I have been playing a high D whistle for a year now and am planning to get a few more whistles in anticipation of playing with a pub session where they play and sing a mix of country and folk which is often not in the Irish trad keys.
Would someone give me your opinion for what other keys I should pick up and in what order of precedence?
Thank you for any help
Well, what keys do they sing/play in?
If you know the keys it shouldn’t be too hard to recommend whistles in appropriate keys.
Unless they use capos(?), common guitar keys would be A and E, as well as D and G.
If they use capos, Eb and Bb might be popular keys.
If they play in the above keys, whistles in Eb, and E would be good, and maybe A and Bb too.
All bets are off when the capos come out, so it would be worth investigating what keys the guitarists are frequently playing in.
On thing to consider, especially when playing with singers, is that it’s often useful to have notes below the tonic. (Like playing in G on D whistle.) So a (low) G whistle can be great for songs in C, a B whistle for E, a C whistle for F, and a D whistle for G (which you already have), etc.
This is not to say you’ll need all these whistles. Because each whistle covers two (three in a pinch) major keys and three minor keys, I would imagine three thoughtfully chosen whistles would cover 90% of an evening’s music. To figure out which ones, talk to a couple of the regulars about the keys they most often play in. If you report back here with your findings, we can make some recommendations.
I guess it’s a Captain Obvious thing, but each whistle gives two Major keys, one based on the bellnote/tonic/1st and one based on the 4th. The scale based on the 4th has one less sharp, or one more flat, than the scale based on the bellnote. I usually prefer playing in the 4th-based scale, but which whistle one uses depends on the range of the tune.
So each whistle can cover two keys, though sometimes not in the ideal range.
So you have a D/G (1st/4th) whistle.
As said above if you don’t know what keys the session plays in you have nothing to go on. But all around handiness might be
C (C/F)
Bb (Bb/Eb)
E (E/A)
and many gigs have been covered with just those three in addition to the D.
I’m not alone in having whistles in every key in a big roll I take to all gigs. You never know! One gig I only needed a C# (or Db if you prefer) whistle, everything in 7 flats. Wow.
As said above if they have capos all bets are off and you need to be ready for any key from C to seven sharps or seven flats.
Attended the folk group last night, recorded it. Most of the keys were D, A E and the assoc minors. They did put on capos and do songs in Bb and Ab. So I am thinking I ought to get an A, an Eb and an F.
If they’re playing E Major you’ll want an E whistle.
An E whistle gives an E Major scale from the bellnote and an A Major scale from the 4th.
An A whistle gives you A Major from the bellnote and D Major from the 4th. So, it’s partially redundant to your D whistle.
Like others have said it really depends on the song key, but I would add that the key of the song is not always the best key for the whistle. It’s varies from song to song depending on the range. Personally I think you’re, more often than not, better to have the root note of the song about half way up the first octave of the whistle. For example a D whistle is usually better for the key of G major as it gives you a bit of scope below the root note of the song.
As pancelticpiper says you can use an E whistle for E major. I would personally use a B whistle more often for E major but if you’re asking what whistle to get by priority I’d go with the E as it’s handier for tunes.
Definitely get a C and and Eb, you can get them cheaply if they’re only for the odd song.
Everyones list of priority whistle will be different because each singer is different but in the half songs, half tunes duo I play in my list of usage would be roughly
D
C
Eb
E
F
A
G
Bb
…but that may not apply to yourself!
Yes I also prefer to have the tonic at the whistle’s 4th, all things being equal.
So an A whistle for songs in D, a B whistle for songs in E, and so on.
But the range of the particular song will dictate which whistle I choose.
Some songs range an octave and a half above the tonic but don’t go below it. For those I’d choose the whistle of the song’s key, D for D, F for F, etc.
Some songs go a 4th below the tonic and an octave above it. For those I’d choose a whistle where the 4th is the tonic, A for D, C for F, etc.
Tricky for whistle are songs that go over a 4th below the tonic but also an octave above it. If the song is in D and you play it on a D whistle, using Middle D as your tonic (in order to be able to play the lowest notes) then you might be screaming out High D’s etc.
One like this is Ar Eirinn ni Neosfainn Ce Hi where the version I play goes from F# in the low octave to the 3rd octave D, on a D whistle.
I just wanted to repeat this for emphasis, as it exactly matches my experience. B whistle for songs in E major following pancelticpiper’s tonic at the 4th scheme, E whistle for tunes in E major or A major. (A major is an interesting key – I have some tunes in A I will play on D whistle, some on A whistle, and some on E whistle. Usually, though, my low E whistle is my go to for tunes in A major, just because it’s such a nice whistle to play.)
If I’m remembering correctly, for the songs my group worked on in July, I used D whistle for most of the tune sets, A whistle for most of the songs (all in D), E whistle for two sets of tunes (in A/E and A), G whistle for one song in D mixolydian, and B whistle for one song in E.