Sea Shanties Key of D - Looking for

Whistle
1

I have been an Alto Recorder player for years but I’m now learning
the Pennywhistle (Key D) to use for playing Sea Shanties.

I’m looking for sea shanty music in the key of D.

Does anyone on the forums have any suggestions as to books or music scores?

Thanks for the suggestions!

Rich

2

My daughter did a college term at MysticSeaport and I got a couple of sea shanty CDs from them which I can’t lay hands on; you should be able to get something by just searching Mystic Seaport Sea Shanties.

Philo

3

There is a very talented musician that was affiliated with Mystic Seaport and he is probably among the most well versed people on planet earth when it comes to sea shanty music. Do a google search for Rick Spencer, he has a website and has performed all over the world. I am sure you can find contact info listed for him and that he would point you in the desired direction. Try contacting Rick at http://www.catfeather.com. :thumbsup:

Cayden

4

Hi Rich, welcome.

I assume you know plenty of shanties already, but are looking for D shanties to match your whistle?

Remember that a D whistle can play in several different keys: DMaj, GMaj, and their related minors and modes. Also AMaj, CMaj etc. depending on the tune. So you’re not restricted to D tunes/songs. And you can start by choosing any shanties with key signatures of 1 or 2 (or 3) sharps.

Of course, there’s nothing rigid about shanty keys. You can play any shanty on D whistle by simply transposing it to a friendlier key if needed.

If you source the song in either ABC notation or MIDI, there are even software programs that can do the transposition for you.

For example, here is a Mudcat thread of shanties in ABC: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=135696

You can bring any of those ABCs into this online converter/transposer, and print the result in PDF: http://www.folkinfo.org/songs/abcconvert.php

Similarly, here is a shanty collection in MIDI: http://www.contemplator.com/sea/index.html

Again, you can bring the MIDI files into your favorite MIDI editor, and move them up or down to taste.

If any of that doesn’t make sense, ask away. :slight_smile:

5

Thanks everyone for the suggestions & help!

6

Found this site: Digital Tradition Folk Music Database

http://sniff.numachi.com/

Has a lot of Sea Shanties in different Pennywhistle keys

as well as a lot of other music scores. :smiley:

7

Here are some other Sea Shanty links:

The Bitter End: http://www.shanty.co.uk/

Andrew Draskóy’s Shanties & Sea Songs: http://shanty.rendance.org/andrew.php

8

And whistles do come in a wide range of keys if you need something specific to match vocal range…

Best wishes.

Steve

9

Thanks again everyone for all the help!