Beginner Tunes?

Thank you! More to learn :astonished:

Do any of you happen to have the sheet music to Hegwig’s Theme song to Harry Potter for the whistle?

A very valuable resource… of all the archives by Ryan Duns:
http://tinwhistler.blogspot.com/

To answer the OP… for a relatively easy tune, maybe try “Song of the Chanter”.
(I say “relatively”, because it does have C naturals in it…)

Listen to it here:

Read it here:

Three of the lines are almost identical, with only the third being a bit more intricate.

Good luck, have fun! :thumbsup:

I thought of another tune I found easier to play than most: Willie Coleman’s jig. It just seems to flow more easily than the other jigs I’ve learned.

I think the “Swallowtail Jig” is pretty beginner-friendly–speaking as a seasoned beginner.

Ubizmo

Nobody else has really said it, so I guess I will: You can’t learn to play irish traditional music (amongst other styles as well) from sheet music. It is arguable whether you can even properly learn a tune from sheet music alone since as a beginner you won’t know what elements are missing from the sheet music to make it proper music. You might be able to assist your learning of the instrument this way, but it might also hinder your progress.

Listen, listen, listen, and ditch the sheet music and ABCs for now. Get a teacher if you can. Find local musicians to take you under their wings.

Somebody had to be the wet blanket.

Hi,

Soooo, if I don’t use sheet music and I don’t use the abc system, you are suggesting I learn to play by ear? I think this is a gift that some musicians are born with and some you just get as you become a master of your instrument (just my opinion). I am somewhere in the middle. I can play simple diddies by ear so I guess I am “teachable” :laughing: I had an organ teacher once who would record the song he wanted me to learn, demonstrate the song and the rest was up to me. I guess I learned. It was many years ago. Anyway, thanks for the advice. :slight_smile:

Well, I thought it was a lot stronger than just a “suggestion”, but yes, that is exactly what I am telling you. And I can’t disagree strongly enough about it being a “gift you are born with”. Feel free to keep using sheet music if you think you are making progress, but there is so much about the music that you just can’t learn from sheet music (because it isn’t included in the sheet music). You absolutely have to use your ears, at some point, to be even a decent musician. The better your ears are, the better you’ll be… So why not start right away with the trying?

(Note, sheet music = abcs for all practical purposes)

Great advice to start learning by ear right away. In the end that’s what you want to be able to do, isn’t it? That is, that’s what I want. I want to be able to play whatever comes to mind. I want to be able to pick up tunes ‘on the fly’ in sessions, and to be able to improvise.
And all that’s not even taking into account the factor mentioned above that the sheetmusic is just a skeletal outline of the tune (when talking about traditional music), and just someone’s way of writing it down.
When I started to play fiddle I started by using tune books (more fun then etudes and scales). It was not until I started learning tunes by ear in workshops that I started actually learning tunes. I find that tunes I learnt by ear have sunk in deeper then ones I learnt off the sheet music in those first years. Now when I learn a tune off a page of dots I don’t really learn it off the dots, I play it some off the page and listen to it while I play and then when the melody is in my head I can turn away from the dots. Not memorising where fingers go as much as how the tune goes. On whistle I’m just a beginner, but I’m not using sheet music at all, I only play tunes I have in my head from having learnt them on fiddle.

Oh, when I started learning by ear I wasn’t quite that convinced I’d ever get handy at it, but I found that even though it took a good while having started out playing ‘dot-tied’ that I did get better at it over time, and still :slight_smile:

Have fun learning!

Inge

P.S. As for tune suggestions, did anyone mention Aran Boat song yet? and while on boat songs, Skye Boat song is nice too. Oh, and Out on the Ocean is a neat jig not too tricky for beginners.

Yes I do want to play on the fly! I envy folks who can go up there and just jam. Sigh… I do see the need to memorize and my present teacher encourages it.

When I figure it out, I am going to record my first hornpipe I memorized. Don’t be to hard on me :stuck_out_tongue:

We have Open Stage on Tuesdays at Olgas and I try to “sound it out” but they are so loud I can’t hear the whistle :laughing:

Thank you all for carrying enough to give me help.