I really love that deep sound but have been trying to find a transcription of this music that I can play on my D irish flute (I struggle to learn by ear)
I think the full title of this music is Spey in Spate but I can only find music for it with lower keys. I think this is the music on the session.
So my question really is, how would I go about transcribing this music to a slightly higher key so the lowest note is D? I have never undertaken such a thing before.
I was looking at that earlier, but couldn’t believe it only transposed to keys with a ‘natural’ tonic! (Not a problem for the OP here, but a huge oversight from its creator…)
PS (edited) and can’t cope properly with minor and modal tunes (with anything after the keynote in the ‘K’ field disappearing click by click!).
Maybe, just a suggestion, play it as is and raise the lower notes an octave. It will leave you with a perfectly fine and playable tune without anything awkward. Raising the tune to, say, G will only create problems for you at the top end.
What Mr. Gumby said. That transcription on thesession.org link is in D, and Norman (that is Mr. Holmes in the video, isn’t it?) appears to be playing the tune on an 8-keyed D flute. In the A part of the tune he is simply folding the low A and B notes up an octave. In the B part, the only note you can’t reach on a 6-key or keyless D flute is the low C (Mr. Holmes does use his C key here) but no reason you can’t fold that one up an octave either.
There is another YT video of Mr. Holmes playing the same tune on an F flute, using the same fingering so he is again folding up the lowest notes in the A part.
Have to say I’d just assumed (without watching the video) that it was the fiddle original but, right enough, it’s D flute in D with folded low notes and he’s got Bb, Eb and F versions as well (just watched the lot)!
I did the original posting on this site of this tune on four different flutes to give a perspective of those flutes. I’ve always played the Spey in spate in the key of D. I use the C# foot key most players would just jump the octave to the same note.
An obvious solution I should have thought of, I am up and running with Spey. On an aside, what an amazing tone he achieves!
