My question is why D whistle is more popular than C whistle?
See page 18 of “it’s sickening” (sufferin sucatash!). There’s some info that will help.
Cheers!
Thanks.
“The standard whistle for Irish music is D, (i.e. C and F built into the whistle as sharps)because most Irish music is in the Key of D, about 55%. Another 40% is in the Key of G,which you can get by playing C natural rather than C sharp. Only about 5% of Traditional Irish music appears in other keys, and most of that is A.”
My next questions is:
do I need a C whistle?
I find the C very useful. There is some discussion of this in http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?topic=2563&forum=1&9
I agree that a C whistle is nice to
have. They’re fun just to play alone,
cause they’re a bit lower than the D,
and that sounds nice. Also a fair amount
of Celtic music I play along with on CDs
needs a C whistle. Basically if you
get into this stuff seriously you
end up with a D whistle, a C, an A,
a Bb, a G, and then off to the low
D. A C is an OK place to go after the D,
but it helps to buy a good one.
Does this lead to your next question?
As a guitarist, I often tune all my strings down a full step, so the C whistle is my first choice for playing over my own recorded backings. However, I also like to tune the guitar DADGAD (which is probably considered standard tuning in Ireland), and in this case, the D whistle gets the nod. Of course, when playing with others, it’s D all the way, except that one of my friends also likes to tune down a full step. Back to the C in this case! Confusing enough for ya?
That is an interesting tuning. I’m not familiar with it. Are you describing the notes from low to high? Can you use regular guitar strings for this tuning? And finally, is there a website which shows the chords? Oh, I forgot–this is OT! -JP
On 2002-02-23 03:36, JohnPalmer wrote:
That is an interesting tuning. I’m not familiar with it. Are you describing the notes from low to high? Can you use regular guitar strings for this tuning? And finally, is there a website which shows the chords? Oh, I forgot–this is OT! -JP
The notes DADGAD do go from low to high. You can use regular strings but the lowered notes may be a little slack. Han Speek has a website with some information. There are some other places too if you search.
http://home.hccnet.nl/h.speek/dadgad/
While this tuning is popular it is not universal. John Doyle and Artie McGlynn have both used DADGBE (or dropped D). Dennis Cahill sticks with standard tuning.
Steve
On 2002-02-22 22:49, jim stone wrote:
Basically if you
get into this stuff seriously you
end up with a D whistle, a C, an A,
a Bb, a G, and then off to the low
D.
Yep, then you get into crazy keys like Db! And then maybe two tabor pipes played simultaneously in harmony!
Yep, the Soprano D is the “gateway” whistle… The interest starts innocently… “just this once…” but no… a year later - 70 whistles fatter an unsuspecting mom in a minivan looks over at you as you pass her in the fast lane with two tabor pipes in your mouth driving with your knees doing 90 and dials 911 on her cell phone! He he he…
Blayne
Hi, Steve!
Great page on DADGAD tuning!
Ian Melrose said that both he and Noel Duggan switch between standard and DADGAD tuning when playing for Clannad and Norland Wind. I was also told that John Denver favored dropped-D tuning, and that Ed Gerhard uses double-dropped-D tuning on his version of Turlough O’Carolan’s “Si Beag, Si Mhor”. And, of course, Joni Mitchell tunes WAY, WAY down. The music world is definitely full of weird tunings, so that’s why we always need more whistles. Right?
Slan,
BB
There’s probably another reason that D’s are more popular than C’s: the suckers have more punch on the bell note…I don’t know if this is because makers tend to try to use D size tubing to make their Cs or what.