Hi all,
Since the topic of many posts have been a discussion on beginner tunes, I must ask. What are some good beginner tunes. I’m tired of playing kids tunes, like Twinkle, Twinkle, and Michael Row The Boat Ashore. I want to play the music the whistle is made for, Airs, Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, etc.
Check out www.whistlethis.com
It’s got some good tunes, many of which are fairly simple to play. Just look for the ones that don’t look too complicated.
The Butterfly is a good simple tune to acquaint yourself with slip jigs.
I was just looking around there and, unfortunately, a lot of the videos for the beginner stuff aren’t working any longer. 
Oh, the “Whistle University” stuff was just offsite links (yes, now defunct) to Ryan Duns’ YouTube tutorial vids. He since reorganized them, but they’re still accessible on YT directly. I think Thomaston was referring mainly to the mp3 clips.
Good to know. Thanks.
Christmas Carols. And just try picking out tunes on your whistle. I was surprised that I could do this.
Yes! I found a lot of Christmas Carols I can play and hope to play more when it gets closer to that season!
I’ll just regurgitate some of the best advice I’ve seen posted on this board. Credit goes to whoever said it first (and hell if I know who that would be).
A tune you like! Or the melody of a song. As long as it is a melody you enjoy, it all makes it so much easier. Sure enough, it might not be ideal to start of with The Bucks or something, but anything goes. It’s all a pretty personal thing, what is easy and what is difficult. So if you have a tune you like, I’d say go for it. It may take a while, but the motivation will be there, and the satisfaction will be grand when you finally get it down. I remember when I started out on the ITM-path. On tenor banjo. I had a few tunes picked out that I worked hard as hell on, and finally got them down. As a few years went by and my playing progressed, I found that a couple of those tunes were, in fact, a bit gnarley, at least on the banjo. But that helped me a lot, and picking up other tunes that were easier was a breeze compared to those first ones.
I have a very good friend who is a banjo newbie. She is an inspiration to me to try new things as I am to her. Having a newbie partner is fun. However, we can’t play together, yet. She also has a dulcimer and we have done a few songs together since they are both D instruments. However, she has gravitated to the banjo so there we are. We have tons of fun!
I’m going to suggest you pickup a copy of either Bill Ochs Clarke Learn to Play Tinwhistle or Geraldine Cotter’s Traditional Irish Tinwhistle Tutor. The Bill Ochs book has some English and American tunes whereas Geraldine Cotter focuses only on Irish tunes. The Cotter book is tougher for a beginner though.
Also, the DVD by L.E. McCoulough Learn to Play Irish Tinwhitle has a few Irish tunes to learn and he breaks them down pretty well if you like videos better then reading or CD’s…
Other then that, some songs to look for that I found pretty easy to start were:
Oh the Britches (full of stitches)
Dawning of the Day
Red Haired Boy
Hush the Cat
and Lowlands of Holland
You should be able to find fairly simple versions of each of these using a google search.
Good luck with it.
Hi,
I have a book called, Your Guide to Playing the Original Irish Whistle, by Feadog. So I am getting a lot of instruction, sort of. It had a cheap whistle and a CD, which helps. Is this one ok?
I have that one too, it’s sort of the Cracker Jack prize book of whistle playing. You know, buy a whistle, get a 15 page book about how to play 
Actually, it’s not a bad place to start but really the Bill Ochs and Geraldine Cotter books are worlds better and will give you enough material to last a really long time. I think the Geraldine Cotter one has over a hundred songs…
You can checkout clips and stuff from the Bill Ochs book here: http://www.pennywhistle.com/clarkepage.html
I think you can find the Geraldine Cotter book on Amazon or Barnes and Nobel.
Mornin all! 
I am at the Amazon site and she has written many books. Can you recommend an exact title that would be best?
I would think this one, The Irish Tin Whistle Tutor (Book & CD) $30! Anyone have a book and CD you are no longer using?
Ok, I bought a copy of the other person with the CD!
Here’s the one I have:
Oddly, they sell the accompanying CD seperately:
http://www.amazon.com/Traditional-Irish-Tin-Whistle-Tutor/dp/B003AG33LO
but the two together are about $30
Britches Full of Stitches was one of the first and easiest ones I learned. Slower tunes are easier, too, IMO, like The South Wind, and Tabhair Dom Do Laimh.
My favourite beginner tune was The Road to Lisdoonvarna.
Notes - http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/250
Videos- http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=road+to+lisdoonvarna+whistle&aq=5
If you like you should try Willafjord and Spoot O’Skerry. Both are upbeat and when played slow to start with are quite rewarding. Who doesn’t like these tunes?
Notes- http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/abc/abc2.html
Hope you enjoy.
David
Hi can you explain the…letters instead of notes? 
I think this would best be explained by a whistle tutorial online.
What notation do you use now?
Simply,
On D-whistle:
No fingers = C
1 finger = B
…=A
…=G
…=F
…=E
…=D
smaller letters are the next octave up
Maybe try these tutorials http://www.nigelgatherer.com/whistle/tut.html
or maybe the youtube videos by RyanDuns http://www.youtube.com/user/RyanDunsSJ
his lessons are really good and teach you the Kerry Polka, Boys of Bluehill, Silver Spear and variations on them early.
I use notes on a scale.