this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
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I’m used to be able to just buy a tin whistle in D and that’s compatible with what all the schools teach kids, but I’ve spent ages searching for a solution to this one and I still don’t know what I need exactly.

The song / melody are in Ab.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

According to Wikipedia, tin whistles are tuned to be able to play two major keys a perfect fourth apart. A perfect fourth above A-flat is D-flat, and a perfect fourth below A-flat is E-flat, so an A-flat whistle would be able to play A-flat major and D-flat major, and an E-flat whistle would be able to play E-flat major and A-flat major.

Every major key has a minor key that is “enharmonically equivalent,” which means that they have all the same notes. We call that the “relative minor” to that major key. Because they have all the same notes, an instrument that is capable of playing some major key is also capable of playing that major key’s relative minor.

E-flat major’s relative minor is C minor A-flat major’s relative minor is F minor D-flat major’s relative minor is B-flat minor

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I never understood what the word "relative" meant in this context. Thank you so much.

[–] Hildegarde 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Transpose the song into a key your instrument can play. If you have a D whistle you should lower the song by a half-step to G major.

If you can get an E-flat tin whistle it should work at pitch.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Thank you! Eb whistles are not that hard to find, I think. And I’d prefer to play at pitch. Otherwise, I’ll go for one in D.

They had Eb in the shop but the person working there didn’t make the connection with Ab either. Thank you again.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Since posting this I’ve looked more into relative keys and it turns out that it’s becomes easy to understand when looking at a piano.

Thanks again to Hildegarde and PebbleGamer for opening up my mind to these ideas.

For anyone else, there’s a visual, five-minute video explanation here https://yewtu.be/watch?v=xbEer87lfdU