by Pyro Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:39 am
tragicanimation wrote:Yeah I did notice that the recorded version is in A but for the life of me I cant find anyone who makes a high A whistle so I thought that maybe Spider was using something different. Trial and error it is!!
Thanks Phil
High A is not made by any ordinary maker, as far as I know - it would have to be even smaller than G, which is so small, it´s unplayable for some people (for example me
).
Good thing is, whistles are such instruments, they can play in two ways. Either, by playing usually, or by "transposition" - by playing everything "three holes higher". All whistles can play in two keys - C can play in F, D in G, E in A. I play A tunes on E whistle. It´s partly matter of luck. There are tunes, which would force you to go deep into third octave, which is mostly either ear-killing, or unplayable. Especially on E whistle. But that´s mostly with dance tunes - usual "pub" songs with singing can be played this way.
To give an example: start of Star of the county down on C whistle would go like that (numbers indicate numbers of closed holes; ^means 2nd octave): ^3-^4-^5-^5-^5-^6-^5-^3-^3-^2-^3-^2-^1-^2-^3-^5-^5-^6
On F whistle, it´s playable too, as this: ^6-0-1-1-1-2-1-^6-^6-^5-^6-^5-^4-^5-^6-1-1-2
Hopefully it´s understandable. If not, tell me, I can show you on youtube.
Or, if you have enough money for not-so-useful whistle (in my opinion), you can call Colin Goldie who makes Overtons - he´s rumored to be able to craft almost any whistle
[quote="tragicanimation"]Yeah I did notice that the recorded version is in A but for the life of me I cant find anyone who makes a high A whistle so I thought that maybe Spider was using something different. Trial and error it is!!
Thanks Phil[/quote]
High A is not made by any ordinary maker, as far as I know - it would have to be even smaller than G, which is so small, it´s unplayable for some people (for example me :-)).
Good thing is, whistles are such instruments, they can play in two ways. Either, by playing usually, or by "transposition" - by playing everything "three holes higher". All whistles can play in two keys - C can play in F, D in G, E in A. I play A tunes on E whistle. It´s partly matter of luck. There are tunes, which would force you to go deep into third octave, which is mostly either ear-killing, or unplayable. Especially on E whistle. But that´s mostly with dance tunes - usual "pub" songs with singing can be played this way.
To give an example: start of Star of the county down on C whistle would go like that (numbers indicate numbers of closed holes; ^means 2nd octave): ^3-^4-^5-^5-^5-^6-^5-^3-^3-^2-^3-^2-^1-^2-^3-^5-^5-^6
On F whistle, it´s playable too, as this: ^6-0-1-1-1-2-1-^6-^6-^5-^6-^5-^4-^5-^6-1-1-2
Hopefully it´s understandable. If not, tell me, I can show you on youtube.
Or, if you have enough money for not-so-useful whistle (in my opinion), you can call Colin Goldie who makes Overtons - he´s rumored to be able to craft almost any whistle :-)
