Thanks you ever so kindly sir! This is so great compared to other channels! Most of those "tutorials" are people showing how good they are at playing a certain song, and then just playing it a wee bit slower... But this! This, this is truly amazing! Thank you for sharing these techniques! Have a wonderful rest of your day!
Sir, you look like a 6 foot giant. I find it very funny watching you play such a tiny instrument. By the way your video was great and your explanations clear. Thank you very much
Hahaha - well, I am 6' tall, not sure if that qualifies me as a giant but in the band that I play with I'm definitely the tallest and play the smallest instruments. Makes airplane travel very easy. Glad you like the video!
"ALL YOUR EXERCISES ARE BELONG TO US"... I don't even care what you teach here specifically, I decided to learn it when I read that line on the thumbnail...
I haven't purchase a tin whistle yet. I thought C whistle would be the choice. I read thru the comment below, and D whistle is the answer. Very great tutorial. Thanks!
I try to stay away from notation for ornaments only because there's more to it than just what the notes say on paper. That being said, I've got an idea for an "exercises part II" video that will cover some more things like this in more detail, so keep an eye out!
What I'd like to see is a tune, aire, reel, jig, etc, written with and without ornaments. The only reason for this is to see what you can do during the plain tune and how it changes with ornaments, like where the opportunities are for ornaments and what kind of thing you might put in. That being said, the ornamented version would need to be explained while it's played somehow, since it's not always easy to assign a pitch to a cut. I know when I try to do roles and grans they always sound crazy awkward and like i'm just playing up and down quick. Thank you for this!
Hello, I'm from India. Your videos are great. I had made my own PVC penny whistle since they are not available in India. But yesterday I ordered 'Waltons Little Black Whistle' from Amazon. Is it good for an amateur tin whistle player? Thank you in advance..☺
Sure, really anything will work for starters as long as it's in the key of D. If you find that you enjoy playing you can always spend some money on a higher-end handmade whistle.
I would like to know how you are able to play a C-natural on a D whistle. The D whistle is tuned for the D major scale which has F# and C#. The C natural is required for the G, and the Am scales. If, you intended to reference different modes of the D scale, that would be different, but otherwise, on a D whistle, I think you may be restricted to D-major, B-minor, or some other modes of D (someone with a better grasp on music theory can add the names of those modes if they are so inclined).
I'm watching this and it's great, you can hear playing with ornaments really adds colour to the tunes. Is it just me though it is it hard to tell the difference between a cran and a roll? Could someone kindly explain it to me?
This may seem like a dumb noob question but I am a complete novice, How are you able to get all those different keys in one whistle or is that just going through the 3 different octaves? Great video though and I will definitely start practicing these.
Not a dumb question at all - if you run the scales you'll see how that works. You can play a D, G, and A scale (plus relative minors) on the same whistle just by changing your starting note and making one or two fingering adjustments. Good luck with your practice!
In playing tunes are ornaments strictly followed? Example, as long as one is playing rhythmically would it much matter if one tapped on note below the primary or two? Or if one tapped say, twice one note above rather than one above, one below?
I always wonder what's the proper position of a mouthpiece in the mouth when doing basic rolls? I mean when tapping the holes the impact of the strike bounces off my upper teeth which is not so good in my opinion as may cause micro (but still) damage to the teeth. Whats your take on this mate?
I have the notes basically down on the high D whistle. Now, I am looking for an etude and a tunes book for learning. Can you make any suggestions? BTW, I am a professional cellist just learning whistle. I also have a little background in oboe, so the fingerings came kinda naturally.
Hi - there's one by L.E. McCullough that's very popular called The Complete Irish Tin Whistle Tutor that goes into various fingering/ornament stuff. If you're just looking for tunes then O'Neill's collection is the alpha and the omega.
This was very helpful thank you so much. My question is about rolling the B or C# and low D?? I guess we don't..? Since there isn't a not above to cut on B or a note to tap on D?
Sorry, I just noticed this comment - you can roll on a B, but not on C# or D, that's correct. There are options for that such as a cran on low/high D though.
Hi Ive just started learning to play on a Kilarney D it cost me $95 so it's a half decent whistle. I have a continuing problem in that low D breaks to high D even though im blowing soft. I have even taken it out of my mouth with the holes covered and gently blown again and the whistle still blows in high D I basically have to shake the whistle and begin again for it to 'clear' Have you any ideas as to why?? It's kinda frustrating as I'm doing ok and have learned lots of tunes after only 2 weeks.!!
That's surprising for an instrument of that quality - if it's not possible to play a reliable low D then there may be a manufacturing problem and it would be worth talking to Killarney about it.
You asked if we had a question...I didn't understand your reference to "different scales." I thought each whistle had only one key. So..there are different scales available for each whistle because of its base note? How do I find out the associated scales? (that which is used to make up a chord from its tonic?) [I have Google music knowledge..just enough to tantalize, confuse, frustrate, make me Think I know, but actually know little.] How did you know where to start your scales? Thanks in advance. Also, Great tutorial and advice, very much appreciated.
Ahh good question - each whistle can play in 3 major keys and 4 minor keys depending on where you start your scale. So the D scale starts on the D (and includes a C#). The G scale starts on G (it uses C-natural). The A scale starts on A and has both a C# and a G# which is half-holed. The relative minors start on B and E and use the relative scale (D and G, respectively). Am is a combination of the A scale (so starting on A again) but using C-naturals and G-naturals. Hope that helps, it's hard to write that out but I did a different video on whistle keys a while back, that might help too!
Could you do a lesson on transposition? On a D whistle I play a C# as oxxooo. On other whistles such as a Bb or F this fingering does not sound right. How should I change it?
I assume you mean C-natural but it really depends on the whistle and the best bet is just to play that note into a tuner to see which fingering sounds the best. Try oxxxox, sometimes that works better.
Yes, C natural. I was inattentive. I posted this question on "The Session" and received many response about fingerings other than oxxooo. It seems odd to me that a change in the whistle key requires different fingering. Dang physics!
It's the same in English music too, and it's all very well as far as tune players go. You'll have melodeon players happily telling you that we're playing in E minor, and if they're talking to folk fiddle player or a tin whistler, everything's fine because we know what we're talking about because we all make the same mistake. However, try teaching a guitar player who thinks that we really are playing in E minor (because that's what you told them) why the chords they are playing don't fit. Like all of us I still tend to say "minor" when it's actually dorian, but I do try to change and be clear about it when talking about accompaniment ... really, I do, sort of, when I remember.
It took me a while to realise this properly since as with most folk musicians playing melodies, we just play the tunes and don't think much about modes and other technicalities. For us that play the tunes, it's not really much of an issue, but for guitar players and others playing chords, it's something that should be very closely observed. Basically, the folk and traditional music of Britain and Ireland (England/Wales/Scotland/Ireland) hardly ever uses the natural minor scale (Aeolian mode), but the minor-sounding dorian mode. For example, the natural minor on a D whistle is B minor not E or A minor. What we so often call E minor is in fact E dorian. Dorian mode starts on the second note of a major scale. So, E dorian starts on the second note of the D scale and then uses the notes of a D scale. Same with what we often call A minor. It's actually A dorian, starting on the second note of the G major scale and then using the notes of the G scale.