(inspired) Double D whistles

[Hothir Ethelnor]

Hi, I was inspired by Richard OC's recent thread about his double Scottish pipes.

So what did I do?

I taped a couple of cheap D whistles together and banged out a couple of tunes (much to the annoyance of family members.)

I finally found that a simple arrangement of Be Thou My Vision sounded presentable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRVOj3EttYA

The whistles aren't quite exactly in tune with each other but it's not too bad. (it's a whole lot of fun too.)

[auld argonian]

Laughing because I've been doing this with recorders for years...as you say, much to the annoyance of friends and family...I guess that dissonance is music to some ears and not to others. I currently have a D and a high G whistle on the desk in front of me and often play both of them together just to see what it can do.

For me it goes back to seeing Rahsaan Roland Kirk play two saxes together at the same time,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahsaan_Roland_Kirk

I think that Rahsaan had mouthpieces made that were welded together so that he could do this amazing thing.

I'm still trying to re-locate that link to the page where the fella made the whistle based bagpipe...that was very cool and the sound samples pretty much proved that you would have to be a true hard-core to be able to put up with it.

Best

AA

[OC Richard]

Roland Kirk would also play three saxes at once!

I spent a couple hours one morning watching numerous videos of his performances on YouTube. He's amazing.

He's mentioned that the triple sax thing works because of the specific keys/ranges of those saxes. Look at them, they're odd. And he has duct tape on some of the keys.

At the "head" of the tune, where in a jazz ensemble the group would play the tune in tight harmony, Kirk does it himself.

Then he casts off two of the three saxes for his solo part. They're all on straps so he can go back to all three when they return to the "head" at the end.