I have a friend who is a folk singer-songwriter who wrote a song in the key of C-sharp minor. He has expressed interest in having pennywhistle being played with this song. My question is,
Which key whistle should I use?
Thanking any and all in advance, I am
Sincerely,
EA
You would ordinarily use a B whistle for this key.
I’ve only ever heard of a Bflat whistle. Who does a B whistle please? That could be useful to me.
Walden is correct. A B whistle will do the job for you…Lots of makers produce B whistles, although I cannot possibly believe the market is large… Try Mike Burke.
On the other hand, if I were going to play a tune in C# minor, I might also use an E whistle - either low or high - as C# is its relative minor…
If I can help clear this up for you, please contact me off board… My family hopes to spend a week at the shore, beginning tomorrow. I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Cheers and I hope this is not too confusing…
Byll
Susato makes a ‘B’ that is probably a little more affordable than the Burke.
As long we are on this subject, would someone in the know, please submit a list of which key whistles would be appropriate to use for tunes written in all the various keys?
Thanks
These would be your basic keys on each whistle.
D whistle: D major, G major, E minor
Eb whistle: Eb major, Ab major, F minor
E whistle: E major, A major, F# (Gb) minor
F whistle: F major, Bb major, G minor
F# whistle: F# major, B major, Ab minor
G whistle: G major, C major, A minor
Ab whistle: Ab major, C# major, Bb minor
A whistle: A major, D major, B minor
Bb whistle: Bb major, Eb major, C minor
B whistle: B major, E major, C# minor
C whistle: C major, F major, D minor
C# whistle: C# major, F# (Gb) major, Eb minor
For more information and other scales see http://www.chiffandfipple.com/whistlekeys.html
Good thing the song wasn’t written in Db minor. Then you’d have to have a Cb whistle, and nobody makes one of those! 
JP
On the contrary, you know what you said, and that it’s the same thing . . . unless you’re a fiddler . . . they’ve been known to play C sharp differently from D flat.
Reasonable Person
W a l d e n
Walden is blue at one time and green at another, even from the same point of view. Lying between the earth and the heavens, it partakes of the color of both.—Thoreau
[ This Message was edited by: Walden on 2002-08-13 02:11 ]
Just to add some keys to Walden’s list:
(key of whistle followed by key to play in)
D: B min
Eb: C min
E: C# min
F: D min
etc etc.
Jo.
And to make matters even more complicated, the above listed keys are those for which you can play every note. Many tunes don’t (need to) include the seventh of the scale (would be C# in the key of D) and those can be played in A on a D whistle – I’ve just verified that “Christmas Eve” works fine, and any pentatonic tune definitely should work. (Or F# minor, like “The Cock and the Hen”.)
And of course, if the has only a few G-sharps you can get by with half-holing. (And if you are good at half-holing, you can play in basically any key.)
Getting back to the original question, then, if you can avoid needing D#, the A whistle may be your best bet for a whistle that would work with the song and be readily available. (Though I admit I’ve never tried to buy a Susato E or B, I know a friend who waited months to get an E from Elderly instruments with no luck, and I’d guess B could be the same way – they are very unusual whistle keys.)
On 2002-08-13 08:04, colomon wrote:
(Though I admit I’ve never tried to buy a Susato E or B, I know a friend who waited months to get an E from Elderly instruments with no luck, and I’d guess B could be the same way – they are very unusual whistle keys.)
A friend of mine has built himself a UP chanter in B. Actually it’s about 20 cents flat from B. I would like to have a B whistle to play with that chanter. I wonder if the Susato B is tunable. A Burke would probably be a little too expensive for that.
Steve
I just got in an alleged Bb whistle (actully B natural) and decided to record something in C# minor, to demonstrate.
Mp3](http://free.gentle.org/users/gospelhymns/Joshua.mp3%22%3EMp3) Clip