Whenever I feel unmotivated to practice recorder (and soon the whistle) I picture myself as a freaking Satyr, dancing and playing beautifully with no trouble, mesmerizing travellers and luring them into the woods so I can trap them in the feywild.
The wonderful thing about the whistle is it puts music within the reach of anybody. For just a few pounds you can buy a perfectly playable instrument and start having fun. One thing you didn't mention is, if you are thinking about buying a first whistle then the key of D is the best place to start. That way you can play along with the tutorials here on YT. That's how I started, I don't claim to be any good but I'm loving the journey. Great post.
And all of the tunes I have are written in the key D. Some tunes are in G, but meant for a D whistle anyway, as it's easy to play in G on a D whistle within a certain range.
yes and no :) Low D for a first whistle might be a mistake? however, High D would be ideal. the wide spaced finger holes on a low D instrument could create a possibly insurmountable challenge for inexperienced players (dont ask) haha
they're also really easy to learn compared to other instruments! practice for a few weeks/months and you'll already be able to attend trad sessions, few years and you can be a virtuoso!
Thanks for the great video Sarah and well done for giving a shout out for English Traditional Music. England has a rich folk music history and a diverse repertoire, and it's great to hear it mentioned here. Happy playing everyone :)
I was thrilled to see you do a video on tin whistles! In fact, I wish you’d do more! I’m teaching myself to play the alto recorder, having been a modern flute player in an orchestra setting for approximately 10 years some time ago. At the same time I purchased my Yamaha 312 recorder, I also bought a Feadog Pro High D whistle and set it aside to concentrate on the recorder. But this past week, I found myself drawn to the whistle every day. I’m compelled to overcome the tonal challenges of the 2nd octave and transitioning between octaves. I can reach the higher notes, but I feel like I’m in “attack mode” when I do! I don’t remember ever having this embouchure issue while learning to play the flute, but it’s very humbling. Anyway, I hope you’ll do more whistle videos because you make it seem effortless to go between the recorder and the whistle, and I’m sure you can offer some excellent advice!
Great video Sarah! I got a Tony Dixon high wistle for my birtday. It's tuneable and made of plastic, I love the sound! I used it a little while ago to play in a wedding service in an coustic setting band, worked perfectly in the church acoustics and the bride and groom loved it! :D
Great intro! Whistles are a fun, inexpensive entrée into the world of wind instruments. I often have both recorders and whistles sitting around and jump back and forth or play the same tune first on one, then the other.
And I bought both an Alto and a Tenor and have started to learn how to read music again,,, after 36 years New life for me, I made my old Aunt cry with my newly mastered "Silent Night"
Love to see you start a Irish Whistle channel. I saw some vids you did about 4 years back with some great experimentation. I know you probably have little time...but just a hope. Amazing. Thanks. Steve Clark. Australia.
Sarah, I really enjoyed the video. When I first started playing the tin whistle, someone told me that if you immerse the plastic head in boiling water for a brief time, it melts the glue and you can pull the head off. After that, you can tune them just fine.
Nice that you included South Africa in the countries where the whistle is played. I became aware of the pennywhistle through the videos of the S. African pop group Mango Groove.
I started off playing the tin whistle last year and got a bit bored of having to wait for tabs tutorial on UA-cam 😂 soon after I found team recorder and started learning how to play the recorder . I adore the sound of recorders and the repertoire. I love my whistles but I feel like I have more flexibility with one recorder.
A large part of Irish music tradition is learning to play by ear. Aside from that, there's a lovely Welsh lady (CutiePie) who has a channel devoted exclusively to helping beginners learn popular tunes on the whistle.
Thanks! I'm a guitar player, nothing to do with whistles, but in the recent years I just got to know and love celtic music, especially things like Lunasa or Dervish for example, and I finally decided to buy a tin whistle just yesterday! I can't wait for it to be delivered! Thanks for the video, it was very helpful, as I know virtually nothing, aside from a couple of small things they taught me in the early years of school on a cheap recorder.
Greetings from Orange County California. I'm no rank amateur with the whistle, but I can only dream of my fingers flying over it like yours do. Good show.
The tin whistle is a great instrument, I love playing mine. Great video. The Tin Whistle is also played in Traditional Provincial South African Music called Kwela. It’s a very beaitiful form of music with many similarities to Jazz.
@@WayneKitching Thanks for sharing that with me. I didn't realize I listened to that before, till I looked it up. Nice to relisten to a good classic. Playing in B flat on a C Whistle, that's pretty nifty, I find it extremely difficult to play a Chromatic notes on the whistle. It'd be cool to visit various places in Africa, South Africa probably being one of them in the future. I hope things get better over there. Thanks for sharing.
Wikipedia says flutes have been reliably dated back to 40,000 years ago. I wonder what the source is for the 80k years ago. Maybe a different type of carved flute or whistle. Impressive we've had music so long! The Low G whistle looks like a heavy metal Drop D bass guitar of the flute world. Great video.
I loved your introduction! (And your accent!) I play the flute and I like to explore new boundaries through all the woodwind instruments.. My brothers recently bought me a 'quena', the way you have to put your fingers is a little bit different and not easy at all but you should try it sometime. Its sound is charming, too. Thanks for your post! Greetings from Argentina!
I've written chamber ensemble pieces that include the English and/or French seven-keyed flageolet--an instrument that seems to me as well-suited for involvement in complex chromatic polyphony as the recorder.
The expensive one might be louder but the cheap one had a open more folk sound to it. But what do I know I'm a North Carolina bluegrass player and never played Irish music.
Thanks for the video. Tin whistles are really a great invention. Isn't it funny how low the low whistle appears to sound when, in fact, it isn't that low at all? With D above Middle C as its lowest note, it's still a soprano instrument, like a flute or an oboe.
"My heart will go on " was actually the first piece of music I learnt on my flute ...now I think this would be more fun (mostly easier) for me to play on tin whistles .
Thank you, Sarah, for this interesting video! I love whistles, they are so d*** cheap and yet they sound good. Of course there are the top of the range ones who sound best but they cost a dear penny, whereas the cheaper ones sound good and you can take them to the beach, to the camping site, to do a bit of trecking and they don't get damaged... And if they do, you buy another. I remarked though that there are relevant differences between cheap ones. Some, as said, sound good. Others not so much. And they cost more or less the same, so it's not a matter of price. I have a D Sweettone by Clarke which has a conical bore and sounds extremely good, very mellow and "flutish". I also have a Waltons C and a Waltons D. They have a cylindrical bore and are somewhat more "tinny" but are still lovely. Of course I couldn't resist but buy a low D even though they are so incredibly expensive. I ended by buying a MK pro low D and it sounds sooo nice. But it's heavy... And you need a lot of breath control.
Penny whistles are also fun crafting projects. I made one myself out of pvc pipe and some wood and all I needed were a hacksaw, a ruler, a pencil, a pocket knife, a pair of scissors, and a phone (calculator and tuner). I don't really understand if it's a low g or a g, so I'll say that the G it is tuned to is G4, which is typically the 4th G on a piano, or the g string of a ukulele (tuned re-entrantly)
At 03:40 after hearing the pitch change, I made the exact same face :o Thank you for this very valuable information. I really didn't know there was a reliably tunable whistle.
8:32 If you're enamored with your "all-time favorite": "My Heart Will Go On," you'll love it's counterpart from the same movie and from same composer: "Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave." 😊 ♫
Great to see some Tin Whistle content, I follow Dean at @TinWhistleTV as in sure he would love your content on the Tin Whistle as he is trying to learn the Tub Whistle.
Hi, I am a "reedocorder" player, and I think if you don't want an instrument that you can play everywhere, including the bathtub, I'd rather buy a Kunath Clarineau with 3 keys. Better tuned and you can get it in recorder fingering for the lower register.
I have played the tin whistle for many years and found the Clark original is flute like in sound. Also ,you don't have to play Irish tunes as the whistle covers many other types of music, I for example like to play classical tunes and English folk songs. Happy New Year to everyone.
Omg I love Sarah’s videos so much! I was wondering how common is it for recorder players to double on tin whistles? I’m always trying to be more like you on my channel, thanks for the inspiration!
@Team_Recorder thank you for this insight. I play many wind instruments but my favourite by far is the harmonica which is also diatonic. A key part of playing Diatonic Harmonica is to play in different "positions" (eg. a C harmonica can be played in 2nd position as G or 12th as F) Is this also done on diatonic whistles or are they always played in the prescribed key? Thanks.
Because an open first hole on the whistle is like playing natural harmonics on a guitar (on the 12th or 7th fret..depending on whether you close all the other holes or just the 2nd and 3rd.
I am a Scottish fiddler and whenever someone is like “do you have the music for this” I’m like give me a second *me opens up the session on my phone* “Here you go!”
Have you ever played a Mike Burke whistle? They have an added thumb hole for making the fingered C natural actually in tune. Highly recommend checking them out
Cool video! Subbed! I've been recording some tin whistle over the last couple of days. (It's not my instrument really). I like the look of those tunable ones. Mine seem to have gone 44% of a semitone sharp from concert pitch. I had to do some backing tracks for the whistle parts and sharpen them.
Excellent timing dear. I want to know where I can buy the plastic/polymer head stock for the these whistles, WITHOUT the body. My new hobby of flute making is getting tired of cutting air/sound holes and that pesky angled fipple. (Don't get me started on the flute block...ug). I will then make the rest of the whistle out of material of my preference. THANKS AGAIN! North Central Florida, US
You could buy tuneable Dixon whistles, put the body aside and make your own bodies. I would recommend for you to choose the the so called traditional Dixon models. You could use the same plastic fipple for high C and high D (all traditional high whistles are good, regardless of polymer-brass or full polymer), and same fipple goes for alto Bb and A and maybe for Alto G. High traditional whistles cost around £15-20, alto whistles cost around £30-40 (best altos are traditional Bb and A with plastic fipple and brass body; full polymer low G is out of tune, polymer-brass low G is OK), and low whistles (I recommend full polymer with exchangeable flute and whistle head; polymer head and metal body is more out of tune) costs £70.
Good video! I write only to say that "El cóndor pasa", as a folk South American song, it is played with a "quena", a sort of wooden whistle, where the mouthpiece is open at the top, with the bevel starting there. Better explained here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quena.
Those low whistles are amazing! Do you think they're something I could play being a 5'3" shortie with small hands? Thank you so much for your wonderful content and all of your enthusiasm!
Nice video! We tin whistlers feel very glad to see you cover our instrument :) however, I hope you do realize El Cóndor Pasa is Peruvian.???? It’s like if you got God Save the Queen and called it a pop song. :0
Because of this video i made an Irish whistle from a multilayered water pipe and it was so good to play THEEEEEEEN I accidentally found a feadog key of D in junk store in a touristic place in Tunisia, i took it for less than 2 $ !!!
Hmm, the many diatonic variants of tin whistles may play in my favor as a B-flat low brass player. Been interested in possibly adding a bass recorder to have another bass instrument to go with my tuba (and electric bass), but it's fingering of flats/sharps look more complicated than brass or even a bass ocarina I've picked up recently. Still, a B-flat whistle (along with some other select key signatures; possibly as low whistles as I simply prefer the lower register) could fit in with my brass decent enough with a simplified fingering system. Definitely going to look into a possible B-flat concert whistle, but do you have any experience with ocarinas to make a comparison between the three different styles of flutes?
Hi, I play trumpet, and as you know is a Bb instrument and we are always having to transpose when we play with other instruments. With the tin whistle being in so many keys, this really frees us up to play with others more easily. I also have a key of C trumpet. I also play tin whistle, and I too have a Bb whistle and an Eb and an F and my gift for Christmas is a Tony Dixon low A whistle. It's a nice size, not too big at all. I have wee little hands. One thing about this lady is.. she wasn't doing any tonguing while demonstrating. Tonguing makes the tin whistle sound much better than it did when she demonstrated. She say she is a professional, so she probably does do this when she seriously plays. The tin whistle sounds much better than her demonstrations here. Go to other tin whistle players sites such as Cutiepie.
Here in Valencia and Catalonia we have something similar called "flabiol" (or "flabiol de gralla" in Catalonia), which is like a wooden recorder, but with only six holes (in Valencia it may have seven) plus a thumb hole.
I play the diatonic ''blues'' harmonica. But all can play 5 modes going up in 5ths eg the c harp plays C maj G mixolydian D minor blues A natural minor and E harmonic minor. An F harp will play F major C Blues (mixolydian) and so on. I used to go to a gig with 24 harps Then I learned all the modes (harp players call them 'positions) and could play most anything on 7 harps Anyhoo, I've found this on the tin whistle as well. Is there a chart to transpose these 'positions' on the Irish whistles? For all keys?
Acyutananda das I’ve never seen a chart. But one whistle can definitely give you all seven modes. Plus if you half hole you can get another 3 or 4 scales quite easily. So a D whistle will easily give you D major, E nat minor, E melodic minor, E Dorian, F# Phrygian, F# minor, G Lydian, G Major, A myxolydian, B natural minor, B melodic minor, and C# locrian. Now you could push it past that, but then it’s not “easy”. 👍🏻
I feel you, bro. It's not really possible to practice quietly, so what I do myself is to go out somewhere open and practice there. Don't mind people passing by (from my experience they are often delighted hahah)
I have a little question, I've played the flute for quite a while and I was wondering if you need to clean the inside of the whistle after playing like you would with a flute or other woodwind?
I started using Susato ones because they just produce a lot more volume for pubs or for me at the time to play along with a pipe organ. I honestly just like the sound more now. I use my generation ones when I need to be quiter lol.
I have C and D tinwhistles, currently ABS because I hate the sound of the metal ones, but honestly I much prefer the versatility of the Recorder, although the Tim whistles are sometimes handy for octave tremolos that don't work on Recorder. Still the tinwhistles mostly stay in my bag.
I own a couple of whistles, somebody gave them to me as they wanted me to perform something with them that had flute switching to recorder. First, it was really confusing to finger, say, what would be a C on flute and get a D instead. My brain took a bit to adjust. The other thing was picking what key recorder I wanted to use. NormalIy, I can transpose very easily in my head as I am reading music, but that part where you finger one note, get a different note WHILE transposing totally got me. And then there's trying to half-hole stuff while sustaining any kind of allegro related tempo. Not happening, haha. I have a lot of respect for you! I am wondering, though, if conically shaped recorders have the same intonation issues as conically shaped piccolos. And if you use alternative fingerings to deal with it. A lot of piccolo players (I want to say ALL picc players, but there might be one or two exceptions) are best friends with alternative fingerings. So are flute players. Makes me wonder if recorder players do it, too.
I always thought that fingerings for a whistle in D was practically the same as a flute. First finger and thumb on flute is "B", no thumb for whistle, but first finger is "B" on whistle. 'C' is odd on whistle only because it's not in the 'D' diatonic scale, so you play sort of a muffled C#. And no fingers on flute or whistle are both C#. The only real difference to me is F fingering on flute is F# on whistle, but, you know, whistle is diatonic in D major.
And since I can't really transpose on demand, I prefer to have all tin whistle music written in D or G (or relative minor) for a whistle in D even if I play another key of whistle.
Making whistles are fun. Around 1995 or so I came across plans for making a low-D whistle out of aluminum shower curtain rod, and a couple weeks later I had four of them. NOT so easy to play.. those huge holes.. And you really need lungs for those.
Great fun! When I saw that Chieftain low D I wondered how you would cover that huge hole (second from the bottom) but you obviously have much more agile fingers than I do. I find I have to use a “piper’s grip” on the lower hand only when I grab my Dixon low D to play, even though I find the Mollenhauer Dream tenor quite comfortable with a “recorder grip”. Oh - a recommendation for a PVC whistle that sounds lovely and is very portable: parkswhistles.com. No affiliation, just a satisfied customer as they say. I keep a Walkabout (3 piece) D whistle in my shirt pocket pretty much all the time for impromptu playing. Happy New Year!
El Condor Pasa is of course known by the Simon and Garfunkel version, but is was writen far before that by the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Cóndor_Pasa_(song) ). It was based on traditional Andean music.
Sarah, thanks for all of this (and I love your enthusiasm). Talking the other night with a performer about his tin whistles and noticed they DO have thumb holes. Is that something new? Or just expensive? I'm just learning, mostly in the hope of restoring some lung power/breath control
Whenever I feel unmotivated to practice recorder (and soon the whistle) I picture myself as a freaking Satyr, dancing and playing beautifully with no trouble, mesmerizing travellers and luring them into the woods so I can trap them in the feywild.
Omg hahahahaha, I love this, now I know how to motive my self either xd
Or the pied piper luring the children away from their parents as a punishment towards humanity for not keeping its promise
The wonderful thing about the whistle is it puts music within the reach of anybody. For just a few pounds you can buy a perfectly playable instrument and start having fun. One thing you didn't mention is, if you are thinking about buying a first whistle then the key of D is the best place to start. That way you can play along with the tutorials here on YT. That's how I started, I don't claim to be any good but I'm loving the journey. Great post.
And all of the tunes I have are written in the key D. Some tunes are in G, but meant for a D whistle anyway, as it's easy to play in G on a D whistle within a certain range.
yes and no :) Low D for a first whistle might be a mistake? however, High D would be ideal. the wide spaced finger holes on a low D instrument could create a possibly insurmountable challenge for inexperienced players (dont ask) haha
they're also really easy to learn compared to other instruments! practice for a few weeks/months and you'll already be able to attend trad sessions, few years and you can be a virtuoso!
First, and most importantly, 3:40.
Secondly, what a lovely and enthusiastic introduction to whistles.
Thanks for the great video Sarah and well done for giving a shout out for English Traditional Music.
England has a rich folk music history and a diverse repertoire, and it's great to hear it mentioned here.
Happy playing everyone :)
Never clicked so fast on a notification! I love the sound of a tin whistle, greetings from MX
I gotta get back tin whistle playing! Thanks for the video Sarah!
I’m a pianist and organist but I appreciate how fun they are to play and gorgeous the recorder and all the wind instruments sound, team recorder power
organ is my favinstrument
I was thrilled to see you do a video on tin whistles! In fact, I wish you’d do more! I’m teaching myself to play the alto recorder, having been a modern flute player in an orchestra setting for approximately 10 years some time ago.
At the same time I purchased my Yamaha 312 recorder, I also bought a Feadog Pro High D whistle and set it aside to concentrate on the recorder. But this past week, I found myself drawn to the whistle every day. I’m compelled to overcome the tonal challenges of the 2nd octave and transitioning between octaves. I can reach the higher notes, but I feel like I’m in “attack mode” when I do! I don’t remember ever having this embouchure issue while learning to play the flute, but it’s very humbling.
Anyway, I hope you’ll do more whistle videos because you make it seem effortless to go between the recorder and the whistle, and I’m sure you can offer some excellent advice!
Great video Sarah! I got a Tony Dixon high wistle for my birtday. It's tuneable and made of plastic, I love the sound!
I used it a little while ago to play in a wedding service in an coustic setting band, worked perfectly in the church acoustics and the bride and groom loved it! :D
Proof that a good musician can make even the cheapest instrument sound good
Great intro! Whistles are a fun, inexpensive entrée into the world of wind instruments. I often have both recorders and whistles sitting around and jump back and forth or play the same tune first on one, then the other.
I thought that was an old video. I should turn my notifications on. I bought an alto recorder last week thanks to you ((:
And I bought both an Alto and a Tenor and have started to learn how to read music again,,, after 36 years
New life for me, I made my old Aunt cry with my newly mastered "Silent Night"
And I just ordered the plastic Mollenhauer Adris Dream because of Sarah.
Love to see you start a Irish Whistle channel. I saw some vids you did about 4 years back with some great experimentation. I know you probably have little time...but just a hope. Amazing. Thanks. Steve Clark. Australia.
Yes. I have watched a number of her vids. Thanks.
Sarah, I really enjoyed the video. When I first started playing the tin whistle, someone told me that if you immerse the plastic head in boiling water for a brief time, it melts the glue and you can pull the head off. After that, you can tune them just fine.
Oh I forgot to say that it works!
Nice that you included South Africa in the countries where the whistle is played. I became aware of the pennywhistle through the videos of the S. African pop group Mango Groove.
I started off playing the tin whistle last year and got a bit bored of having to wait for tabs tutorial on UA-cam 😂 soon after I found team recorder and started learning how to play the recorder . I adore the sound of recorders and the repertoire. I love my whistles but I feel like I have more flexibility with one recorder.
A large part of Irish music tradition is learning to play by ear. Aside from that, there's a lovely Welsh lady (CutiePie) who has a channel devoted exclusively to helping beginners learn popular tunes on the whistle.
Thanks! I'm a guitar player, nothing to do with whistles, but in the recent years I just got to know and love celtic music, especially things like Lunasa or Dervish for example, and I finally decided to buy a tin whistle just yesterday! I can't wait for it to be delivered! Thanks for the video, it was very helpful, as I know virtually nothing, aside from a couple of small things they taught me in the early years of school on a cheap recorder.
You should totally listen to Omnia if you haven't already :D
When I started many years ago, I got two books, Geraldine Cotter's and L.E. McCullough's. I much preferred Cotter's.
A tutorial devoted to the full range of cross fingerings to make a chromatic whistle would be a great boon!
Best introduction I've ever seen. Thank you.
Greetings from Orange County California. I'm no rank amateur with the whistle, but I can only dream of my fingers flying over it like yours do. Good show.
The tin whistle is a great instrument, I love playing mine. Great video.
The Tin Whistle is also played in Traditional Provincial South African Music called Kwela. It’s a very beaitiful form of music with many similarities to Jazz.
It's unfortunate that Kwela Music is so seldom written down. Most of what we have are brilliant recordings. ua-cam.com/video/qqSUdhsaYGU/v-deo.html
I wanted to mention Kwêla music. I am South African and used to (badly) play "Special Star" by Mango Groove in B flat on a C whistle.
@@WayneKitching Thanks for sharing that with me. I didn't realize I listened to that before, till I looked it up. Nice to relisten to a good classic.
Playing in B flat on a C Whistle, that's pretty nifty, I find it extremely difficult to play a Chromatic notes on the whistle.
It'd be cool to visit various places in Africa, South Africa probably being one of them in the future. I hope things get better over there. Thanks for sharing.
Amazing playing. Very natural video style. Thank you.
Wikipedia says flutes have been reliably dated back to 40,000 years ago. I wonder what the source is for the 80k years ago. Maybe a different type of carved flute or whistle. Impressive we've had music so long!
The Low G whistle looks like a heavy metal Drop D bass guitar of the flute world. Great video.
I loved your introduction! (And your accent!) I play the flute and I like to explore new boundaries through all the woodwind instruments.. My brothers recently bought me a 'quena', the way you have to put your fingers is a little bit different and not easy at all but you should try it sometime. Its sound is charming, too. Thanks for your post! Greetings from Argentina!
Thank you! I didn't know how to hit the high D in my clarke sweet tone until you showed me!
Just the video I was looking for! So well done!
I've written chamber ensemble pieces that include the English and/or French seven-keyed flageolet--an instrument that seems to me as well-suited for involvement in complex chromatic polyphony as the recorder.
Amazing!!! Please do as many of whistle videos as you possibly can!
And do an ocarina video, too! 😊 🎼 ♫
The expensive one might be louder but the cheap one had a open more folk sound to it. But what do I know I'm a North Carolina bluegrass player and never played Irish music.
I ordered an irish whistle, I had no idea you played those too!!!! I guess I know where to go for info about that.
Just to throw it out there... I have a tin whistle with a thumb hole on the back!
Great video, didn't know you played tin whistle too!
OMG I'm watching this again and noticed your Irish accent noice and I'm rolling in laughter cause it's accurate!!!
You’re just a doll Sarah , love your videos 😊
Thanks for the video. Tin whistles are really a great invention. Isn't it funny how low the low whistle appears to sound when, in fact, it isn't that low at all? With D above Middle C as its lowest note, it's still a soprano instrument, like a flute or an oboe.
"My heart will go on " was actually the first piece of music I learnt on my flute ...now I think this would be more fun (mostly easier) for me to play on tin whistles .
"My heart will go on" is a great song... Just "perhaps" played too many times.
Thank you, Sarah, for this interesting video!
I love whistles, they are so d*** cheap and yet they sound good.
Of course there are the top of the range ones who sound best but they cost a dear penny, whereas the cheaper ones sound good and you can take them to the beach, to the camping site, to do a bit of trecking and they don't get damaged... And if they do, you buy another.
I remarked though that there are relevant differences between cheap ones. Some, as said, sound good. Others not so much. And they cost more or less the same, so it's not a matter of price.
I have a D Sweettone by Clarke which has a conical bore and sounds extremely good, very mellow and "flutish". I also have a Waltons C and a Waltons D. They have a cylindrical bore and are somewhat more "tinny" but are still lovely.
Of course I couldn't resist but buy a low D even though they are so incredibly expensive. I ended by buying a MK pro low D and it sounds sooo nice. But it's heavy... And you need a lot of breath control.
Unfortunately in my country is not cheap at all
@@gabrielvieira9832 I'm sorry to hear that. It's probably because they have to ship them overseas from Ireland or England and all the taxes.
Penny whistles are also fun crafting projects. I made one myself out of pvc pipe and some wood and all I needed were a hacksaw, a ruler, a pencil, a pocket knife, a pair of scissors, and a phone (calculator and tuner).
I don't really understand if it's a low g or a g, so I'll say that the G it is tuned to is G4, which is typically the 4th G on a piano, or the g string of a ukulele (tuned re-entrantly)
Thank you Sarah, your music is as pretty as you are 😘
At 03:40 after hearing the pitch change, I made the exact same face :o Thank you for this very valuable information. I really didn't know there was a reliably tunable whistle.
Me:
There’s no way a recorder/whistle channel would work
Also me:
Ooooooooooh a new video!! Eeeeeeeeee!
Yaaaaay
My favorite music teacher. :)
Bless you. This video is an exceptional tool for learning this instrument for orchestration.
8:32 If you're enamored with your "all-time favorite": "My Heart Will Go On," you'll love it's counterpart from the same movie and from same composer: "Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave." 😊 ♫
Happy New Year from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!
Great to see some Tin Whistle content, I follow Dean at @TinWhistleTV as in sure he would love your content on the Tin Whistle as he is trying to learn the Tub Whistle.
Hi Sarah, would u please do a review of Yamaha Venova? Would be great to see you do it!
Hi, I am a "reedocorder" player, and I think if you don't want an instrument that you can play everywhere, including the bathtub, I'd rather buy a Kunath Clarineau with 3 keys. Better tuned and you can get it in recorder fingering for the lower register.
Yes!!! Finally Sarah ....that was very helpful video...you are an amazing musician ❤️
I have played the tin whistle for many years and found the Clark original is flute like in sound.
Also ,you don't have to play Irish tunes as the whistle covers many other types of music, I for example like to play classical tunes and English folk songs.
Happy New Year to everyone.
Happy new year 😎 your vlogs are cool 😊
Omg I love Sarah’s videos so much! I was wondering how common is it for recorder players to double on tin whistles? I’m always trying to be more like you on my channel, thanks for the inspiration!
Yeah Ive only known one other recorder player to double, but they doubled traverse flute... I dont know that many recorder players...
I also wondered this!?
Good question! When I was back in England it was quite common amongst my folkie friends.
Lol Folkie where do people play tin wisltes like fairs or in concert halls,... that might be a dumb question i guess
i suppose it is likely to be common. as common as clarinet players doubling as saxophone players.
I enjoy your videos Sarah but I would be really interested in your opinion about the Chalumeau ?
@Team_Recorder thank you for this insight. I play many wind instruments but my favourite by far is the harmonica which is also diatonic. A key part of playing Diatonic Harmonica is to play in different "positions" (eg. a C harmonica can be played in 2nd position as G or 12th as F) Is this also done on diatonic whistles or are they always played in the prescribed key? Thanks.
Just lovely!
Because.....physics....!
Simples 😍
Because an open first hole on the whistle is like playing natural harmonics on a guitar (on the 12th or 7th fret..depending on whether you close all the other holes or just the 2nd and 3rd.
I am a Scottish fiddler and whenever someone is like
“do you have the music for this” I’m like give me a second
*me opens up the session on my phone*
“Here you go!”
Have you ever played a Mike Burke whistle? They have an added thumb hole for making the fingered C natural actually in tune. Highly recommend checking them out
Nice video about the Tin Whistle! 😊 👍
Great video Sarah, do you have a playlist for the Tin Whistles?
I had 2 tin whistle for Christmas xD Thank you for the video
Hapy New Year Sarah !!!!!
Cool video! Subbed! I've been recording some tin whistle over the last couple of days. (It's not my instrument really). I like the look of those tunable ones. Mine seem to have gone 44% of a semitone sharp from concert pitch. I had to do some backing tracks for the whistle parts and sharpen them.
Sarah you're beautiful and talented and your content is fantastically educational. Thankyou!
Excellent timing dear.
I want to know where I can buy the plastic/polymer head stock for the these whistles, WITHOUT the body.
My new hobby of flute making is getting tired of cutting air/sound holes and that pesky angled fipple.
(Don't get me started on the flute block...ug).
I will then make the rest of the whistle out of material of my preference.
THANKS AGAIN!
North Central Florida, US
You could buy tuneable Dixon whistles, put the body aside and make your own bodies. I would recommend for you to choose the the so called traditional Dixon models. You could use the same plastic fipple for high C and high D (all traditional high whistles are good, regardless of polymer-brass or full polymer), and same fipple goes for alto Bb and A and maybe for Alto G. High traditional whistles cost around £15-20, alto whistles cost around £30-40 (best altos are traditional Bb and A with plastic fipple and brass body; full polymer low G is out of tune, polymer-brass low G is OK), and low whistles (I recommend full polymer with exchangeable flute and whistle head; polymer head and metal body is more out of tune) costs £70.
Dixon and Susato (look in Kildare section) sell Head Sections.
Kerry whistles sells replacement plastic heads for the optima whistle line, if you're interested in doing low whistles.
Good video! I write only to say that "El cóndor pasa", as a folk South American song, it is played with a "quena", a sort of wooden whistle, where the mouthpiece is open at the top, with the bevel starting there. Better explained here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quena.
Thank you for the reference!
Those low whistles are amazing! Do you think they're something I could play being a 5'3" shortie with small hands? Thank you so much for your wonderful content and all of your enthusiasm!
You should have no problem. Go at it.
Happy new year for all family ! Will You show some hiper-simple yet catchy tunes for whistle in the future?
Check out tutorials by Cutiepie.
I think tin whistles sound even more distinct than the flute. When she plays, I always think of the DCOM The Luck of the Irish. _🌈_
wow... very good
Nice video! We tin whistlers feel very glad to see you cover our instrument :) however, I hope you do realize El Cóndor Pasa is Peruvian.???? It’s like if you got God Save the Queen and called it a pop song. :0
omg thanks for pointing that out! I am a butthole. a good reminder that I should do my research better in future..! 🙏🏼
@@Team_Recorder hahaha Nooo! But hey, I didn't know simon and garfunkel covered it so i learned something new!
Because of this video i made an Irish whistle from a multilayered water pipe and it was so good to play
THEEEEEEEN
I accidentally found a feadog key of D in junk store in a touristic place in Tunisia, i took it for less than 2 $ !!!
Hmm, the many diatonic variants of tin whistles may play in my favor as a B-flat low brass player. Been interested in possibly adding a bass recorder to have another bass instrument to go with my tuba (and electric bass), but it's fingering of flats/sharps look more complicated than brass or even a bass ocarina I've picked up recently. Still, a B-flat whistle (along with some other select key signatures; possibly as low whistles as I simply prefer the lower register) could fit in with my brass decent enough with a simplified fingering system.
Definitely going to look into a possible B-flat concert whistle, but do you have any experience with ocarinas to make a comparison between the three different styles of flutes?
Hi, I play trumpet, and as you know is a Bb instrument and we are always having to transpose when we play with other instruments. With the tin whistle being in so many keys, this really frees us up to play with others more easily. I also have a key of C trumpet. I also play tin whistle, and I too have a Bb whistle and an Eb and an F and my gift for Christmas is a Tony Dixon low A whistle. It's a nice size, not too big at all. I have wee little hands. One thing about this lady is.. she wasn't doing any tonguing while demonstrating. Tonguing makes the tin whistle sound much better than it did when she demonstrated. She say she is a professional, so she probably does do this when she seriously plays. The tin whistle sounds much better than her demonstrations here. Go to other tin whistle players sites such as Cutiepie.
Happy New Year 2022
Here in Valencia and Catalonia we have something similar called "flabiol" (or "flabiol de gralla" in Catalonia), which is like a wooden recorder, but with only six holes (in Valencia it may have seven) plus a thumb hole.
Yes, that’s another fipple flute.
Hey!!!! Happy new year!!!! Let's go 2019.
New Year, New Great Videos!
Thanks for the whistle love 👍
I play the diatonic ''blues'' harmonica. But all can play 5 modes going up in 5ths eg the c harp plays C maj G mixolydian D minor blues A natural minor and E harmonic minor. An F harp will play F major C Blues (mixolydian) and so on. I used to go to a gig with 24 harps Then I learned all the modes (harp players call them 'positions) and could play most anything on 7 harps Anyhoo, I've found this on the tin whistle as well. Is there a chart to transpose these 'positions' on the Irish whistles? For all keys?
Acyutananda das I’ve never seen a chart. But one whistle can definitely give you all seven modes. Plus if you half hole you can get another 3 or 4 scales quite easily. So a D whistle will easily give you D major, E nat minor, E melodic minor, E Dorian, F# Phrygian, F# minor, G Lydian, G Major, A myxolydian, B natural minor, B melodic minor, and C# locrian. Now you could push it past that, but then it’s not “easy”. 👍🏻
@@miguelarango208 I'm gonna write all that out on a card and keep it w my whistles Thank you!!!
I was curious about the tin whistle because of Eluveitie.. it sounds very cool in their folk metal style xd
Would I be able to practice these quietly? I live in a rented room with multiple people in the house and I don't want to bug anyone
I feel you, bro. It's not really possible to practice quietly, so what I do myself is to go out somewhere open and practice there. Don't mind people passing by (from my experience they are often delighted hahah)
Pedro Miguel Abdo Fidélis de Paula this is literally what I've been doing lol blowing quietly in the my room just did not work
@@dombombed especially not in the upper octave. Maybe the bottom two or three notes.
0:50 Now THIS is beautiful.
mmm more random knowledge to impress my friends with at the pub.
I like your pronunciation and playing. Thanks
Yeah, you can play any music on any instrument just as long as you like it and can transpose it/get a score for it.
I have a little question, I've played the flute for quite a while and I was wondering if you need to clean the inside of the whistle after playing like you would with a flute or other woodwind?
Because physics....... You are great, sarah...
Happy new year!
You should try an american fife, has the exact same fingerings, except it's a traverse flute rather than a fipple one
I started using Susato ones because they just produce a lot more volume for pubs or for me at the time to play along with a pipe organ. I honestly just like the sound more now. I use my generation ones when I need to be quiter lol.
I have C and D tinwhistles, currently ABS because I hate the sound of the metal ones, but honestly I much prefer the versatility of the Recorder, although the Tim whistles are sometimes handy for octave tremolos that don't work on Recorder. Still the tinwhistles mostly stay in my bag.
I own a couple of whistles, somebody gave them to me as they wanted me to perform something with them that had flute switching to recorder. First, it was really confusing to finger, say, what would be a C on flute and get a D instead. My brain took a bit to adjust. The other thing was picking what key recorder I wanted to use. NormalIy, I can transpose very easily in my head as I am reading music, but that part where you finger one note, get a different note WHILE transposing totally got me.
And then there's trying to half-hole stuff while sustaining any kind of allegro related tempo. Not happening, haha. I have a lot of respect for you!
I am wondering, though, if conically shaped recorders have the same intonation issues as conically shaped piccolos. And if you use alternative fingerings to deal with it. A lot of piccolo players (I want to say ALL picc players, but there might be one or two exceptions) are best friends with alternative fingerings. So are flute players. Makes me wonder if recorder players do it, too.
I always thought that fingerings for a whistle in D was practically the same as a flute. First finger and thumb on flute is "B", no thumb for whistle, but first finger is "B" on whistle. 'C' is odd on whistle only because it's not in the 'D' diatonic scale, so you play sort of a muffled C#. And no fingers on flute or whistle are both C#. The only real difference to me is F fingering on flute is F# on whistle, but, you know, whistle is diatonic in D major.
And since I can't really transpose on demand, I prefer to have all tin whistle music written in D or G (or relative minor) for a whistle in D even if I play another key of whistle.
But which one does Picard use on the inner light episode?
Making whistles are fun. Around 1995 or so I came across plans for making a low-D whistle out of aluminum shower curtain rod, and a couple weeks later I had four of them. NOT so easy to play.. those huge holes.. And you really need lungs for those.
Great fun! When I saw that Chieftain low D I wondered how you would cover that huge hole (second from the bottom) but you obviously have much more agile fingers than I do. I find I have to use a “piper’s grip” on the lower hand only when I grab my Dixon low D to play, even though I find the Mollenhauer Dream tenor quite comfortable with a “recorder grip”. Oh - a recommendation for a PVC whistle that sounds lovely and is very portable: parkswhistles.com. No affiliation, just a satisfied customer as they say. I keep a Walkabout (3 piece) D whistle in my shirt pocket pretty much all the time for impromptu playing.
Happy New Year!
El Condor Pasa is of course known by the Simon and Garfunkel version, but is was writen far before that by the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Cóndor_Pasa_(song) ). It was based on traditional Andean music.
Hello Sarah. Please can you confirm or not if an Irish Whistle is the same as the South African Penny Whistle?
Sarah, thanks for all of this (and I love your enthusiasm). Talking the other night with a performer about his tin whistles and noticed they DO have thumb holes. Is that something new? Or just expensive? I'm just learning, mostly in the hope of restoring some lung power/breath control
The large whistle sounds so much like a flute!
I like to play asian melodies with my whistles!!! The sound is so awesome 😍😍😍
Thanks. Very interesting and useful
Can you do a plastic recorder collection video
Already done! Search her channel or search you request in the YT search bar.
@@soslothful that was a what plastic recorders do you recomend video
@@instrumentaddict30 Ah. Yes.