I think I know the answer to this question, but I’m going to ask it anyway. I have a friend that plays alto recorder, which is in the key of F. When we play together, which whistle should I use, my C whistle or whatever whistle is appropriate for the key of the tune we are playing?
If you really must mix the two, and you really want to be near the same key. Why not a low G.
What strange song will you play with this mix?
Whatever you do, please record it and send an mp3 to Clips and Snips so we can all hear it. The site will be online again within a couple of days. You can email the file to me any time so I can upload it asap.
whistletunes@hotmail.com
Tony
My friend was visiting us and we had a ceili. Just for the hell of it, we worked up a tune (a slow air) on whistle (G), recorder (alto), and guitar. It was very nice.
Jessie
Since the recorder is chromatic, and the whistle is semi-chromatic, I’d think that you can use whatever whistle works best for the key of the song. The fact that the alto recorder is in F doesn’t really matter - actually, for certain keys (Eb for example), it’s a heck of a lot easier to play on an Eb whistle than an F recorder.
As for mixing the two, it really works. I know a few folk on this board look at the recorder with distain, but I’ve always considered it an advantage to be fluent in both. Both whistles and recorders are good children, and play well with others…
Disdain? For recorders? No, not at
all. I just wouldn’t want my daughter
to marry one. They’re all right, in their
place, maybe, I think.
Actually I couldn’t agree with you more.
Just have to keep up appearances.
It’s a friendly feud.
My niece plays a recorder at school, (I’m beginning to think I’m the only fourth grader that didn’t get one). She really liked the whistle I made for her though. She finally quit calling it a recorder, there’s hope in that girl yet.
jeff
ThorntonRose
I vote for the C whistle with the F recorder(or vise-versa). They are both in the “F major triad”(F-G-C),are a major 5th apart and a great deal of recorder sheet music covers duets in these 2 keys.
Major triad keys are seperated in intervals of 1-3-5 or root-3rd-5th.To be more precise they are seperated by 4 semitones and 3 semitones respectively on the equal temperment scale.
Jessie K’s “G” whistle mix works because the guitar is tuned to an E scale and a G whistle is in the E major triad of E-G-B but also in the C triad of C-G-E.
Would you consider “shaving” the upper tube of a Bb whistle to make a B whistle Jessie? It would be a perfect match a 5th above the guitar(E-G-B). An “A” Recorder/Fife with baroque fingering would also do the trick.
Of course there are other minor and augmented triads that will work,but the fingering would be more complex.
Thomas Hastay.
A low G is what you want. An Alto recorder in “F” is actually in G, with the lower F and F# " sorta tacked on in the foot joint. The fundamental scale if this recorder is a G scale. Similarly, a Soprano in “C” is pitched the same as our old friend the D whistle