Tinwhistle Musings

1. The D Chart: What you need to know to finger your whistle like it ought to be fingered. Like it wants to be fingered. If you are a new whistler, I strongly recommend that you learn the fingerings as given in the D chart. This is the standard chart for most music that is played on the tinwhistle. The "D" fingerings will let you play music in D-major, G-major, B-minor, E-minor, A-major and F#-minor and their modes with ease. Music in other keys can be easily transposed to one of these keys. All music on this site is arranged for "D" fingerings. Most music for tinwhistle you will find elsewhere is arranged for "D" fingerings. Most traditional music of Ireland, Scotland, and England is in one of these keys or their modes. A large amount of American folk music is in one of these keys.
   
   Below are links to charts arranged for all keys. These are given for the more advanced whistler who is already comfortable with the idea of playing D fingerings and transposing other keys into D. If you learn the D fingerings first and become comfortable with the notion of transposing other keys in D, you will save yourself a mountain of work later. I promise.
   1. The Chart in D
   2. The Chart in D-Sharp
   3. The Chart in E-flat
   4. The Chart in F
   5. The Chart in F-Sharp
   6. The Chart in G-Flat
   7. The Chart in G
   8. The Chart in G-Sharp
   9. The Chart in A-Flat
   10. The Chart in A
   11. The Chart in A-Sharp
   12. The Chart in B-Flat
   13. The Chart in B
   14. The Chart in C
   15. The Chart in C-Sharp
   16. The Chart in D-Flat
2. Fingering Additions: More fingerings from the field research of the dedicated folks at the Tinwhistle Fingering Research Center.
3. The "Half Octave": Who'd 've thunk it possible?
4. Basic Rolls and Crans: Here are a few simple rolls and a couple of crans done in Whistle Tab.
5. Whistle Tab: A standard format for writing Whistle Tab that does not rely on a special font.
6. Capo Chart: Dating a guitar player? This might be just the thing to save your relationship.
7. Circle -o- Fifths: Because everyone loves a fifth. (And Beethoven died of liver disease. True story.)

8. The Chromatic Scale. Much like a chromatic dragon, this is a thing of myth. Yet -- just like a dragon -- you should recognize it just in case you ever run into it. "So, they rode off, the knight and the squire, to find the sword that belonged in the choir..." (From the Legend of the Singing Sword.)
9. A D-Scale: It's at the heart of Irish music and the tinwhistle. Shouldn't it be close to your heart, also? Get this graphic tattooed on your chest today.

10. Ornamentation: It's bling for music, but cheaper and it won't turn your neck green.
11. Step Definitions: The whole step, the half step, the two-step and a ten-step program.
12. Transposing: What goes up, must come down.
13. Note Tones & Numbers: It's math for people who are bad at music. Or, is that music for people who are bad at math?
14. The Staff and You: What you need to know to make music work for you.
15. Arpeggios: If you always thought the Arpeggios were either those whacky neighbors from a long-forgotten '70s sitcom or else a rare tropical fish, then this page is for you.
16. Random Notes & Musings: Stuff that didn't fit anywhere else.
17. School of the Americas Watch. A combat training facility for Latin American security personnel, the facility made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture and extortion. Despite this shocking admission and hundreds of documented human rights abuses connected to soldiers trained at the school, no independent investigation into the training facility has ever taken place.

18. Get an e-mail announcement when new material is added! When a new tinwhistle page is added to Full¥Body¥Burn.com, it will be announced via this e-mail list. This will include: New music added for Tinwhistle; new "Whistle Musings" pages added; any other additional information RELATED TO TINWHISTLES ONLY!  To sign up, click www.fullbodyburn.com/list/ and enter your e-mail address.

19. Requesting Music. Got a request to make? Here's a little rant about what happened to the last guy who wandered in here to request music.
20. Fan Letters and Death Threats. Got something to say? Have a question? A gripe? Need help quitting smoking? Here's what some of the other folks who have wandered through here on their way to tinwhistle enlightenment have had to say. Ed Gruberman? You wish to speak?

21. Being Hot. There just wasn't anyplace else for it.... so here it is.

"Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and who write oppressive decrees, Depriving the needy of judgment and robbing my people's poor of their rights, making widows their plunder and orphans their prey!" – Isaiah 10:1-2

New Tinwhistle Music

The list of tinwhistle sheet music was getting awfully long to all be on the first page, so now there's a separate page for tinwhistle sheet music. The newest songs posted will be here on the front page; all the songs can be found on the Tinwhistle Music page.

Halloween 2009 Update

• Ach Du Lieber Augustin. Because sometimes alles is just plain hinn.
• Au Renouval du Tens. And sometimes it's just plain Tens. Whatever that means.
• Banshee. A good tune for Halloween night, don't'cah think? Get Reel.
• Blood on the Saddle. Also a good Halloween tune. For a cowboy, anyway. A morbid one, maybe...
• Darling Corey. Don't let 'em burn your still-house down. Never were there truer words spoken. Unless you happen to not have a still-house, then it's pretty much useless advice. But it's still a good tune... especially on nights when you're drinking corn liquor.
• Her Dies. It's old. It's French. It's got to be good, right?
• Her Taps and Dies. It's newer. It's not French. You be the judge.
• Itsy Bitsy Spider. He went up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. That would never have happened if the spider's carbon footprint had been smaller. Of course, once he was washed out of the spout, he was eaten by a polar bear. So, I guess the moral is you win some and you lose some. Or maybe the moral is that global warming is bad. I forget. What was the question, again?
• Sierry Peaks. Where the yellah pine do grow. And where yellah wood comes from. No kidding.
• Streets of Laredo. One evening so fair. Another morbid cowboy song. I've just been in a mood, lately.
• The Jolly Cowboy. The jolly cowboy's jolly tune. Jolly good.
• Union Maid. There once was a Union Maid who never was afraid of the goons and the ginks and the company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid and she went to the Union Hall... And so on. But play it faster than that. Faster! Faster, I say!

The Rest of the Music

"The arrogance of power must be countered with reason, force with dialogue, pointed weapons with outstretched hands, evil with good."

- Pope John Paul II