How to play the Irish Whistle

Introduction:
This tutorial will try to cover all the basics as well as give some extra pointers to
more advanced players. I am in no way the best whistle player out there, but I do
have many years of experience, and have had the wonderful privilege of learning
from some wonderful whistle players over the years. My first official whistle and
flute lessons came from the incredible talented Justin Murphy who played in a
wonderful band called "Legacy" as well as the "Poor Clares." His whistle and flute
playing are complete perfection. Over the years I have played in hundreds of
sessions and learned more tunes that I have counted and forgotten half of them.
I played for a few years with an Irish band in Coos Bay Oregon, and have
performed and recorded on the whistle since about 1996.

Scale:
The fingering of the Irish whistle is very simple. It plays a major scale from the
tonic (root) note of the whistle. For example a “D” whistle will play a D major
scale. The fingering goes straight up and down, and the second octave is achieved
by blowing a little harder. There are six holes on the whistle so you have the
seven note combination of the major scale through two octaves (at least).
Note: Most of the info in this tutorial will use a D keyed whistle for the examples.
The fingering should still apply to any other key as far as scales and
ornamentation; just the actual notes will be different.

Fingering for the D scale: X= Covered Hole O= Open Hole   <= direction of
mouthpiece
D:   <XXX XXX
E:   <XXX XXO
F#: <XXX XOO
G: <XXX OOO
A: <XXO OOO
B: <XOO OOO
C#: <OOO OOO
D: <OXX XXX (second octave)
Note: The top hole can be left open for the second octave D this will help insure
that you play the second octave easily rather than a squeaky version of the low D.
Note: a “C” natural can be played (useful for many tunes in the key of G) by the
following fingering:
<O X X O O O
Note: The second octave “B” can be slightly problematic on some whistle models.
If you are having trouble getting this note to play try using the following fingering
for that specific note:
<XOO OOX

Breath Control:
Breath control for whistle playing is the most important part of getting a good
tone on your whistle. It is especially important on the lower whistles which require
a more stable limited supply of air. It's a softer breath for the lower whistles,
but it is actually more air that is going through the instrument even though it feels
like you are blowing softer. You basically hold your mouth in a different position
and once you get used to the right amount of air for all the different notes you
will build up muscle memory to be able to hit them right on and with enough force
to make all the notes nice and strong. Proper breath control will allow you to
switch octaves easily and quickly throughout the whole scale of the instrument. It
will also make your playing smoother cleaner and more "traditional" sounding when
executed properly.

Exercise #1. The Octave Jumper
Goal: Build your breath stamina, muscle memory, and help you be able to quickly
and easily jump from any note to another note on the whistles seamlessly.

What to do:
This exercise is basically playing a scale on your whistle while jumping up and
down in octaves. What you do is start with the lowest note on the instrument (all
holes closed on a D whistle it would be the lowest D note) and play it, then with
only your breath jump up to the second octave above the bell tone (the higher D
on a D whistle) and back down to the low note. Then switch to the second note of
the instrument (the E on a D whistle, 1 hole open) and play the low note jump up
the octave with only your breath and back down. It should take a cumulative 2
seconds to play the low note, high note, and low note again. It is important that
you get the timing very even and accurate and do this exercise rapidly up and
down the whole scale. When you first start some of the higher notes will squeak a
bit until you get used to blowing just the right amount of air for those notes.

Exercise #2. The cough scale
Goal to help learn greater control of the notes and perfect phrasing and
emphasis techniques
This technique is primarily to start phrases and emphasize rhythmic patterns or
notes in your playing. Some other instruments use a similar technique called
tonguing, but using the tongue method for whistles is generally not recommended
due to the spit/moistures condensate/flute juice (or whatever you want to call it)
problem. The technique is like a very soft cough. Basically it's the sound you make
when you annoyed with something. It is accomplished by tightening your airway at
the end of your throat and ten letting a small amount of air burst out like a little
cough then continuously blowing the right amount of air for the notes you want to
play. In many tunes his sort of cough is used on the downbeat of wherever the
rhythmic emphasis is places in the song.

What to do:
The actual exercise of the cough scale is basically playing every not in the scale
but breaking each note into three notes by using this cough method. Hopefully you
get the idea from the sound clip.

Exercise #3 bubbles
Goal: to determine if you are blowing evenly and to help you focus your breathing
into steady streams for better sounding playing.

What to do:
Take a straw and blow into a glass of water for as long as you can and make sure
that your stream of bubble has no gaps or bursts of large bubbles. You should
get a steady stream of pea sized bubbles, and with some practice should be able
to blow for about 40 seconds without hurting yourself.

Exercise #4 Blowing your nose
If you need to go ahead and get a tissue (only kidding)

Goal: To help get rid of excess air and help you learn to play longer tunes without
passing out.
Have you ever gotten dizzy playing a flute or whistle? This is most often due to
having too much oxygen, not the common assumption that you are running out of
air. Some of you may have noticed that when switch from playing a low whistle for
a while to a high whistle you have all this extra air, and as you play a tune your
chest gets tight and sometimes you have to stop and let out a burst of air. This
discomfort is unpleasant and unnecessary. Here’s the solution:

What to do:
Get the smallest whistle you have (if all you have is a low whistle that's OK too)
and play a tune on it and at the same time open up your nasal cavity and let air out
of your nose. We naturally tend to breathe out of one or the other and don't think
about the fact that when playing an instrument like a whistle that requires us to
blow, the nose can be used like a release valve to let out excess air. It's far
enough above the whistle that it won't affect the sound of the whistle, and with a
little practice you will find yourself letting air out of your nose while playing and
still keeping a good even tone on the whistle. Your mouth will compensate the air
pressure going to the whistle with the loss of air pressure going out the nose and
you should find it easy to keep your tone even when blowing air out your nose. If
you have a really bad cold you might not want to use this method, but that's all
I'll say about that. I almost can't play a high whistles without doing this.

Fingering:
For the whistle the best way to play, especially on the lower models, is to use
what's called the "piper's grip." using your finger tips will slow you down and you
will be less accurate. With the piper's grip you will be faster more accurate,
more comfortable and all around easier on the whistle.

What to do:
Place your fingers flat over the holes covering the holes near the first joint in the
finger with the fleshy part of skin there. For most people it will actually be the
first part of the finger right above the first little crease on the finger for the
index and ring fingers, and it will be the second finger section on the middle
finger below the first crease in the finger that covers the hole. You will find that
ornamentation is easier when holding your whistles like this, and also that your
hands will generally tire less. Please refer to the picture to see how the grip
works in action.

Ornamentation:
This section will be large because ornamentation is a very important part of Irish
music and helps with other types of music as well.

The Tap:
There are many different names for the types of ornamentation. I am sharing
what I learned from those who taught me. Some people call this a cut, or I have
even heard it called a chop.

What you do:
The tap is not possible to do on the lowest (all holes closed) note of your whistle...
We'll talk about how to compensate for this in a moment. So we will start our
first tap with the second note (lowest hole open). The tap is accomplished by
playing the note (E on a D whistle) and then rapidly hitting the note under it. You
don't hit the note hard or long enough to make a separate lower tone but simply in
a rhythmic tap to break the note into two pieces. Note that this is a rhythmic way
to break notes, as most of the ornamentation is.

Exercise to make it sound good: The Tap Scale
This scale will start with the second lowest note on your whistle and you will play a
tap, and then move up a note and play another tap, and so on till you get through
both octaves playing each note that will tap. When you get to the second D play a
grace note then revert to the taps for the second E (on a D whistle). Do this
tapping scale up and down as many times as you have time for. It is the best
exercise to perfect Irish style ornamentation that I have run across. The grace
note comes much more naturally, so it needs far less time to practice. If you get
the tapping scale down good then you will really be on your way.

The Grace note:
This one goes by many other names as well. It is the easiest and most commonly
used ornamentation.

What to do:
The grace note is accomplished by playing a note then quickly lifting the finger on
the hole above the note you are playing to once again break the note. Don't do it
long enough to hear a clear tone on the higher note, just long enough to break the
note onto two pieces. The hole you use doesn't have to be the hole right next to
the one you are playing. You can use any number of higher tone holes to make a
grace note. This is particularly helpful when you start to notice that some fingers
get it while others are a bit slow. Remember I said we would talk about how to
compensate for the lowest note where we can't do a tap? Well, the easiest thing
to do to make up for that is simply to use a grace not on the lowest note.

Exercise to get it right: Scale of Grace
like the tapping scale the scale of grace goes up and down the entire scale playing
a grace note for every note.

The Roll:
As most of these there are various names for this ornament, but I think the roll
is th most common name for it. The role is the most rhythmic ornament, and
combines the first two ornaments we have talked about into one.

What to do:
Basically you play a note then add a grace note followed but a tap. It must be
done in very fast succession, and you can actually play rolls over and over in a row
to give very good rhythm to a single note. This is what makes the good traditional
sounding players sound so nice. Make sure when you do it you get the note you are
playing strong, then the grace note takes you up a note for a millisecond and back
down to the original note for a millisecond then the tap takes you down a note for
a millisecond and you end up back on the note you were originally playing. It's less
complicated than it sounds, and if you have been doing the tapping scales you
should find it easy.

Exercise to get it right: The "Rolling" scale
This is going to be similar to the other scale exercises, but simply put in a roll
wherever you can fit one. You can't do one on the low D, but the E works, then the
top (C#) hole can't do one either. You will hear this in the sound clip.

The Slur:
A slur is when you bend a note. This is accomplished on the whistle a few
different ways, but the easiest way is to sort of roll your finger toward you. It is
most often that a slur will be used to go into the note above the slurred note; in
other words, if the song calls for an F#, then you can actually play the E and roll
up to the F#. You can hear this done a few ways in this sound clip:

Speed Scales:
Speed scales really help breath control, and finger control, as well as having the
ability to help with ornamentation. It might take a while to get these right, but a
little practice can do wonders. Just remember that practice makes permanent,
not perfect, so practice right and you'll get it right.

Speed Scale 1:
This scale is one where you start at the top play down the scale three notes, then start with
the middle of the first three notes and play down three notes from there, repeating this
pattern until you get to the bottom of the scale. To break it down musically a bit more you
play: starting from the top -> D, C#, B, C#, B, A, B, A, G, A, G, F#, G, F#, E, F#, E, D E, D,
C#, D, C#, B, C#, B, A, B, A, G, A, G, F#, G, F#, E, F#, E, D

Speed Scale 2:
This one is just running up and down the entire scale as fast as you can. This will
train your fingers to move fast, and train your blowing to keep up with your
fingers. .

Here's a sound clip with both speed scales:

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