You're a very good teacher, Stephanie, because you are able to think of, and communicate to us, key information (no pun intended!) that would not normally occur to a musician already gifted at learning by ear who is trying to explain the process to a novice. At the same time I began learning to play tin whistle, I bought a long length of pvc conduit pipe to cut pieces off as required to make whistles in different keys. I'd recommend folks to try doing that too; it eliminates the frustration of needing a whistle in a key you don't have, and it's economical as well as being so much fun!
So glad you are continuing to make videos. After your 1st strike I wasn't sure. Using the tuning app is a great idea. The last note of a piece is way more reliable than the first. Cheers!
To that point, if you have sheet music but don't know the key, 99% of the time the lowest last bass note represents the key it's in. If you can figure that out, you can tell the key.
Thank you for this clear tutorial. I learned a lot from it. Usually, I try to find the sheet music of a song, and transpose it. Now you made it clear to me how to choose a whistle matching almost the original, minimizing the amount of half notes. Fortunately, I have quite a few different whistles.
Oh My Gosh, Stephanie! This is a great video, and the techniques are very useful. I've just started playing harmonica (easier to play when driving than a tin whistle), which also has the same kind of key limitations as the whistle. I've been trying to work out a couple of old cowboy tunes, and this will really help. (I know I can get tabs online, but where's the fun in that?) The two I'm currently working on are Whoopy-ti-yi-yo and Cool Water. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the video. This chart is really useful especially when you want to play along with other musicians and find pretty quickly the right flute. ❤️
Heeey, CutiPie! I'm still learning with your videos. Thanks so much for this amazing content. QQ, can you do a Wind Naruto tin whistle guide? Loving your tutorials c:
My approach is a bit simpler. I transpose everything to either C or F on Musescore and learn to play it on my C whistle. You can then pick any whistle to play it on using the same fingering. Whether I pick C or F to transpose to usually depends on whether or not it's possible to play the piece on a high C (can't have any notes lower than C5). This is a great technique for beginners because C is usually the first key you learn to sight read and F is the second for obvious reasons.
I hate to be that guy, but learning in D wouldn't be that hard, and less transposing required. I'll grant you going much beyond 2 sharps or flats gets tricky(at least for me).
until you try do some of Levack's stuff and it's in Gb and B major etc. great vid though. I've kind of gotten to grips with this stuff recently but a video like this is practically non existent anywhere. Much props!!!
@@gerrywalsh4413 oh gosh yeah 😅 definitely not something that would work for music that doesn't have a set key signature, or jumps around either. Hopefully beginners won't start there 😅😅😅 Ali's stuff is amazing though!
Playing by ear like this is what drives my desire to acquire many more keys of whistle. When in doubt, I play on a my flute though, maybe that’s cheating 😅
That's a nice light approach to the topic. Stephanie, are you able to say which tuner app you showed? There are many and I have had varying success with some.
Unfortunately not, but you can sometimes find virtual keyboards online to tinker around with now :) I've found the key of a piece of music doesn't directly mean you need THAT same key of whistle, which can be really confusing for beginners. It's all about seeing which whistle keys you have in your collection actually play MOST of the notes you'll need, and any extra notes pretty easily :) haha. A lot of folks pick up the tin whistle with very little music knowledge, and even less theory knowledge - but you've got to start somewhere!
A used piano, or at least a low-end keyboard might be cheaper than buying a set of whistles in every key. Also, to Stephanie's point in the reply, sometimes songs not written for tin whistle may go below the tonic note, thus making it difficult to play on that key's whistle. For example, "Good King Wenceslas" played in D, would drop down below D to A. You could play it on the D whistle in the higher octave, or just play on a G or an A whistle. In the case of G you'd have to half-hole to find the C#, but in A you'd be just fine. However for other songs in D, you may have to find Gnatural if playing an A whistle.
i don't know why but whenever i look at that chart at one min fourty seven my brain just freezes over .... i try a few mins to figure it out then it just hurts lol even though i read sheet music to play from
Tried once to match the key of Bflat minor. Yikes. So I bought an E flat whistle, put scotch tape halfway over the g hole to make it a half hole and lower it half a step to g flat for the whole tune. And that's the whole truth. 🙃 Since then I use the trial and error technique; mostly error 😉 Here's the song in Bflat minor (I think) with a a few words by Tom at the end. So, at the risk of joining the elite and suffering an EMI strike...Thunderball...tinned ! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-j8p0dm95Qfg.html Thanks for the great videos 😍🤩 cheers
@@AndrewUxcentric Oh nightmare 😅 hopefully the little chart helps a bit, gives you the minor keys whistles play in - not always much use though when you get into it. Glad you found a workaround! 😅😅😅😅
