current songs and learning to translate

[Son of Eric]

Hello All,

I have been learning the whistle for sometime now and am learning a few older songs. But was curious to see, the availability, perhaps difficulty, necessity, and want to also play modern songs on the whistle, by artist like James Taylor, drop kick murphy's, bob dylan, neil young, etc. Are these tunes difficult to transcibe to whistle, do they sound to off for a whistle, just want some opinions, advice on learning to play my favorite modern tunes. Also was interested in finding any American Civil war songs that I can learn to play, or any research pertaining to the whistle during the civil war.

Thank you very much,

Paul

[mutepointe]

Dear Paul:

I don't play much itm (other than the requried danny boy 2x/day.) non-itm music sounds great on a pennywhistle/flute, some songs won't especially if there are lots of accidental sharps and flats. folk music like james taylor sounds great and if you're playing with an ensemble, even better. i only wish that i could play the guitar and the whistle at the same time. the downside is that popular music is written in lots of keys and you have to be able to transpose either in your head or by writing down what the notes would be on a pennywhistle. if you're playing with a d whistle, then everyone else playing with you will have to get their instruments in the right key too.

i saw on this forum that someone in the dave matthews band plays the pennywhistle.

good luck, tell us how it goes.

[piedwhistler]

I love to play Civil War songs on whistle! I bought a lap dulcimer book of Civil War tunes that works perfect for whistle. Wright key and range on almost all of the songs. If you want the authors name, send me a pm.

[stevetcm]

Hi Paul, you're asking some big questions here. You mentioned the word transcribe. IMHO transcription is probably the most useful skill any musician can have. Technically It's the ability to write down in notation the musical phrase you've just heard (or imagined). More usefully it's the ability to play on your instrument what you've just heard. This can be developed to an amazing degree so that someone like Wynton Marsalis can listen to a phrase and then play it back note perfect. Needless to say good ITM players can do this as well. It's not magic or luck, more to do with visualising where the fingers go to produce the sounds. Try googling "ear training or Juillard"
Also try a search on this forum for whistle keys.
hope this helps
Steve

[Key_of_D]

Couldn't help but notice you name... "son of eric.." haha, I didn't know I had a son........

Anyways, I don't know much about the other two you listed, but, there's quite a few dropkick murphy songs that can be played on the whistle. I use do to it all the time. But, nowadays it seems I focus more on traditional music, so I don't play them much anymore. There's some songs on Do or Die, The Gang's all Here, (if you have more then just a D whistle) Sing Loud Sing Proud has quite a few, and Blackout has a couple as well. But that note I mentioned about having to have other whistles than D, is where your songs will come in. Some of them are in D, maybe even better A. Some songs in C, and some songs you'll need a Bb, or Eb whistle. I like to use both the Eb and Bb, but, you could get by with just the Eb, sometimes I just prefer the lower notes of the Bb. I know of only one song in F, and that's Billy Bones off their Volume One Singles Collection, which, is a brilliant album. And the song Far Away Coast, you could play the whistle part in there a little easier if you used that ear-peircing little G whistle. I suppose you could use a low G whistle, but that's up to you. Enjoy!

-Eric

[fearfaoin]

I think it is excellent fun playing modern songs (tunes don't have
words...) on the whistle. After I realized a couple Fall Out Boy songs
were easy on the whistle, I considered starting a monthly "Annoy
your children by playing their music on the whistle" thread...

I don't know what your music background is, but the easiest way to
get started is to find songs that are already in D (if you're using a D
whistle...), and learning those. If you want an easy-ish way to find
these, google for, say, "James taylor chords". This will give you sites
that have the guitar chords above the song lyrics. Look for songs
that start and/or end on the chord D (or where the majority of the
chords are D, G, and A [and maybe Bm]).
For example, Carolina in my Mind

[Son of Eric]

All,

Thanks for the advice, thoughts, etc, I am going to look up some DKM chords and see if I can learn to play from guitar chords (an excellent suggestion, I have thought about, but never really tried.) I just find many of my friends play modern folk, rock, etc but they play bass, guitar, etc, so I think an introduction of a whistle might be fun. Again, Thanks for all the help and advice, any more suggestions I will gladly take them?

Anyone know a good source for American Civil War whistle songs or history the use of the whistle in the Civil War. (Heard at one time they were used by the signal corp, but not sure.)

Thanks,

Paul (Son of Eric) Erickson