I’ve played clarinet for the past ten years or so, and I thought it was time to experiment with something a little different. I got my first whistle at the end of April, and I’ve been playing around with it off and on since then. (It’s a Waltons in D, if you were curious. I’ve heard mixed reviews about them, but in my opinion it plays decently, especially now that I’ve managed to blow all the loose chunks of plastic out of it . The finish is coming off, but I like the look of the brass underneath better anyway.)
I seem to be doing fine with making it sound nice, or decent at the very least (I discovered yesterday that it sounds absolutely magical played out in the woods; I didn’t attract anything but mosquitos, sadly.)
What I’m wondering is if anyone could recommend a book to me that goes over playing technique, but doesn’t focus as much on the basic stuff, like reading music, as I’ve got that down pat (I would say I can read sheet music in my sleep, though not well). I’ve started following the online lessons the guy from Fordham U has up on youtube, and plan on continuing with them, but I’d like to have something in book form as well.
welcome, its good to see more of us , playing in the shallow end of the pool
hopefully we will be treading water at the other end someday, or at least in the middle
I’ll definitely take a look at that one, thanks. And Brother Steve’s page looks interesting, I’ll look around there too.
Whistler Bard: I guess what I meant when I said I was looking for something that didn’t cover the basics as much isn’t that I’m too “advanced” for it; I pulled out my rcrd*r (can anyone tell I’ve been lurking a while?) earlier this summer, and the book I have for it is written for 3rd graders, or thereabouts. It is almost painful to read, and as everything else I’ve found for said instrument has been on that level, I have a fear that anything written for the whistle will be at a similar level (I haven’t looked hard enough to find an instructional book in a store, yet, so I really don’t have a clue if this fear is founded or not).
Also, it is still a little disconcerting to play an instrument and not feel a reed vibrating, and I keep getting confused when playing with sheet music (the fingerings for everything below high D are different between clarinet and whistle).
Ignoring the saxophone remark (we’re not all bad - I married a fine woman who plays the clarinet after all), I find myself in a similar boat - although the D whistle fingerings are essentially identical to my alto sax, so the transition is probably even easier for me. Which is not remotely to imply that the whistle is “easy” or that there is not a lot of whistle-specific technique to learn.
With the cavaet that I personally learn better from seeing/hearing what I’m trying to pick up, rather than reading about it, I’ve had very good luck with Ryan Duns tin whistle videos and tunes (my dog may disagree . . . ): A Jesuit's Introduction to the Irish Tin Whistle (sorry for the hideous URL - this is the link to the page with lesson one on it - at the bottom).
Sheet music for all the tunes is provided. He moves quickly to technique and ornamentation, and explains them in a way that made sense to me as a woodwind player.
Recorder: The Charlton Method for the Recorder
A Manual for the Advanced Recorder Player
by Andrew Charlton
University of Missouri Press 1981
Irish Whistle: The Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tutor
by L E McCullough
(I don’t have this book in front of me- I might have the title and spelling of author’s name a bit wrong.)
There are several out there that can get the job done. One thing to keep in mind is that typically the Irish tunes as notated are only ever one setting of the piece and there are many many variations of the same tune. Also, you will rarely if ever see any kind of ornamentation actually transcribed onto the page. I believe the Larson text mentioned above does some of this but not in a way that is traditional to the flyspeck you would have learned on Clarinet. My suggestion is to try to find books that have CDs in them that have a good variety of the types of tunes that are represented in the book. Some reels, hornpipes, double and slip jigs, etc… The tunes will be notated very simply but played in a much more complex fashion. Just like reading jazz. How hard to swing is up to the player. If it is all written down, it becomes very confusing to look at and read.
Listen to lots of recordings. Sit in as many sessions as you can. Don’t forget all the stuff you learned about music as a craft from the last ten years of playing a different kind of stick. Breathing, posture, relaxed grip, the value of metronomes, and tuners, and playing with others to be sure you are being musical in context not just as an island.
. The finish is coming off, but I like the look of the brass underneath better anyway.)
