Hello everyone and thank you for all the support that I have seen on this site since joining..oh 10 minutes ago. This is wonderful.
I am just looking for ANY advice any of you have for a beginner. I have had my whistle a week. I have learned some christian songs by ear and the theme from Lord of the Rings. I am wanting to get into some more “traditional” Irish jigs and such.
I thank you all for your time.
g
Welcome to the board.
I was in the same boat as you only 3 weeks ago.
Get a tutor book/cd. The one by Bill Ochs is working well for me. You can find it here: http://www.pennywhistle.com/
There are a lot of great sites that can help you as well.
I used http://www.geocities.com/whistleandsqueak/ while I was waiting for my tutor to show up in the mail.
Also take a look at http://www.whistletutor.com/, for more information about playing the whistle.
This one has a lot of tunes for you:
http://www.abacci.com/music/tabinstrument.asp?instrumentID=6
And one can’t forget http://www.whistlethis.com/.
[Edited to add: I forgot the session! http://thesession.org/]
Hope this is a good starting point for you.
By the way, where did you find the music for the LOTR? Or did you do this by ear?
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Yes, that. 
I was about to post this from another thread … some overlap in information here, but …
Lisa
Yes, I figured out LOTR by ear. I think the Clarke D is a little higher than the actual music but it really was neat to figure it out so easily.
Thank you for all the information.
g
Here is a link to a bunch of tunes in sheet music form.
http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/
Nathan
add these
http://www.tinwhistler.com/index.asp
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/
and YouTube has some great stuff!
On youtube there a guy named TinWhistler on there and he is really good… anyone ever heard him before?
Yup… one of my faves … and I love his brother playing the couch! 
Yeah, there has been mention here of Tinwhistler’s clips. Great stuff! Welcome and enjoy!
His videos have actually inspired me a lot. Though my brother lives 100 miles away so I can’t get him to play couch for me, and my girlfriend refuses, so thats a bit discouraging! 
the notebook drum was interesting as well
Listen to LOTS of Trad tunes. I think it tends to get your mind to “think” more traditional (if that makes sense). THe Bill Ochs book which was already suggested is great. A great way to get started. And lastly, don’t be afraid to ask questions. We all have been where you are now. There is quite a bit of knowledge here…make sure you use it 
Welcome to the board, gregory!
May I just say, as this does not pertain to whistling, if any of you ever need golf lessons or tips or advice on it… let me know.
I really appreciate all your help…
I even came across a website of a guy that lives in Italy that had a page on how to make a whistle… Off to the hardware store I went and 2 hours later I had a D whistle made of cpvc pipe. I think the pages measurements on the rh holes were off but other than that it sounds great!! My wife looked at me like I was crazy when I was making it but when I blew my first note on that thing, she looked at me with a look that said, “WOW!” Well, on my way home from work today I am going to stop at home depot and pick me up some 1" sch200 irrigation pipe, actually I work at a golf course so I may see if the maintenance shop has any laying around, and I am going to try a low d whistle.
Again, I cannot thank you all enough for your encouragement and support in helping discover the wonderful possibilities of whistling.
g
Welcome to the forum, gregoryturner! It’s always nice to see a new person around here 
. My advice would be to get the tutorial and CD that have been recommended and then just stick with them for awhile. There are so many tunes and ideas out there that if you try them all it can get overwhelming and can get in the way of actually practicing. Also, concentrate on keeping your body relaxed while you practice. Constantly check to see if your fingers are stiff, if your shoulders are hunched up, etc. It is natural to tense up, so it is not that easy to relax. You should just be setting down your fingers on the holes to the point that you are closing them. Don’t be pressing down hard—that would be tension in your fingers. Don’t be pinching the whistle. If the whistle doesn’t sound right, don’t press your finger harder, put your finger in a better position. Nice meeting you!
Thank you very much. I built a D whistle last night and am about to attempt a low d and see what happens. I’ll let everyone knw how it turns out.
My d plays fine minus tuning. I am not sure about smaller hole higher note or bigger hole higher note.
Other than that everything worked out great. Not the prettiest thing in the world but the sweet sound is music to my ears.
g
That Lord of the Rings was the first thing I figured out too! And look where I am now… just kidding.
But for real, just start listening to the tunes, and getting some music. After I learned the LOTR song the first Irish tune I leanred was Road to Lisdoonvarna. You can find it here:
http://www.tinwhistler.com/songname.asp?sort=R
I’d recommend it as a good first song to try to learn.
Right now I am learning donnybrook fair. I found a lesson somewhere in this forum. whistletutor.com I think it is. I am trying to get the basic tune down and then I will worry with the trills and such. Thank you for the advice, I will take a look at it.
g
You are already making whistles? Oh, yeah, you’ve definately been bitten by the bug. 
Welcome to the source of all knowledge.
I started in August, and after I could play scales, and get the pressure correct on both octaves etc, I took lessons as suggested by a good local player. Also, IF possible, go to sessions, listen to piles of trad, and find tunes you can learn quickly. I found that little victories gave more confidence to try harder stuff (I’m still a beginner, so it would all be easy for ‘good’ players). Also, I start to learn a tune, and the first few times it’s just total crap, hardly recognisable as ‘music’. Don’t get discouraged. Move to another one. Then, go back to the trouble tune. Incredibly, what was hard can just get easy all of a sudden, more victory to push on! So, I’m just working on a bunch of tunes in parallel, all are progressing at varying pace. It seems to get easier with time. Best of luck to us all.
Craig
Yes, actually my low d come out really good. Trying to get the proper piper’s grip in order to play it. It is made from 3/4" cpvc and I am thinking about going with a 1" or 1 1/4". What do you all think? Is the 1 1/4" too big?
g