• ||| Tunes List for Tinwhistle (pennywhistle) Generation Eb brass whistle A list of about 120 songs and traditional tunes that I've found to be playable on the tinwhistle, including 50 Christmas carols... with notes on playing, fingering charts, tables of keys and modes, pics of whistles, pics of whistle players...


It's a .pdf. Here's an excerpt:

Introduction

This document is essentially a list of songs and tunes I've found to be easily playable on the whistle / tinwhistle / pennywhistle - without resorting to special fingerings, or half-opened holes. I've added some additional material that might be helpful to people trying to kick off their whistle-playing careers.

The tinwhistle is a diatonic instrument, meaning that it's designed to serve up seven-note 'diatonic' scales (rather than chromatic scales that include all of the notes within an octave). This make the whistle most suitable for traditional folk tunes and pop melodies... rather than, say, Bach, Schoenberg, or be-bop. See the Other keys and scales paragraph.

I've listed the tunes here with the key and first note as they would be played on the D whistle, since it is far and away the most popular variety. Any tune may be played just as easily on whistles of any other key. Whistles are available in (at least) the following keys: Bb, C, D, Eb, F, and G (from low to high). I recommend trying out the Generation F whistle, in particular - for variety, because it has a sweet tone, and to increase the number of keys available for playing with other musicians.

To generalize, each whistle can be played easily in several key / mode combinations, the most useful / playable being: 1 major, 1 mixolydian, 2 Aeolian (minor), 2 Dorian (minor), 4 major, 5 Dorian (minor), and 6 Aeolian (minor). The numbering here refers to the 'native' key / scale of the instrument. On an F whistle, for example, 4 major would be the scale of Bb major, since Bb is the 4th degree of the scale of F. See the table to the right for how these various keys and scales apply to the D whistle. All of the tunes listed below in the keys of D and G use the major scale (Ionian mode). The tunes in Em (The Halting March) are almost always in Aeolian mode (flatted 3, 6 and 7). Child Grove is in Dorian mode (flatted 3, natural 6, flatted 7) which is had by playing in the key of A on a D whistle.

The tunes and songs list (a sample of the hundred or so songs in the list.)

[name of tune - key / first note - date discovered]

Amazing Grace - G / d - Aug 2000

America the Beautiful - G / g - Aug 2000

As Tears Go By - G / g - 1998?

At the End of a Long Lonely Day - G / g - 1999?

Auld Lang Syne - G / d ...and play it double-time for a reel. [x] harp: NG - 31 Dec 1999

Bolero - Ravel - G / g - 12 June 2000, Cap D'Ail, France, after hearing it played on a recorder by mad woman in the Liedseplein, Amsterdam

Brahms Lullaby - D / f# ("Lullaby and goodnight...")

Battle Hymn of the Republic - D / a (or G / d) - mid 1980s?

Blue Skies - Irving Berlin - G / low e - summer 1999

Greensleeves - A Dorian / low e (Dorian, but natural 7) - mid 1980s? It's an odd duck, this Greensleeves: It uses the flatted 3 and the natural 6 exclusively, but employs both the flatted 7 (g), and the natural 7 (tricky half-hole g#). The usage has nothing to do with whether the scale is ascending or descending, so it's not following the melodic minor pattern (...and in that case the 6th also jumps back and forth). It's essentially a Dorian mode tune that also uses the natural 7. Greensleeves dates to Elizabethan times, says The Fireside Book of Folk Songs.

The Star of the County Down - E Aeolian / low d - 1998?

Staten Island Hornpipe - D / a - no longer hard to remember, but a bit tricky, as it employs both the natural and the flat 7. - 1978 or so. First phrase: a a g f# d f# g a, a a a d d a

Sweet Betsy from Pike - G / g - rediscovered Nov 2000

The Twelve Days of Christmas G / d - but includes a c# : d e c# d ("..five golden rings...") This phrase is part of a circle-of-fifths excursion, with the e and c# indicating an A7 chord. - Dec 1999

Three Blind Mice - G / d - good clean fun, lots of room to jump around - Amsterdam, June 2000

Three Coins in a Fountain - G / high e - summer 1999

Twelfth of January (The Battle of New Orleans) - D / high d .

When the Saints Go Marchin' In - G / g - a good one - mid 1999

William Tell Overture - Rossini - G / d - Amsterdam, June 2000, after hearing it played by a Russian brass band outside the Reiksmuseum. Great fun. This was the theme music for the Lone Ranger TV show.

Wildwood Flower - D / low f# - summer 1999

You Are My Sunshine - G / low d - mid 1980s, probably

Last edited 26 May 2007


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