Chiff and Fipple Forums

I was just wondering about when you are playing over chords, what is the way whistlers tend to play? guitarists will tend towards the 3rd, 5th and 7th notes of the scale being played. is there any similarity in styles between whistlers and guitarists? or do you tend towards other notes?

at the moment i'm writing a song with the chords Dm -Gm- A7 verse and GM- Dm A7 chorus. would you use target notes in whistling is what i'm trying to say?

Hey monkey,
listen to this http://www.kerrywhistles.com/dl.php?group=23
4th file down, fall in love with the music, end of.

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

Here's my 0,02 euro's worth:
When writing songs, don't _ever_ think about target notes or any such fancy-schmancy theoretical concepts, just write what feels right! After all, it's your song and you have to make it perfect for yourself. Later on you can analyze what is good and what is not, but don't get ahead of things. Period.

Br, Heikki Petäjistö

Hi Monkey

First of all I'm not speaking from an experience from Irish music as the majority in this forum, I have my backgroung in Danish trad. music. Playing the Böehm Flute.

Usualy I just play the melodi line.
But if I want to play a litle, one of the things to do is sort of "bubble" on the cords. Say 3/4 beat, D cord, /df# af# af#/. 2/4 beat, D cord /df# af#/df# af#/.
In fact any rytmic variation, that fits the specific type of melody/danse that is played, involving the notes in the cord can be used.

I hope that you can understand what I'm trying to say, (English is not my native languice) and you can use some of the advice.

Peter Juul

Gunslinger wrote:I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

Take the basic chord 'C' it contains the notes C-E-G.

from the C major scale -C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C-

The Root note is C- E(third)- G(fifth)

Dminor would be D(root)- F(third)- A(fifth)

pjuuldk wrote:Hi Monkey

First of all I'm not speaking from an experience from Irish music as the majority in this forum, I have my backgroung in Danish trad. music. Playing the Böehm Flute.

Usualy I just play the melodi line.
But if I want to play a litle, one of the things to do is sort of "bubble" on the cords. Say 3/4 beat, D cord, /df# af# af#/. 2/4 beat, D cord /df# af#/df# af#/.
In fact any rytmic variation, that fits the specific type of melody/danse that is played, involving the notes in the cord can be used.

I hope that you can understand what I'm trying to say, (English is not my native languice) and you can use some of the advice.

Peter Juul

Yeah that makes fine sense

monkey wrote:at the moment i'm writing a song with the chords Dm -Gm- A7 verse and GM- Dm A7 chorus.

Good grief. Is the GM in the chorus supposed to have a capitol M (as
in Major chord) or is that a typo? If that's actually minor, then what is
this, Gdorian, or maybe Gmix? I'm still getting the hang of that...
Either way, you'd probably want a Bb whistle (or use a C and maybe
leave out the E's).

I don't think many people think about target notes on the whistle;
since it's not chromatic, it's hard to follow a blues vamp or anything...

monkey wrote:I was just wondering about when you are playing over chords, what is the way whistlers tend to play? guitarists will tend towards the 3rd, 5th and 7th notes of the scale being played. is there any similarity in styles between whistlers and guitarists? or do you tend towards other notes?

at the moment i'm writing a song with the chords Dm -Gm- A7 verse and GM- Dm A7 chorus. would you use target notes in whistling is what i'm trying to say?

Are you talking about improvising? It sounds like it. There is no improvising as such in Irish music. There is a certain amount of variation which is variation of the melody but no 'playing over chords.'

If you want to improvise, the principles are much the same as they would be on any other instrument. The problem though can be which whistle to choose. If you plan to use chord tones, pick a whistle that has all of them easily accessible. In the example you gave, that would be a C whistle, probably.

Improvisation tends to be either melodic or scale-based although you can combine the two approaches. Unless you are really good with half-holing you would need to play over a fairly simple progression. Melodic improvisation isn't too hard on whistle and neither is scale-based improvisation if all the chord tones are easily accessible. Why not just record a loop of that progression and pick up a C whistle and muck about with it. You'll soon figure out which notes sound good in which places.

http://praisewhistlers.org/pwboard/viewtopic.php?t=106

Try that thread for more discussion on this.

Hi monkey, didn't mean to be sharp in my reply, just couldn't figure out what you were asking. This might be useful. For any major scale there is a set of chords that come from the scale. These are based on thirds (count three on the stave) built on the notes of the scale, so the first chord is C major C E G the second chord is D minor D F A etc. You end up with a set of chords C,Dm,Em,F,G,Am,Bdim. If you add another 3rd on top you end up with a more colourful set of chords Cmaj7,Dm7,Em7,Fmaj7,G7,Am7,Bm7b5. The point of this is that if you want to incorporate the whistle in a tune then these chords are a good option because the C scale fits them all. There are lots of links to this like http://www.wholenote.com/ check out the lessons. cheers

Trad-sounding: 1,3,5 as goal-tones.
Kwela-sounding: 3,5,7 as goal-tones.
Super-funky-sounding: 5,7,9 as goal tones.
Superdeduper-funky: you're never more than a semitone away from a really great note.

Suggestions from a long-time jazzer who is cursed with a love of diatonic instruments.

From what I gather, if you try going off on a jazzed-out solo at a trad session, be prepared for some odd looks at very least.

Chiffed wrote:Trad-sounding: 1,3,5 as goal-tones.
Kwela-sounding: 3,5,7 as goal-tones.
Super-funky-sounding: 5,7,9 as goal tones.
Superdeduper-funky: you're never more than a semitone away from a really great note.

Suggestions from a long-time jazzer who is cursed with a love of diatonic instruments.

From what I gather, if you try going off on a jazzed-out solo at a trad session, be prepared for some odd looks at very least.

Very helpful. Thanks for that!

Chiffed wrote:Trad-sounding: 1,3,5 as goal-tones.
Kwela-sounding: 3,5,7 as goal-tones.
Super-funky-sounding: 5,7,9 as goal tones.
Superdeduper-funky: you're never more than a semitone away from a really great note.

Suggestions from a long-time jazzer who is cursed with a love of diatonic instruments.

From what I gather, if you try going off on a jazzed-out solo at a trad session, be prepared for some odd looks at very least.

Thanks, that answers my question exactly

IDAwHOa wrote:http://praisewhistlers.org/pwboard/viewtopic.php?t=106

Try that thread for more discussion on this.

thanks nice link

fearfaoin wrote:
Good grief. Is the GM in the chorus supposed to have a capitol M (as
in Major chord) or is that a typo? If that's actually minor, then what is
this, Gdorian, or maybe Gmix? I'm still getting the hang of that...
Either way, you'd probably want a Bb whistle (or use a C and maybe
leave out the E's).
...

No, it was my error, it should be Gm. I don't think those chords 'fit' any regular scale pattern, the nearest scale i could see would be Bb.