Where to begin? I’ve always thought figuring out and executing good phrasing to be the most challenging, difficult and vague aspect of “getting it right” or getting it to sound right (or better). I haven’t read much that clarified it (don’t expect much right here).
What I’ve learned for myself has come from listening to a lot of recordings over a long time, and listening for those elements that make the tune sound more than 1234, 1234. Neil gave a good example in how the end of a bar might disconnect and attach itself to the next bar (ie, 123 41234) as a way of disrupting the monotony of 1234. There might be a slight pause between 3 4 and the 4 is played a bit quicker before the next 1.
This takes you into the use of ornamentation. The pause-quick note puts more emphasis on the next phrase. This can also be accomplished by various ornaments, like slurring the 4 into the 1 or doing a tap or cut between the 4 and 1, or whatever. The point is how do you emphasise the separation of phrases or emphasize the beginning of a phrase or an important note? I think of phrases as varying length sentences with periods. Either, the beginning of the sentence is emphasized or it sets up important notes in the middle of the sentence.
You also want to listen to the structure of the tune as a whole (beginning to end). You’ll find repeating phrases or repeating variations (ie, repeating ornaments) that tie different parts of the tune together (kind of like interior decorating). These elements may be rolls that recur at specific points, reminding you of their presence earlier, but then changing to something quite different on a repeat so the listener hears something not quite expected.
The bow marks Nancy referred to are just that, but, (caveat: all I know about fiddling is from listening) bowing seems to be intimately tied in to phrasing, so, I would think some good clues would be garnered from looking at bow marks in a book. I’d certainly experiment with them and try adapting them to whistle playing, whether by using them as tonguing points or whatever. See what you come up with. The progress I’ve made in my own playing has been from extensive experimentation. I’ve never had an instructor or mentor. At some point, I’d realize that what I thought sounded cool and sophisticated was actually a lot of clutter. My more recent progress has been in paring down to less ornamentation and focusing more on separation of phrases. I don’t count the experiments and overornamenting a waste as I improved my skill at doing the ornaments. The advance is in figuring out where they actually enhance the tune. That goes back, in my mind, to phrasing. Pauses, tonguing, cuts, taps, rolls, slurs, whatever, create the intricate rhythms between the 4/4 or 3/4 basic rhythms and separate the parts of the melody.
110 Ireland’s Best Slow Airs has phrasing marks over the notes- those long rainbow arches. Using those, the tunes make a lot more sense if you don’t have a recording to refer to. Use them to make distinct separations between the notes under different arches, regardless of the bars defining the rhythm.
I’d suggest listening to some recordings where the performer plays a lot of repeats of a single tune and listen to the variations. It’s the contrasts that clue you in and suggests possibilities. My favorite example is Martin Hayes (fiddler) playing Paddy Fahy’s jig. He plays at a moderate tempo and repeats numerous times with wide variation. Laurence Nugent’s flute and whistle playing is easy to listen to- he plays some slow, some fast. Windy Gap is great. Some friends of mine are big on the Molloy/Peoples/Brady cd. I don’t recommend it for learning purposes, especially as a beginner. It’s about as fast as it gets. (Of course, you can put it into the cd tray with slow down software.)
Final word: listen to a lot of recordings. Different artists playing the same tune will open your eyes to the possibilities also.
Tony