That’s it - no can do…artistic tantrum coming on here
We are playing a ceilidh a week Saturday and I have to get my head around a reel. The A part is fine - standard G major. The B part…aaarrrggghhh…our dear leader bless her fiddle…it’s an offbeat G minor - Bb and Eb with regular F sharp and C sharp for good measure.
So, what’s the best way to get around this one? Transpose it to play on what…prefer to play a reel set on one whistle if possible… Some of us are self-taught :roll:
If need be (and assuming that half-holing is out of the question), you can hit other notes as would constitute a variation and not clash with the tune’s normal progression. Sometimes a “flight of fancy” departure can add a lot as a sort of backup, especially if it’s a brief form of harmony. If you listen to Danu, Dervish, Larry Nugent, etc., you’ll not infrequently hear this sort of thing. Good luck!
Are you saying the scale notes in the second part are
G A Bb C# D Eb F# G?
No way you can do that on a whistle without half-holing or crossfingering. (Proof – the only place you can get three half-steps in a row is the B/C/C#/D pattern on a standard D whistle. To get the F# after that without half-holing, it would need to be the D whistle’s E fingering – ergo, you’d have to be playing E whistle, which has G# rather than G.)
You could try playing it on a normal D whistle, half-holing the Bb and Eb. Or you could explain that tunes like that are not meant for whistles.
The problem is that the flute player can’t make the ceilidh and this wretched B Part has everyone else gapping with flute part infill…so I need to play it somehow My only help is a re%&*der - but he can’t carry 3 or 4 fiddles let alone the rest of them even amplified…
Our leader doesn’t take no for an answer. We had to play a tango once interspersed with Teddy Bears’ Picnic…and even several of us setting our SpamBlockers so the music bounced didn’t work
Will have a fiddle with a C whistle tomorrow - pun intended for once..
A C whistle isn’t going to be particularly good help – you’re still going to have to half-hole one note in G major and three in this G “minor”. I still think your best bet is a D whistle. And praying the tune is a slow one…
It depends on the whistle you use. Some good D whistles will let you half hole the Bb and Eb easily, while other whistles won’t let you do it. (You can always say that the fiddle player was out of tune!) Or, if you can do it, use two whistles. I played a song on Clips and Snips where it starts in C and switches to C min, then back to C. I used a G and a Bb whistle, but it was a slow song with enough time to quickly change whistles. So in your case, you can start with a D whistle with an F tucked under your arm, but it might be too akward.
Agreed a C whistle would be handy. For once, a recorder would be even better with that Db ouch!
Now, there’s an alternative if you tune has less than a two-octave range.
See, Trisha, don’t you have a Bb tube? Paint it day-glo if it ain’t visible enough as is
The other advantage is I reckon your whistle flies in second octave and reaches third no problem.
So you start your scale from G (xoo ooo). The C# (actually Db) is no problemo (habla altiplano llama?): you got this big second hole and no problem for a half-fingered Db in second octave: xxx xøo. I used it frequently for this slurred F/F# (transposing) to start “Chicken reel”.
Bb tube…yes…but we are talking village hall CEILIDH ****here. I shall be taking the Kerry Pro not the Copeland, and the Burke and not the Pink Elephant!! This is good news - it could have been the Howard and the Gen Bb so quite civilised venue (relatively).
I tried transposing and playing it on the Bb Burke on Monday before I posted…but it sounded terrible so I must have done something crazy. Nothing unusual in that - human error :roll: Still suffering from Transpositional Inadequacy Syndrome.
My only help is a re%&*der - but he can’t carry 3 or 4 fiddles let alone the rest of them even amplified…
ouch!
your whistle flies in second octave and reaches third no problem.