My name is Sinéad and I’m 17 years old from Kent in England. I’ve come here looking for a bit of guidance with my whistling- I’m awful! To tell you the truth, I have always struggled in one way or another with music, and find it quite difficult to get simple things such as timing, rhythm and “feel”. However, I’m just doing this for my own enjoyment and would, hopefully, one day just like to join in at my local session with a few tunes.
I don’t have very much previous musical experience although I know I’ve never been a natural because I always got told off by my high school dance teacher for moving completely out of time and I could never keep my pitch when singing. I hired a harp for a little while which was lovely, however, they’re very expensive and difficult to carry around thus proving a bit of a challenge.
I had a cheap whistle hanging around the house as a “joke” present from a friend when I was 15 and never even touched it. However, I became friends with a girl who played whistle in her band and thought I’d give it a go. After managing to play amazing grace, I kind of wanted to carry on seeing as I had never been able to do anything msuical before (see, I told you I was bad, haha…).
I have started to film my progress so I can see how I’m doing. I was wondering if it was okay to upload my videos here, so people would be able to kindly point out where I’m going wrong, what I can do to improve and any friendly advice. I’m currently working on the kesh jig and the seven stars tunes and have been for quite some time. I have a feeling that with more practice I’ll have the A music down soon, however, they are severly lacking in feel, speed and variation- I have NO idea where to start with ornamentation or anything like that.
Thanks for listening to my mini backstory, and if the general consensus is that people want to help, then I’ll post up my videos and thank you all very much- 1) for being so kind and 2) for listening to the racket…
Just to support Ben’s comment above… but also to note that you can’t “upload videos here” (or sound clips) as such - you have to host them elsewhere on the net, e.g. YouTube, Box.net, Facebook, then link them in your posts here.
And one other comment - you will help yourself no end by starting regularly to listen (and listening with fair attention, not just having it on in the background, though even that helps) to good playing and also to the tunes you think you would like to learn. The better you anchor a “mind’s ear” version of what you want to play, the better your chances of playing close to that “image”, 'cos you’ll know what you’re trying to sound like and when you muck up!
Welcome, Sinead! Whistling is incredible fun, and you can take one anywhere. I love to whistle outdoors. Plus you have the advantage of the “short learning curve.”
I knew almost nothing about music when I started with a Walton’s tutorial (book, CD and whistle). Almost immediately I “fingered out” the theme from the Lord of the Rings, and “Be Thou My Vision” --just by experimenting! After torturing my family for a few weeks or so, I began to get better (my cat still hates me).
One thing that helped me greatly was buying Grey Larsen’s “The Tin Whistle Toolbox.” It includes CDs and exercises for whistle, plus a few jigs to learn. He really starts out on the “ground floor,” so it helps a lot.
Others will give you online locations where basic tutorials are posted.
Have fun! And stick around!
That’s where I started too. My only musical experience was being fired from childhood piano lessons “for lack of aptitude or application.” I was compassionately chosen to be part of the “human tableau” behind the scrim when the school glee club sang. I loved music, but had always been told I was not qualified to make it, so I accepted that and learned to dance instead.
Many years later, at the age when friends began dying of natural causes, I asked myself what I wanted to do or experience before I died, kind of assuming I’d want to visit ancient temples in the jungle, or suchlike. Instead the answer that came back to me was that I wanted to be able to play a musical instrument. As I was poor at the time, I opted for a tin whistle. Something about the combination of purity and chiff in the tone was irresistible to me.
The main suggestion I’d give to someone starting out while feeling musically inept, is to keep in mind is that you will need to learn to be patient with yourself as your body slowly builds new neural connections to facilitate agile movements of your hands. At first it sounds terrible because there are lags in the communication between the part of your brain that “hears” what you want to sound like, and your fingers, which are way far away down at the ends of your arms. The only way to fix this is to practice patiently, find the spots where your fingers trip up, and practice them slowly until your fingers know the patterns they need to execute. You want to build up the pattern of playing it right, and avoid going so fast that you trip up again, because that lays down another, competing, neural pattern of how to do it wrong. That is called “learning mistakes”. You will find that you naturally go faster once your fingers feel like they know what to do.
After managing to play amazing grace, I kind of wanted to carry on seeing as I had never been able to do anything msuical before
When you first get a tune down and can play it, it’s really one of the most enjoyable experiences, isn’t it?
i’d like to recommend the Bill Och’s tudor book… i have the Grey Larsen book too, but it’s a bit theoretical–it helped me a lot, but for just starting out, i think the Bill Och’s book is great; it starts out slow and works you up–so you don’t need to spend weeks trying to learn one song, just when you’re starting out.
it also comes with a cd, which you can listen to, and if you like (i did) play along with–this really helped me when i was starting out, to get the rhythm down. i can read sheet music, and tried to learn songs from just reading the sheet music, and i think now that’s a big mistake–if you get the rhythm wrong when you’re first learning the song, it takes a really long time to unlearn it and relearn the way everyone else is playing it.
but i’m not a good whistle player either; maybe i’ll try and upload a video to youtube of me and then see what comments people have; i think it’s a great idea if people are willing to help.
[quote="squidgirl]
That’s where I started too. My only musical experience was being fired from childhood piano lessons “for lack of aptitude or application.” I was compassionately chosen to be part of the “human tableau” behind the scrim when the school glee club sang. I loved music, but had always been told I was not qualified to make it, so I accepted that and learned to dance instead.
Excellent, Squidgirl! My friends are mostly dying of natural causes now, too! But I’m sure there’s Irish whistles in heaven–and no shrieking in the upper octave, either!
Having had a similar childhood experience of being told I had no musical aptitude (the choirmaster may, in fact, have been closer to the truth than I’m willing to admit but that’s another story) makes me wonder how prevelant that experience is. Happily, my parents never told me I was incapable of anything else so I grew up convinced I could pretty much do anything I set my mind to. At age 50, I decided to apply that logic to music and here we are!
I started just like you. I just took one or two tunes and began to practice. It took it’s time, but when I could play them more or less, I started to think about ornamentation. I went to a session regularly, but was not able to play along. But after a while I began to learn the tunes on the whistle, because I knew them. I only had to train my fingers a little bit.
After this it was very interesting to watch other whistle-players (and sometimes ask them). With the increasing technical abilities I often learned “old” tunes again, now with some ornamentation.
Just go on, it’s fun…
