Hello everyone! I’ve just recently picked up the tin whistle and have been teaching myself…Someone on another forum I frequent mentioned it, and I was curious, so I looked into it more. I liked what I saw, so I picked myself up a whistle, a Clarke Celtic tin whistle to be exact, which from my research I’ve learned is basically just a Sweetone with a pretty paint job. I’m really liking it so far, I’ve been playing for 2 days now and I think I’m getting the hang of it. I played piano for many years, so I think that might be helping me a bit. I’ve got all the notes down, I can play ‘Amazing Grace’ without much difficulty, I’ve tackled some Christmas songs and I can get through ‘Danny Boy’ and ‘Star of the County Down’, granted there’s a lot of squeaking and sqwaking, but still…
Anyway, I’m looking for some suggestions for some nice tunes for a beginner like myself, that wouldn’t be too hard for my quite inexperienced fingers to get through. Links to sheet music would be nice, but if you don’t have 'em I can use my Google-fu and look them up myself. I’ve been stumbling blind through the internet, hoping that whatever song I click the link to isn’t too hard, but as you can tell that hasn’t been working out for me.
So, can any of you more experienced whistlers help me out? I’d very much appreciate it.
How about something like 101 Tin Whistle Tunes. Get the book and CD version. It’s seperated in to different sections from beginners to advanced and the beginners tunes are very easy. That link is to a shop here in the UK. I’d suggest a google for outlets nearer to you (wherever you are).
The Essential Tin Whistle Toolbox by Grey Larsen is also very good as a tutorial on how to play whistle.
The “regular” Clarke and Sweetone are almost entirely different. Both are rolled tinplated steel, conical in shape. The Clarke does not have a separate mouthpiece, just a wooden fipple plug. The Sweetone has a plastic head section. They play and sound quite different.
Yep, just as you described it, the Clarke Celtic Tin Whistle is a Sweetone with a special green and gold paint job and in packaging emblazoned with Celtic knotwork. It should be a good starter whistle.
There are lots of ways to get started. You could look for a teacher or class in your locale of course but that option does not work out for many people owing to their location. So…
Clarke publish the Clarke Tin Whistle Tutor which consists of a CD and a booklet with notation of a number of tunes. The tunes progress from simple to more complex. The tunes are collected and presented by Bill Ochs who is a well-noted teacher of the whistle. That’s one route you could take. There are many other CD/book tutors as well.
Another option would involve learning the tunes you hear from CD/MP3/YouTube etc. If you know the tune name and (or the artist) you can usually look for notation on a few web sites like The Session at: http://www.thesession.org/ or JC’s Tune Finder at: http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind
Yet another route involves getting out and about to hear local players. Look for a local session. Listen to what they play and make note of the tunes they play. Learn the ones you like. If there is a “slow session” in the area think about attending that and joining in when you are comfortable. Slow sessions are geared towards those getting started and are likely to be friendly and low-keyed affairs. They are frequently followed by a regular session which you could listen in on too.
If you like Tolkien at all, it’s an absolute must to finger out “Many Meetings,” what I call The Hobbit’s Theme from the movies. It’s simple and beautiful. I play it every day, if possible under a tree.
