I played the bagpipes on and off for 30 years in Chicago with the Shannon Rovers. I always had a tin whistle in my pipe case and I could play one tune, Roddy McCorley. About 25 years ago on my first trip to Spain I bought a whole set of Generation whistles and as I remember the price was not bad for the whole set. They have been in a drawer ever since. About six months ago I got serious about learning the Tin Whistle and have been practicing ever since.
I have read here that people have used the B flat at sessions but as far as I have seen there is very little Irish music written in the key of B flat. I have played the B flat whistle and it is nice but it is the same fingering that I play on the D. What kind of traditional music can you play on the B flat whistle with other musicians in this key? John Ryan
Second, I’m certainly no authority, so I’m just sharing a resource on this question. On The Session’s site is a search function. http://www.thesession.org/tunes/ You can search for tunes based on mode/key. So, you can plug in a search for “All Tunes” for the keys that can be played on a Bb whistle (Bb major, C dorian, F mix (none of those) and Gm). Hope that helps.
Most of the Traditional music in Brittany is in Bb and B flat whistles are used by bombarde’s players. (same fingering)
I sometimes also play scottish music on my Bb whistle, with small pipes or harps. But you can play anything you want, there also are lovely Bb tunes in Asturian and Galician (in Spain) traditional music too.
Hi John, You’re thinking about whistle keys in the wrong way. Most whistle players will regard whistles in keys other than D as transposing instruments. That is, they allow you to play a given tune using the normal fingering, and have the tune come out in a different key. So if you play a D tune on a Bb whistle, it will sound in the concert key of Bb. If you play a G tune on a Bb whistle, it will sound in the concert key of Eb. And so forth.
So the simple answer to your question is: Any trad music can be played. You just play it exactly as you would play it on a D whistle.
Of course, this means that if you’re playing with other people, they need to be playing Bb (or equivalent) instruments also, or transpose their playing to your key. You hear this in commercial recordings all the time. The reason is to add variety to the keys, and because people like the different timbre you get when playing in lower or higher keys. This is also a reason to choose a different-keyed whistle for personal (solo) playing.
But for ITM session and group playing, you very seldom see anything but D whistles in use; or C whistles for transposing tunes in Gm, Dm etc. into whistle-friendly keys.
you play your Bb whistle as if its a D whistle, and that will have you in tune with the recording.
I have B and Bb whistles (and B pipes) and love to tootle along to this CD…and the bonus feature is, you can play the same tunes in a session on a D whistle and its still the same fingering.
Guitar players can adapt to B or Bb, so even if melody players don’t want to play with you, a good guitarist will simply strap on a capo and accompany.
(I’m pretty sure bodhran players can tune down too )
Hmm… well, this is a long shot but I’ll mention it anyway:
When I acquired a very nice A whistle I spent some time finding tunes that fit well on it. Stool of Repentance was the most obvious example, as it’s a tune in A that seems like it was written for an A whistle.
Of course, you’re talking about a Bb whistle, not an A whistle. So why even mention A tunes? Because – and here is the “long shot” part – I’ve noticed a lot of recordings seem to be half a step sharp. Mulcahy family, Edel Fox, Frankie Gavin and Alec Finn, Dervish, Tommy Peoples… many of my Irish trad recordings are half a step sharp, as I see them. Meaning, they’ll play a D tune in Eb.
So, IF you were to play in a session where folks were playing like that – playing D tunes in Eb, etc. – then, you could take my list of “tunes that fit well on an A whistle” and play them on your Bb. But I don’t know how likely that is; I’ve never been to such a session, myself. (Is this a regional thing, this playing half a step sharp?)
At any rate, here’s the link to the place where I noted my A-whistle-friendly tunes:
I find the Bb whistle tonal range very sweet. Various professional trad players CD’s feature a set or two of trad tunes using a Bb flute. So my main use for the Bb whistle is to be able to play along with (learn) tunes in that key on CDs, not in sessions. The other use for a Bb whistle is to accompany singers who might be most comfortable in that slightly lower register.
)