Hi all,
I’m Chih, new & green to the whistle. Though I’ve started playing in 1999, never actually played much until May this year. So it’s about 2 months-ish and I’ve a clip up at Clips & Snips New Players Section. Please listen to me for a bit and er…give me some constructive criticism? 
If I sound bad then by all means say so .. so that I can improve myself. Thank you or as we say in Malaysia, terima kasih.
Ha! You sound exactly like used to sound (at least I hope it’s “used to”…).
To my ears, you sound rushed and the ornaments are all mushy. Some of the rolls sound like nondescript little twiddles rather than rolls. You lose much of the phrasing and the cohesion of the tune. OK, take a deep breath: that was the painful part.
So, you’ve also got a nice tone and certainly your fingers seem fast enough to do whatever one could desire doing on a whistle. All I think you need is redirecting your efforts a bit, and trying to build from the bottom up.
The bottom is getting the notes right (no problem there) and getting the rhythm right: that seems to be the most fundamental and the most difficult thing to do. Once the tune sounds more solid and less rushed, you can start adding ornamentation back in (after you straighten out those rolls, that is).
So the main thing is Slow Down!!! And don’t be surprised if it takes at least a year to learn decent rolls (it’s taking me longer than that).
For my own painful experience with this sort of constructive criticism (that I even paid for ), see this thread.
Good luck!
P.S.: I hope this was what you were asking for. I would never presume to know better and I am only a tiny step ahead of you, I think. So keep on whistling.
/bloomfield
[ This Message was edited by: Bloomfield on 2002-07-23 13:25 ]
Especially for a new player, your beat was pretty steady, although I think maybe a little fast just yet. I am guessing that you learned this tune by listening as opposed by learning from music? If so, nice job of picking it up!
The ornament you are using in the places where I would normally roll sounds like a double trill. The finger movements need to be much snappier–rolls are a rhythmic ornamentation more than a melodic–and the cuts should be just little “blips” of sound. Also in a roll the second grace is downwards and not upwards (so that to roll G, say, you play G, cut with the B finger back to G, then tap with the F# finger and wind up back on G. The cut and tap should be almost too fast to hear so that it almost sounds like a triplet.
Good job on controlling the whistle well on both upper and lower registers.
Overall, it sounds like you’ve got a solid base to start from, and after all, learning is over half the fun of it all.
You might want to check out the whistle lessons by Conal O’Grada at http://www.scoiltrad.com. I think these are great and would help you a great deal to take the next steps.
Best wishes, and have fun with your playing,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
Bloomfield, Peeplj,
Thanks for your replies and the links. It was most helpful. I guess I have lots more to learn, eh? At this moment, I’m pretty low on cash so Scoil Trad would have to wait. I’m back to square one on ornamentation and maybe I should drop the roll thing for a while…too heavy for a newbie like me.
Okay, back to practicing…
Cheers..
Your doing very well considering you’ve only been at it for, what, two months?
If you are strapped for cash, use Brother Steve’s tinwhistle page (it’s in the links section), and follow his advice religiously. (And if you are not strapped for cash, use it, too.) Work on your cuts and taps first and for quite a while. You want them really short and crisp and on the beat.
Play along with his examples.
/bloomfield
[ This Message was edited by: Bloomfield on 2002-07-24 09:59 ]
Yeah, I think that doing that nice trill thing would be better than rolls on like a C# or middle D where it’s hard to roll. You’ll pick it up eventually.