hi guys, i am new to the tin whistle and this site, been reading a couple of threads, and i am learning some of the basics, i owned a whistle a long time ago and could’nt read music so to be honest i found it hard to learn, i have been playing ukulele for about 7 months and the resources are endless online, then it struck me that maybe the same could be said for the tin whistle, so i have bought a meg in the key of D and a sweetone in the key of C, i love the sweet sound of the whistle and hope to be passable at playing it, i already realise through playing the uke that practice is paramount, anyway look forward to learning from you all and participating on the forums
Hello and welcome.
Reading music is not terribly important, but that is a subject that gets long threads with diverse, and sometimes heated comments.
Irish Traditional Music is a genre that welcomes and admires learning by ear, fo shizzle. http://www.slowplayers.org/SCTLS/learn.html
Also, by using slow-downer computer programs, learning by ear/sight is not out of reach for anyone.
That said, reading music is easy to learn, and could be handy, don’t be intimidated.
Bill Ochs Clarke Tin Whistle book and CD teach it nicely.
Stick with a d whistle while learning for now, its the standard key and once you learn it, all of the tunes can be played on other keyed whistles.
thanx for the reply maki, i am slowly developing an ear for music, not that i can identify a note or anything but certainly when i play a wrong note i know, the site looks really interesting, once again thank you for the tip
hi mutepointe, i have been playing the uke and loving it since last june, i play and practice every day, i have also started a ukulele club in my city, i have always loved the sound of the tin whistle and recently stumbled across a couple of you tube vids of them being played and i thought i would buy a whistle and start to learn how to play it, so i purchased a Clarke Meg in high D on amazon,
when i went online to check out the tabs i found a lot of tabs were in the key of high C, so i bought a sweetone, i bought a tin whistle about 25 years ago and started to learn it but in those days there was no internet and i could’nt read music, still can’t though through playing the uke i am picking sheet music up, also back in the day i had 2 young kids and a large mortgage so could’nt afford music nor tin whistle lessons, the sound of a ukulele is unique and so is the haunting sound of a whistle, i could have chosen more popular instruments but for me the uke and the whistle are my favourite instruments.
i have also dabbled with the harmonica and although i have enjoyed playing it, the whistle beats it hands down for the sheer beauty of the sound it produces, i am practicing every day and i have learned to play twinkle twinkle, michael row the boat ashore, god rest ye merry gentlemen, you are my sunshine and 3 blind mice, though i must add my playing is really, really basic, like the uke the whistle is easy to start to learn, but it will take years to master, i relish the challenge and wish with all of my heart i had pushed on through 25 years ago.
this time i am going to stick it out and hopefully get to a stage where i can bang out a good solo, maybe even get into a whistle club or group, then like i do with the uke entertain the more mature folk at local rest homes, hope this answers your questions mutepointe, hope to catch up with you again soon, thanx for being so nosey lol
I bet you are wanting to play the uke and the whistle at the same time. I was surprised that I could pick out a tune on a whistle, when I relied on sheet music for other instruments my whole life. I hope you give that a go, it’ll save the bother of learning sheet music. Keep a whistle handy when you have time to kill. I keep one in my car. Do not whistle and drive at the same time.
ha ha good advice mutepointe, with the driving, will definitely keep a whistle with me at all times, its the only way to learn, i have ordered the tin whistle book and hopefully i will learn how to read music a bit quicker by playing the whistle coz when you play the uke a lot of what you play are chords, i do solo stuff as well but this is my excuse to my girlfriend why i am spending more money on musical instruments and tutorial books again, non musicians just don’t understand lol