A Jig For Sarah jig

As promised, this is for Sarah, with thanks, someone who has for a time helped to bring light to my attempts to share what has been freely given to me, traditions, something more encompasing and inclusive than just music. With her help, and that of others, the laughter has never been in short supply…

Sarah’s BASS G OVERTON WHISTLE has proved to be too much of a handfull for her. Her fingers are long like those of the uilleann piper Seamus Ennis, but they are narrow. We had suggested her letting a friend and I have a go at doing some work on it. And, me, daft as I am, was considering a ‘bassoon’ makeover, to improve the fingerhole placement, with some other minor things to improve intonation. Instead she’d like to sell it.

This is a classic, one of Bernard’s only low G whistles he made, and I’ve not heard of another one. It’s quirky, and one of our member here, Hatao, has made some adjustments. If interested, here is that very whistle being played and explained by the talented Hatao ~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESr6jrVSSuk

play video

Here he explains and shows some of his adjustments, which we have to date left as they were ~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3ItBsX0dvA

play video

If you are interested you can contact the seller, Sarah, through me. She is asking no more than what she paid for it, purchased from Hatao, £70. Sarah and the whistle are in Lancashire, England. Hey, this is a museum piece if nothing else. I’d be curious if Bernard made any other low G whistles, as I understand his hands were not big and that was given as one of the reasons for some of the minor intonation problems with the whistle. Colin Goldie has been talked with about it, but we never managed to get it in his hands for him to have a look. It is one piece, at the moment lacking a tuning slide.

Having spent some time with it I fell in love with the low growl of it, but it did take a couple of days for me to get a hand on it and play the full two plus octaves. What a lovely rumble. I’m tempted myself, still, but my dear wife is saner than I, and besides, I already have another musical instrument on order, due in the New Year. :-(

This tune was made for Sarah and her low G… 8-)

To play it on the Bass G, as usual, you’d use the same fingering for the tune here, in G, but on the low G whistle it would sound in C… At one of our gatherings we had the full range of G whistles, and I had rashly suggested we learn Pachelbel’s Canon… :-D

X: 2
T: Sarah’s
T: Ricocheting Lightbulb, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Cmaj
|: D |\
E^DE GEC | G,CD EDC | FEF G,B,B, | G,DD FED |
E^DE GEC | G,CD EDC | FEF G,B,C | D^CD =C2 :|
|: G |\
cBc CEG | cBc edc | BGG B,GG | B^AB dG/=A/B |
[1 cBc CE/F/G | cBc edc | BGG FB,C | D^CD =C2 :|
[2 AFA Gce | fdB cGE | B^AB dG/=A/B | d^cd =c2 |]

In the G take on this, Sarah and some others won’t like that high c’ ~ 8-) ~ there are always alternatives… ;-)

I’ve given you keys like this before Sarah. Here’s one way you can go to avoid the high c’ ~ ;-)

[2 ece dgB | cAf gdB | f^ef ad/=e/f | a^ga =g2 |]

K: CMaj
[2 AFA GcE | FDB cGE | B^AB dG/=A/B | d^cd =c2 |]

# Posted on February 3rd 2005 by ceolachan
https://thesession.org/discussions/5739