O’Brien makes his intriguing Rover Sets in key of D, C and E flat. The D, of course, being good for G Mixolydian and E Dorian as well, is spot-on for Irish Trad, but the C, though useful in Scottish Trad (and for a few Irish tunes, such as “Geese In the Bog”) and especially the Eb, have me puzzled: why this combination of keys? Must have something to do with Americana or something.
Somebody enlighten me.
Lots of possible reasons for the Eb. One is the fact that some ITM players tune up a half step.
One a single whistle head, the three tone tubes can have different sounds. So the Eb can have a brighter, chirpy quality, while the C is very suited to slower tunes. And it can be nice, even playing alone, to have a change of pace every so often.
I thought you got A mixolydian out of a D whistle…
The c is for d minor nd g minor fiddle tunes.
The eb for playing along with highland pipes in Bflat mix.
But really any tune will do just higher or lower.
Find a c uilleann piper.
Nd you have a c session.
Since others have shared what you can use the various keys for here’s a different perspective. It’s physics.
Whistle makers make Eb,D and C sets because they can. Same for Bb/A sets. The scale difference is small enough between the D and Eb so that you can make a decent whistle in those keys with the same bore and head. The C whistle may stretch things a bit but again the scale is close enough to make things work.
For the maker it may be about economy and offering key coverage at an advantageous price. It may be more about bang for the buck to the player.
And of course makers make what players ask for and are willing buy.
Feadoggie
Quite right. Don’t know what I was thinking…
This sounds like it’s up the right alley: all these bodies are supposed to fit in the same pocket.
Still, it would seem to be more useful to make the keys C, D, and E (instead of Eb).
How often do you need an E whistle? And what music determines that need? I’m just curious.
I think we’ve discussed the E vs Eb thing before. No reason not to chat about it again but there may be sensible reason why Eb and not Enat.
While a high E body can be made with the same bore as a high D, starting with a wide bore D’ seems to leave the E body hard to produce the highest notes. And since the maker still wants to offer a C body, starting with a wide bore D makes some sense for the C design. That’s one perspective. And of course some makers offer D/C/Bb sets too. Why not offer D/C/Bnat?
Then there is the band music perspective. Bb and Eb instruments were used in marching music. What keys are band flutes made in? Generation, for instance offered Bb and Eb whistles. So folks owned and played Eb whistles already. As Dunnp pointed out folks used Eb whistles with highland pipes too. An E whistle seems to be the strange bird from that perspective.
As a maker I’ve never been asked to make an E whistle. So I do not usually make them. I do offer Eb’s because there has been limited demand for that key. I have been asked for B and Bb whistles frequently for playing with pipers. So I make those as well. Personally I do not follow the one head, multiple body whistle set paradigm. Of course, my experience is more limited than many other makers. It would be nice to hear from some other makers and see what they think.
I like E whistles of both the high and low varieties. I use them a lot for song accompaniment. I also use a B whistle for songs in E. But I can only remember once using a high E in a trad application and that arrangement started in D and modulated up to E.
Feadoggie
All of the above; what they said.
Do you play sessions? A D/C whistle pair is standard session kit, especially for whistle-only players. I reach for my C whistle maybe 3-4 times in a typical session. The percentage of tunes may be relatively small, but it you don’t have a C whistle you’re not going to play those tunes.
Want to play with a C piping session? You’ll want a C whistle. Want to play at an Eb flute session? You’ll want an Eb whistle. Want to play along with bands like Dervish who record everything up a semitone? You’ll want an Eb whistle.
The Generation whistle keys define a kind of reference standard, for whatever historical reasons (Irish band flutes, village bands, etc.).
E whistles are not too common. Maybe more for STM than ITM, with the larger number of A tunes. But you should be able to handle A on a D whistle with either standard fingering or shifted position “capo fingering”.
I can confirm all of the reasons stated above. The Eflat and C bodies work well with a D headjoint, they are popular keys for various reasons and it’s cost effective and compact to have one head and several bodies. Another reason I discovered a few weeks ago is that a rosewood cane blank has exactly the right length, with about an inch to spare, for the set and gives a great grain match. Maybe a hollow cane would be a classy way to carry a set.
A lot of singers want E. I was once asked for a B whistle to be played in a duet with a friend who had their old piano tuned down to B to relieve the pressure.
Not often, but an E, with a flattened 7th, will play A tunes (of which we quasi-Highlanders have a few) and play the low pickup notes as well.
I use my E whistle much more than my Eb, mainly for playing along with modern guitar-centric church music.
Yep… very, very useful!
But you should be able to handle A on a D whistle with either standard fingering or shifted position “capo fingering”.
Perhaps, but how often would you pick up your C whistle to play in G if you had a D to hand?
A good question. Let’s put it this way: If most tunes were in C, F and G, and if the C whistle were the default whistle at hand, I wouldn’t hesitate to play G tunes on it.
As it is, I sometimes do exactly that. If I’ve switched to C whistle for, say a D Dorian tune, and the next tune up is a G tune, I won’t bother with changing whistles. By using shifted fingering, you can leverage your muscle memory of the familiar G fingerings, though A-position fingerings are not a problem.
But honestly, I’m not so locked into muscle memory. If I know a tune, I can pretty much transpose it on the fly into any fingerable key, and that’s a skill I practice. The disadvantage is that I sometimes forget what key a tune is supposed to be in. And I can report that when you start a tune in the “wrong” key, you find out soon enough when you look up to see your session mates sitting silently and glaring daggers at you. 
The point here is that’s no reason not to consider A to be one of the three “base” fingering families - D, G, A - of the whistle. Which mitigates the need for a special whistle in ITM for A tunes. Especially when most of the other instruments you’re playing with - keyed flutes, strings, squeezeboxes - can handle A tunes without a second thought.
Personally, I usually keep an E whistle in my session kit to give me the flexibility of choice. Or for the rare tune like “Calliope House” that’s authentically supposed to be in E. Or for B piping sessions when there’s no B whistle to hand (though the octave folding then can be rather nasty).