
Those are guitar chords. Sheet music often shows the melody line and the underlying guitar (or autoharp, or piano) chords. It is important that guitar chords change frequently otherwise he will get bored and drink your beer.
That makes sense that they’re guitar chords.
Here’s a fairly good site on basic music theory.
http://datadragon.com/education/reading/
Also learning about chords will help you in just about all forms of music endeavor. If you want to learn more you can probably search for music theory or I’ll PM you a whole bunch of information. Also try searching for “Circle of fifths”.
Clyde Crashcup
Drudges up painful memories of high school band
Usually on sheet music if there is an accidental (a flat or sharp not indicated at the beginning of the piece) it is only good for that one measure. So, next measure the note that had the accidental in the previous measure would be played as a natural even if it doesnt have a natural symbol next to it. A reason why you would use a natural symbol would be to indicate switching back to playing the note as natural in the same measure the accidental occured.
Does that make sense?
More tunes with F-natural are “The Sunset” and the “Maids of Mitchellstown” reels.
Frankie Kennedy played a beautiful version of the Sunset…it’s on the “Best of Altan” album.
–James
No. For such a beast, you’d need at least 12 fingers (count keys on a piano from on C to the next), or a lot of keys. Ever seen a modern Boehm system flute? I’m not a flutemaker and I think it’s a little more complicated than having another set of holes between the ones we whistlers have, but the basic idea of the Boehm system is boring holes where they are needed, not where they can be reached, and have keys instead of fingers to close them.
Just as an aside 
Sonja
I have heard Flogging Reel with F natural in the B part.
Does anyone know if this can be played with an F# because I really like that one but haven’t mastered half holing the F yet.
Like this Hohner Melodica? :roll:
It’s basically plastic, making it basically like a recorder 
However, the reeds are metal…