Just curious, after seeing the Irish band play Drowsy Maggie in the movie Titanic, I thought lets see if I can work up to that kind of speed and control. Well, LMAO, still far away. On my low D, I can handle the tempo, unfortunately control. How do other whistlers go playing this song VERY,VERY fast on their low D. I have my good and bad days . I would love to hear other whistlers thoughts on this tune. Also what metronome speed you can perform Drowsy at…
See ya Andy
I had a lot of problems with DM until I figured out a little fingering trick. I’m assuming you’re playing it starting on the low E note. I found that little opening passage very tricky until I noticed that I could leave the first and second fingers of my right hand on the holes for about the first 2 measures. Without those extra fingers flopping up and down, that passage is a lot easier.
andy,
check out Brother Steve’s whistle page and read the section on Not Lifting a Finger (it’s in the links section).
Drowsy Maggy is actually my personal nemesis. I can play the A part at lightening speed (it gets really easy actually), but that B part will be the death of me. It always ties my brain or my fingers into knots. At sessions, at take good deep swig of beer, and join in again for the A-part. :roll:
Actually, I think Drowsy Maggie sounds better if you play it a bit slow. To me it sounds more “drowsy” that way : )
You may be onto something there, Dzhokar.
I look forward to using that as my alibi for playing it henceforth at a speed that I’m comfortable with.
Micho Russel plays it with low instead of high Ds in the first half, which sounds good as well as making it easier.
Jo.
On 2002-04-26 13:43, Jo C wrote:
Micho Russel plays it with low instead of high Ds in the first half, which sounds good as well as making it easier.
Jo.
Consider leaving your first finger down on the high D (i.e. don’t “vent” the high D), xxx xxx
Drowsy Maggie reminds me alot of Man of the house. They are both fun tunes to play. The bottom line to playing these tunes or any other is just to practice over and over and over again…you know you’re there when you can think about what you are having for dinner as you play the tune. of note Drowsy Maggie I think is much harder yet to play on the fife. I played in a F&D corp in a former life and allways thought Drowsy Maggie was much easier on the Flute/Whistle than the Fife!
Ben