"Yo" Whistles
Licks 28a through 28e demonstrate the use of the "yo" tongue effect on train whistles, utilizing different chords such as 34i, 45i, 56i, and 67i. The first four licks are one bar long, the fifth is two bars long, with the second bar being composed of four silent beats.
When playing a train solo, use of a series of whistles composed of increasingly higher notes generally provides a feeling of the train approaching the listener. Use of a series of whistles with descending notes implies that the train is moving away from the listener.
Lick 28f is a two bar whistle using the notes 45i and 6e. Lick 28g adds a trill to the 4i and 5i notes. These whistles lend more of a blues feel to the train, compared to the simpler whistles.
This is an entire train solo, composed of the train rhythms and whistles from sections 26, 27 and 28. Notice that the tempo of the train increases from beginning to end.
In general, most of the train solo is composed as follows:
- Three or four repetitions of Lick 27d, followed by –
- One repetition of Lick 27e, which allows time to choose and prepare for a whistle lick, perhaps from Licks 28a through 28g, followed by –
- One or two repetitions of the chosen whistle.
An example of the above might be as follows:
This above pattern then repeats itself many more times, with slight variations.
The train solo finishes with four repetitions of whistle Lick 28g, in which the last note, 6e, of the last repetition is held for many beats, until fading out.
Rather than attempting to play the train precisely as demonstrated, you may wish to use your own preferred combination of train rhythms and whistles to create a train solo of your own.
