Here’s the thing. I guarantee that you’re not playing the tune as notated. I am well nigh positive that you’re playing an F# in that scale run down. You’re not playing any note by half-holing it, are you? If the answer to that is no, you’re simply playing the tune wrong. I don’t like that scale run down in any case, but, as written, with an F natural, it’s close to impossible on a D whistle, so, at your stage of learning, I can’t believe that you’re actually playing it like that. In which case, you’re not playing the tune. That’s a shame, because it’s a really nice tune, and, played the way it’s supposed to be, is really quite easy on a D whistle.
That sounds like the normal screen to me. I can’t imagine what you’ve been seeing before if you were seeing something different.
No, I’m not half holing to get an F nat. I suppose the tune sounds fine to me with the F sharp because this is the way I’ve learned it and accustomed to hearing it. If you have a more accurate dots would you post it? Or are you familiar with the version in Robin Williamson’s book?
The thing is, this isn’t the only time you’ve done that. You did it with Jump at the Sun as well, where you took dots notated in D minor and played the note names on a D whistle, but without half-holing, producing something only very vaguely connected with the actual tune. You can’t do that on whistle and expect to produce the tune you’re aiming for. So I would strongly suggest that you get out of that habit. Your best bet would be to learn any new tune that you want to play by ear, and not look at dots at all. They’re just confusing you, and you’re not learning the tunes.
I don’t know the version in Robin Williamson’s book. I think I might have had his book at one time, but I can’t put my hands on it now. But actually version 1 on the session.org is perfectly playable, and not too bad, if you ignore the time signature - just pretend it says 2/4. Make sure that you do not play a C# at any point in the piece - they must be C naturals - all of them - played either by half-holing or by cross-fingering, usually like this: OXX OOO.
Robin Williamson’s book has in it A mixolidian. No sure if that helps or confuses further. He has different run down in bars 4 and 12. He says “It goes firmly, at a good walking pace”
Except I think the folks I’ve played it with do it in D mixolydian (with no Fs of any sort) as in the first setting on the session. See setting #8https://thesession.org/tunes/2082#setting37965 for corrected note lengths.
Can you post it? I’m not quite imagining how it might go …
That’s basically the same as Version 1 on the session.org, only on a tonal centre of E rather than D.
As I say, basically the same as Brother Steve’s, just down a tone. By the way, I wouldn’t describe that as “D mixolydian” at all. Because it’s in a gapped mode, it doesn’t remotely sound major. That’s why, to me, the inclusion of any sharpened third - in this case, F# - sounds so jarring.
Robin Williamson’s setting, transposed down to fit the context of the discussion.
X:1
T:The Chanter’s Song
Z: after Robin Williamson, The Penny Whistle Book (where it is set in A mixolidian)
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:Dmix
D2D2 A2GE|D2D2 {d}c2Bc|d2A2 A2GE|c2Bd cAGE|
D2D2 A2GE|D2AB {d}c2Bc|d2A2 AFGE|D4 {E}D4:|
|:A2>B2 {d}c2Bd|AGAB {d}c2Bc|d2A2 A2GE|c2Bd cAGE|
D2D2 A2GE|D2D2 {d}c2Bc|d2A2 AFGE|D4 D4:|
My test with these things is to see if I can insert the missing note as a passing note without it jarring my sensibilities; usually it does. To my ear the F# sounds OK but not needed. F natural sounds awful. What jars is extending the range up to the higher D, but it may just be a matter of not being used to it.
I don’t really like having an F natural or an F# in there, but, to my ears, the F# is even worse than the F natural - mind, I wouldn’t have that pattern of notes at all. Going up to the high d doesn’t bother me, funnily enough. In fact, I rather like to put a triplet Bcd at that place.
Just a few thoughts, Song of the chanter, as I learned it, was first tune I got from the Armagh Piper’s tutor for the pipes. It was the version Willie Clancy recorded (on the old EP with Michael Gorman). I have never known anything other.
Looking just now for a recorded version I ended up listening to Brian Vallely (who wrote the tutor I mentioned), only to find he also uses that AFGE D. Let’s say, I wouldn’t think of doing that. Willie’s version doesn’t seem to be readily online.
Cross posted. FWIW, FG|A2 AB c2 Bc|AGAB c2 Bc| d2 A2 A2 GE|c2 Bc A2----- is how I know it. Touching the high d in the previous version sounds, well, odd in comparison. But perhaps it depends on what you’re used to.
Well! This conversation is getting very interesting! All the posts about Fs and F# (and the same of Gs) makes me think I, as a new player, have come under an egregious misunderstanding of whistles. I had thought whistles are a transposing instrument, thus if I have say, the dots for a tune in D major and I play it on a C whistle, or any other key, playing the fingerings as I would a D, the tune will just come out the right, though transposed to the new key of C or whatever whistles I’m playing on.
And so those responding have a general understanding of my situation in the discussion - I’m learning the whistle on my own. I do not know any other whistle players to go to directly and other than some years with the GHB this is a new endeavor so I may fumble a lot. I’ve been glad of the helpful input I’ve been getting here.
I think one of my ‘reference recordings’ to refresh the tune in my mind is this track from a different album https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x-lqPRWUOs That’s probably why the phrase sounds OK to me.
The current discussion of the tune, “Chanter’s Song” brings up a related question. It may seem silly but that is not my intention. There are several different settings for this tune on The Session. So what makes a setting a variation and other settings deemed wrong? For instance setting 5 is recognizable as the tune but it is rather different than the other settings, jazzier I’d call it. And version 8 and others have the forth bar of line one as: quarter, two eights, quarter, two eights. Other versions have a run of for eighths.
Setting 5 on the session.org is almost identical to Setting 1, except in a different key. There are some ornaments added in, but they are irrelevant to consideration of what is the notated tune. The rest of the notes are pretty much the same. Setting 8 has only just been added, by David50, who I believe is david_h here, who has probably added the setting as a direct result of this discussion. It is, as he says in his comment on the session.org, identical to Setting 1, just set out in 4/4 instead of 2/4.
