Jerry’s thread about his impromtu concert performing “Scarborough Fair” leads to my question. What are some recognizable easy tunes for people to learn and play in public? The one that comes to my mind is “Greensleeves.” There are many beginners, and many others that might enjoy easy additions to their repetoire. Let’s hear about some of the early songs that you learned to play.
Good thread.
The three non trad songs that I play almost every practice are:
You have to do some half holing on the Star Spangled Banner, but it’s easy stuff.
And there is always Danny Boy.
Good luck.
Can’t wait to see what others contribute.
Mike
The hobbit theme from Lord of the Rings
(now where can I get the sheet music? jk)
In a few months, what is probably the greatest resource for whistle tunes will come around once again: Christmas songs!
“Scarborough Fair” - That’s a great song!
I have been playing some non-trad songs around the campfire this summer on the Low D.
What’s the possibility of getting the music for this one?
The tune finder
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/findtune
turns up a batch of MIDIs for Scarborough Fair. The third one on the list sounds the most familiar to me (with 3/4 timing, key G, CLSW specials).
With a MIDI of melody only, tunes are learnable by ear, so something like Windows Media Player to play the tune is often enough. To see the notes or print out sheet music you may need a MIDI program that displays the notes on the staff. There are shareware/freeware programs that do that.
Here it is. Tab is also available at this site.
http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiGRNSLVS2;ttGRNSLVS.html
What I find is that tunes that are in your head will come out of the whistle. Just play the tunes you hum all the time. You will realy be supprised. Right now Im messing around with Al Jolson tunes. I grew up listening to him and some of those songs are so inbedded they are down right easy to play. A lot of 30s swing music works on the whistle. Lots of half hole practice. How about western swing. Maybe the Texas Playboys. Oh heck endless possabilities.
Tom
Thanks you guy’s I found the music! 
[quote=“Blackbeer”]What I find is that tunes that are in your head will
come out of the whistle. Just play the tunes you hum all the time.
I too, find tunes you have known for sometime, are far easier to play, so any new tune that I want to learn, I play over and over, and it seems to help “get the tune into my head” but not too sure rest of family enjoy repeat performances, guess headphones, to add to shopping list(after new C whistle)
regards pete :roll:
i’ve been playin an early bob dylan tune that i’ve always loved, “northcountry blues”. it is the most lonesome of tunes, i use it to lead into “the fogy dew”.
tansy
Tansy, that name sounds familiar. What Dylan album is it on?
~Larry
larry, i think it is on “another side of bob dylan” album. it lies really nicely on the whistle and is very easy to work up.
it’s one of those tunes that’s been with me my whole adult life
just leaked out on the whistle a few days ago.
best, tansy
tansy, thanks for the info. I’ve always been a Dylan fan.
~Larry
Thanks for the suggestions. I found a MIDI for Scarborough Fair and an audio version of Dylan’s North Country Blues. The latter would be a major project for me because I am not familiar with the tune. The former is 18 or 20 bars of relatively easy music that repeats over and over, so I highly recommend Scarborough Fair, even for the beginner beginners.
The Lord of the Rings song, if it is the one that the Switchfoot is talking about is in both movies, and is prevalent at the end of “The Two Towers.” I learned it by ear after replaying that section over and over about 20 times. It is a beautiful, haunting, slow melody, well suited for whistles.
The post requesting the Shaker song “More Love,” brings to mind the Shaker song “Simple Gifts.” It is another relatively easy tune that most will recognize when they hear it.
As for playing what is in my head, I have the gift (or curse) that most of the time the tunes playing in my head are original melodies. When I find words to go with them I have original songs. This has two main benefits: first I tend to be incredibly comfortable performing them. The second benefit is that no one knows if I make a mistake because no one is familiar with the song.
So far:
Amazing Grace
Greensleeves (and many other Christmas time tunes)
Lord of the Rings song (hobbit song?)
North Country Blues (Bob Dylan)
Scarborough Fair
Simple Gifts
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Texas Playboys (and various other Al Jolson tunes)
The Star Spangled Banner
Some easy tunes at my beginning.
Star of County Down.
Gift of a Thistle (love theme in Brave Heart)
Minstrel Boy
Foggy Dew.
Rakes of Mallow (Theme of John Waynes Irish movie the Quiet Man)
I’d also recommend for the older folks to run through a few of your favorite songs you learned years ago and already know by heart. It becomes a simple thing, once you find the right starting notes and Key (G or D for a d whistle; C or F for a C whistle).
For example, in another thread, folks found Rocky Raccoon and Black Bird from the Beatles album, fit nicely. As did the House of the Rising Sun. Also a number of lullabys like All Through the Night work well for beginner, simple and slow and well known.
The trick is to find a tune you already know forwards and backwards. Maybe it was that first slow dance with girl of your dreams, or the tune you and your mates claimed as your theme song, or song your uncle revelled in when he had one too many. If it’s one you’ve heard 100 times; it will be easy to find on your whistle. Not all songs work, some are just too much rythmn and not enough melody, but other will florish, filled with melodic content as well as the wealth of heart you’ve already invested in them.
I’ll go along with the jest of this thread and reiterate, that if you can hum a tune you can probably play it. I found myself playing "Come Sweet Death " by Bach a couple days ago (I learnt it as a weee child on the tuba)
Even though there was plenty of half holing going on I was still able to figure it out because 1. I know how it goes and 2. It’s slow and melodious
Ok, as for tunes that people might actually have heard of I too like “Somewhere Over the R.B”, and “Yankee Doodle Dandy” seems to work out easily
Jeff
Did you find any sheet music or Midi files for Northern Country Blues in the end as I would love a cop of it? I can’t find it in music form on the web.
You can find music for some of this stuff at The Kitchen Musician’s Site.
http://members.aol.com/kitchiegal/kmmusic4.html
Steve
to add to the list - how about the melody to “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You”? I found that fairly easy to pick out by ear, and i can’t pick out anything by ear…