Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Transposing for Tin Whistle (Read 11479 times) previous topic - next topic

Transposing for Tin Whistle

Are there any tin whistle playes out there?  I have some questions about transposing music into a D major key for my D tin whistle.  I have browsed a number of posts dated over the last year, but all of the messages dealing with transposing have to do with orchestra instruments.

Any help would be appreciated.

Dayna F.

Re: Transposing for Tin Whistle

Reply #1 –
When a C is written a D will be played.  If you write the piece in D, you can have NWC transpose for you after you are finished.  While the cursor is on that staff, select Tools and Transpose.  Select -2 half steps and you want the transposition on playback, that is, when you see a C, you will hear a D.

If you write the part in C (be sure to insert a key signature--it will appear as a greyed out F natural), press F2 with that staff selected and, under the midi tab, transpose up by two half steps.

HTH
Since 1998

Re: Transposing for Tin Whistle

Reply #2 –
Not everybody writes for the tin whistle as a transposing instrument. My advice is, if you have a choice, read and write it at pitch, at least the D whistle.
 

Re: Transposing for Tin Whistle

Reply #3 –
Beware!  Tin whistle transposition is not the same as "normal" transposition.

Tin whistles are named after their lowest sounding note.  This note is written as D (the one just above middle C).  So the "pitch" of a tin whistle is the sounding note, when you play a written D.  (This is unlike standard transposition, where the "pitch" is the sounding note when you play a written C.)

So Tin whistles in D are really the concert pitch instruments - you play a D and that's what you get.  If you want to write in D major concert (or any concert key), it's already correct for a D tin whistle!

Cheers!
This peculiar practice also used to apply for piccolos in military bands, which is why you'll sometimes see very old settings with Eb piccolo parts - really for Db piccolo (not that they are all that common).

To write for other pitch tin whistles, count how far the pitch of the instrument is in semitones away from D.  Write your music the same number of semitones away from concert pitch, but in the opposite direction.  For example a Bb penny whistle (4 semitones below D) would need a concert F major piece to be re-written up 4 semitones, in A major.

This is also a way you can work out the "transposed print-music" key for any instrument - except you count semitones from C; a Bb clarinet (down 2 semitones from C) would need the concert F major piece up two semitones to G major.