I have several CDs of more modern stuff (Wyndham Hill and the like). There is limited opportunity for me to meet/work with accomplished, traditional whistlers/performing groups. Are there some well-known collections of sheet music (it’s odd — I’m a professional musician, but I learn visually, not aurally) of traditional Irish whistle tunes? And can anyone suggest CDs? I recently cabbaged on to a Mary Bergin album on iTunes, but I really need notes to read off of. I have a Mel Bay collection called Deluxe Tinwhistle Songbook. Are there other good collections anyone would recommend, perhaps with a CD, seeing as I don’t have access to any real live musicians of the genre?
Take a look at Grey Larsen’s Gems books: https://greylarsen.com/webstore/books/
Tnx! Others?
Download the app “Tradmusician” https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nodeslight.tradmusician2&hl=en and then you can go to https://thesession.org/ and download all those ABC files and let the app convert them to sheet music, it can also play them in an endless loop to practice with it. I suggest also looking for a good Youtube-recording of each tune as the app just gives you the bare bones of the tune. But I still think it is really useful, especially when you need the sheet music.
This site is also useful:
http://www.vashonceltictunes.net/irish/
or this one:
https://www.irish-folk-songs.com/lyrics-and-chords.html
Tune collections: There are several web locations including, thesession.org/tunes or http://www.norbeck.nu/abc/index2.asp?cat=i
As far as learning from sheet music, see Brother Steve’s pages at http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/meditation.html#Sheetmusic
CD: the list here is pretty complete… chiffandfipple.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=72798
Teachers: Where are you located. There may be someone here who either teaches or knows of a teacher near you.
Best wishes.
Steve
Yes, Mary Bergin is most excellent. Trying to match her skill would challenge the most experienced musicians, but both of her albums are inspirational for everybody.
The first rule of ITM is you can’t learn it by reading the notes, just like you can’t learn French from a book.
That said, the Session.org has a very extensive collection of tunes with both ABC and Staff notation.
Go to the Tune Search page at TheSession.org, and hit the search button. The tunes will be listed in order of most “popular”. That gives you a (mostly) reasonable guide to what tunes you are likely to hear at a typical session:
As a start, you could memorize the top 10 hornpipes, the top 20 jigs and the top 40 reels. (Jigs and hornpipes are easier than reels - more straightforward rhythms.)
And, to return to my first point, before reading the notes, at least listen to the tunes in Youtube or Spotify or whatever until you can hum them.
I’d suggest Brother Steve’s page that has discussion of the tunes by seasoned players:
I’d say that you can’t learn ITM just by reading the notes. I find them useful to get a basic,bare bones,version of the tune in my head but listening to it live or recorded helps put flesh on those bones. If you find a tune you particularly like, learn the basic then listen to as many recorded versions of it as you can,not just necessarily on whistle. Every player puts his or her own stamp on the tune and the good ones play it a bit differently every time around.If you listen enough, some of those little variations will creep into your own playing. It’ll take time though
! Get to sessions if at all possible.
Here’s one more for you:
Shannon Heaton (https://shannonheatonmusic.com/instruction/) has free “Tune of the Month” videos on YouTube that are great for learning new tunes. She plays flute but that works fine with whistle. She also has a package called “First 50 E-BOOK & mp3” for $17 that includes sheet music and MP3s for 50 tunes. I bought this and have found a few tunes that I really like (“Let the Bottle Circulate” is really great!). She’s very good about playing the tune through a couple of times and then breaking it down phrase by phrase, and she usually also shares some back story about the tune.
I don’t like recommending something that’s not free, but the First 50 E-BOOK & mp3 package might work really well for you since you asked for something visual. The sheet music are transcriptions done by Shannon so they match what she’s playing fairly closely. Grey Larsen’s books also come with CDs of the tunes and I’m 99% sure he transcribed the sheet music, so the same thing would be true of those. I’ve got both and have found them both worth the money.
-Brett