Hi Everyone: For the church players out there (I noticed alot in the Whistler Day Job section so don’t hide from me now!)
I play in church (flute and just recently whistle) and am looking for suggestions for some more songs that are “Whistle friendly”
Any one know any?
Deb
Amazing grace is one of the better hymns for a low whistle in my opinion… doesn’t sound too hot on anything above a Bb though.
I find that most hymns are like most Christmas carols… they are fairly easy to play on a whistle.
Be Thou My Vision is perfect.
As The Deer, Jesus Draw Me Close, and my personal favourite of all time, “We wait upon you” which has an awesome whistle part… I can’t find a link to it’s music anywhere though.
Mostly, plead with your worship leader to do more stuff in G, D, Am, and Em 
The range for most vocal music in these keys is very playable on whistle, especially if you fill around the tune rather than play the tune all the time.
Richard
The majority of the songs on the CD “Revival in Belfast” are beautiful and very easily done. This is a CD by Robin Mark and is also a great listen. I like When All is Said and Done (solo) Lion of Judah (Bb worship), and another great gently flowing worship tune in C that I can’t seem to remember the name of. They sell a book of it as well that my pianist uses. Can’t recommend it strongly enough.
Jef
A couple of my favorites are “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus”. Also, “When All Thy Mercies, Oh My God”, “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say”, “Now Thank We All Our God”, and “Fairest Lord Jesus”. You should really learn “Be Thou My Vision” as mentioned earlier. I get lots of requests for it.
On 2002-03-01 17:03, ScottStewart wrote:
A couple of my favorites are “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus”. Also, “When All Thy Mercies, Oh My God”, “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say”, “Now Thank We All Our God”, and “Fairest Lord Jesus”. You should really learn “Be Thou My Vision” as mentioned earlier. I get lots of requests for it.
Some wonderful ideas there!
We’re singing “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” the next two Sundays and my fingers kept itching for my whistle during choir practice last night.
The name of the tune usually associated with that poem by Horatius Bonar is Kingsfold, a lovely traditional English tune harmonized by Ralph Vaughn Williams which has been used to set a number of other texts and which can in fact be used with any hymn in CMD meter.
John
In my hymnal, the hymn “The Master Has Come” uses “The Ashgrove” melody. Its in F in the hymnal so I transposed it to D (both melody and harmony parts) and did a duet with a flute player. That worked nicely on my D whistle.
Also, you might try just just going through your hymnal and trying all the hymns that are in keys that you can easily play on whatever key whistle you happen to have.
“What Wondrous Love is This”, “Jesus, Be the Center”, as well as the wonderful songs mentioned above.
Robin Mark has done a follow-up recording to Revival in Belfast, entitled “Come Heal This Land” which is also very inspiring. Whistle playing abounds on both of these recordings, and the songs are simply awesome. Also, you might like to give a listen to another recording, “Hungry,” put out by the Vineyard Music Group. There are some great whistle songs on this one as well.
Eden’s Bridge is another great group. Also, if you like all of the above, but you also like progressive rock, give Iona a listen.
And of course, let’s not forget Maire Brennan!
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” is one of my favorites - works well on low D. On the contemporary side, “El Shaddai” works well (I play it on a low C), “Ancient of Days,” and “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” are a few I’m playing these days.
And, “Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy” (also known as “I Will Arise”) is a great song! There’s a version of it on the new Fernando Ortega CD (“Storm”) that is wonderful!
Cal
Hello Folks,
This is a great thread! I am getting all kinds of ideas.
“Christ Be Beside Me” is one I can think of.
The more common melody to this is “Morning Has Broken” We are playing that one for St. Patricks Day. The wording of the song follows closely to a prayer St. Patrick wrote.
Yes, “I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Say” is excellent! I have heard it played in a moderate tempo and then it goes off into a jig.
“Lord Of All Hopefullness” is another one, although off the top of my head I cannot recollect what tune it follows.
I will need to check out the CD’s mentioned in this thread. I hope they are sold at the local Christain book store.
Laura
Great thread! He Leadeth Me is also nice on the whistle. I echo the votes for Robin Mark’s music.
randy
Wow!!! Thanks so much everyone!!
DrRichard…I shouldn’t have too much problem with pleading with the worship leader as he is my hubby and wants me to do more and more whistling!
I do have the Robin Mark CDs and musicbooks, and have attended a teaching session with his whistle player (yeah, I am bragging here!)
So far I have the fill-in on Garments of Praise/Hallelujah down pat (hours and hours of practice) and we pulled it off last week with no problems whatsoever, now I’m working on the one at the end of Revival!
Can anyone give me the details (songwriter, CCLI#) to “I heard the voice of Jesus say” I don’t think I know this one…
Thanks for the absolutely great suggestions!
Deb
Good topic! I play flute/whistle with worship team too. I basically listen to what the song ‘needs’. Some just sound better with one or the other. Some have key changes and rather than switch whistles in the middle, I just use flute. Some have accidental (out of normal key) notes, and rather than half-holing, I’d use flute.
In addition to all the suggestions previously listed, I’ll also add that I’ve noticed that any Deliriou5 songs go well with whistle. Probably blends with the ‘e-bow’ sound more.
BTW, please contact Mac Hoover. He’s been especially kind to those of us who play at church. I bought a high E from him for “Vineyard” songs. 
According to the Episcopal 1982 Hymnal in the notes at the bottom on #482,“Lord of All Hopefulness”- words:Jan Struther
music: Slane, Irish ballad melody
One of my favorites is#585-" Morning glory, starlit sky" love the words, and the tune is great and very playable on whistle.
This post is great, I am going to work on several of these tomorrow. And it reminds me I’ve been wanting to try some plainsongs on whistle. Thanks
On 2002-03-02 19:09, WhistlerWannaBe wrote in part:
Can anyone give me the details (songwriter, CCLI#) to “I heard the voice of Jesus say” I don’t think I know this one…
This is old! We’re talking hymns, not songs!
See the Cyberhymnal page on the piece:
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/h/iheardtv.htm
The tune I associate with it is Kingsfold, as I wrote earlier, but there are a couple of others listed there too.
John
This is old! We’re talking hymns, not songs!
19th cent doesn’t qualify as old! Over here we usually sing ‘I heard the voice..’ to the tune Vox Dilecti
One of my favourites is ‘Tell out my soul’, based on the Magnificat (Luke 1.46-55)
With Easter approaching, try using ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’ set to the folk tune ‘Waly Waly’ (sometimes ‘O waile waile’) A different tune often adds freshness I reckon.
I’m Jewish, but for some reason whenever I pick up a low D whistle, I start to play O Come, O Come Emmanuel (learned this in High School chorus). Must be the part about rescuing captive Is-ra-el…
On the Jewish side of the aisle, the tune Shalom Aleichem which is traditionally sung at the beggining of Sabbath is gorgeous, and works very will on a whistle, with some half holing. There are tons of Hassidic Niggunim which are good too-- little wordless tunes, chanted with la-la, da-da, etc syllablles to induce a spiritual state. Think of the song “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof-- the part that comes just after the words of the title.