I just joined a band! A four man Irish/Scottish thingie, playing a lot of Irish Rovers style songs. This should be fun!
They have to choose musical keys to suit the lead singer, and this does not always favor the D whistle. I found a website that allows you to transpose and print sheet music in any key, so what I need is a chart which tells me, say, if we’ll perform a tune in Ab, what key do I need to transpose to so I can read and play it as if it was on a D whistle. Did I say that right? Thanks.
About reading music in other keys, only a D whistle will play the same notes that you read on the paper.
No matter what key the tune is written in, a written C is a written C and will only be produced using the C fingering on a D whistle.
Now, about using various whistles to play in various keys (which I do a lot) you just have to be aware that a whistle can play a Major scale beginning on its 1st or fundamental as well as its fourth. I usually prefer using a whistle’s fourth for Major tunes as the leading tone is available.
So, the key of C Major can be produced either using the 1st of a C whistle or the fourth of a G whistle.
Minor scales are available using either the second or the sixth degree of a whistle’s scale.
But as far as sightreading goes, you would have to transpose the sheet music when using anything other than a D whistle, unless you can sight-transpose (which I find very difficult).
(The only sight-transposing that comes easily to me is that I can read the six-finger note of a whistle either as D or as A due to my Highland piping background.)
Anyhow here’s a little chart of the available Major and minor keys on the various keys of whistles:
whistle key/Major1(1st) > Major2(4th) > minor1/Dorian(2nd) > minor2(6th)> Mixolydian/Dorian(5th)
G#/Ab > C#/Db > Bb > F > Eb
G > C > A > E > D
F#/Gb > B > G#/Ab > Eb > C#/Db
F > Bb > G > D > C
E > A > F#/Gb > C#/Db > B
Eb > G#/Ab > F > C > Bb
D > G > E > B > A
C#/Db > F#/Gb > Eb > Bb > G#/Ab
C > F > D > A > G
B > E > C#/Db > G#/Ab > F#/Gb
Bb > Eb > C > G > F
A > D > B > F# > E
So for example if I were to play a tune in E-flat Major I would probably use the 4th degree of an B-flat whistle. For G minor I would use the 2nd degree of an F whistle etc.
What you need is anniemcu and MT Guru’s Whistler’s Circle of Fifths gadget! pm Annie and ask her.
from Annie’s site
That’s the Beta version, but it sure helps… Guess I need to get back to finishing that project up, eh?
I’ve just freed up some time, so after this batch of cases, I’ll try to get that updated. Thanks for the reminder!
I know that.
What I want to do is to know what key to transpose a tune into and print so I can pick up the appropriate whistle and play from the music as if I had a D whistle.
Say we’re playing a tune in A. I don’t know how to read in A, but I have an A whistle. So, I want to take the sheet music in A and transpose it such that it looks like it’s in D, but when I play it on my A whistle it comes out properly in A.
Hi Paul,
I THINK that what you’re asking is how to transpose a tune in D so that you can play it in Ab, but on a D whistle. This does not seem to be possible since you are missing a couple of notes. You can try it by transposing the music up six semitones though.
Another thing you can do is get an Ab whistle and play the music the same as if you were playing a D whistle.
Not sure if I helped or hurt here.
Pete
Lesley transposes the music to D, then plays the result on a whistle in the original key, eg if music is in F (1 flat), transpose it to D and play the new dots on an F whistle. Is that what you want?
Roland
And a fifth at a push, with one note half-holed. So you can play in A on a D whistle remembering to half-hole the G#. Or you can cheat and skip the G#s.
And yeah, transpose anything awkward into D (or G) and treat it as if you’re playing on a D whistle, remembering to pick up a whistle in the right key.
Stay hoopy,
Mike
Well duh, I guess what I want is simply that.. Transpose to D or maybe G and then play it on the appropriate whistle. I was overthinking the problem I guess…
Maybe I should take another look at it, too … 
Paul, our little whistler’s wheel does exactly what you want. But if you know how to spell out the scales for any key, you can easily transpose with parallel scales, using a whistle itself as a “calculator”.
- First, decide what fingering you want to try.
- Finger that note on the whistle
- Mentally assign your target keynote to that note.
- Finger the whistle up or down toward D while spelling out the target scale.
- When you reach the D fingering, STOP.
- The target note you landed on is the key of the whistle to use.
For example, say you have a piece in Ab major. What whistle to use?
- Let’s try a G major fingering.
- Finger the note G xxxooo on the whistle.
- Mentally, call that note Ab (as in Ab major).
- Finger the whistle down toward D while “counting down” the Ab Major scale:
Finger: G - F# - E - D
Think: Ab - G - F - Eb
- You have reached the D fingering, so STOP.
- You landed on a target note of Eb. So that’s the key of the whistle to use (Eb whistle).
So now you know that you can play in the “real” key of Ab by fingering the key of G on an Eb whistle. Transpose your sheet music to the fingered key (G, in this case) and you’re all set.
Another example. You have a piece in D Dorian. What whistle?
- Let’s try A Dorian fingering.
- Finger the note A xxoooo on the whistle.
- Mentally, call that note D (as in D Dorian)
- Finger the whistle up toward D while “counting up” the D Dorian scale:
Finger: A - B - Cnat - D
Think: D - E - Fnat - G
- You have reached the D fingering, so stop.
- You landed on a target note of G. So that’s the key of the whistle to use (G whistle).
Again, you’re playing in the “real” key of D Dorian by fingering A Dorian on a G whistle. Transpose your sheet music to A Dorian.
Of course, as Roland mentioned above, the simplest calculation is always D major fingering, since a whistle in the key of X plays in the “real” key of X major using D major fingering.
Man, this is so much harder to explain than to actually do!
Yeah… we’ve been a bit sidetracked.
Hey Paul,
If you can get the tunes in ABC, this might work:
http://www.folkinfo.org/songs/abcconvert.php
Start with the tune in ABC notation, paste it in the box. You can then transpose up or down by semitone. Hit submit and it spits out the dots.
I’m almost positive I’ve seen free software that can take sheet music from dots to ABC as well.
Jason
If you have an Ab whistle for your Ab tune, just transpose the tune from Ab to D using the software you mentioned. Then use the transposed dots to play the tune on the Ab whistle using D fingering and, viola, you are in Ab.
Hey MT and Annie,
What’s not to like about that one? (Just askin cuz I don’t spot any problems.)
And I adjusted the size slightly, printed it on a CD label and stuck it on an scrap CD. Nice! I didn’t bother with a “cover” cuz by looking at D I can remember the A fingerings are on the left, and G on the right (A,D,G is also alphabetical order.)
Thanks!
Carey
Clever! I’ll have to try that. I daresay it would be easy enough to cut down a CD or use something like a plastic lid from a yoghurt pot that is already smaller to make the upper disc and fasten with a pivot of some kind for the full version- Annie, there’s your manufacturing problem solved at the starter, DIY home manufacture level.
Actually, the Test Version sent out to our list of guinea-pi …er… I mean, ‘carefully selected product functionality testers’ … had the assembly instructions included. If anyone wants a copy of that, PM me. But I suggest that you wait a little bit for the finished version. It’s been so long that I don’t even remember if I made all the suggested tweaks yet.
Sarah/annie
Thanks for the gentle kick in the seat of the pants, though. 