There is a four-volume set of tutorial books, each with a CD available, entitled “Instant Tin Whistle” with the four volumes subtitled Irish, Scottish, Folk, and Popular, respectively. I do not know the author, but they are available a Mally’s Traditional Music Store. Does anyone have any first-hand information on the quality or value of these methods?
Ah… I discover in the fine print that they are written by ‘Mr. Mally’ (Dave Mallinson).
[ This Message was edited by: CDon on 2002-05-21 13:29 ]
[ This Message was edited by: CDon on 2002-05-21 15:54 ]
I’ve got a copy of the Irish book. Mally gave it to me in his shop about 10 years ago - he was looking for someone to distribute in North America. He didn’t have a CD or cassette to go with it at the time.
The book (I’m assuming the one on sale is the same as the one he gave me) is designed for people who have never picked up the whistle before. It has four pages showing you the notes, half a page explaining key signatures and time signatures, and then you’re into the tunes - 25 of them, carefully graded from simple marches to well-known song tunes, with a jig a hornpipe and a couple of reels to finish with.
Obviously Mally isn’t intending to turn you into a session player in 25 pages. But I think the choice of tunes is pretty good for total beginners.
For those that don’t want to learn standard notation there is “tin-whistle tablature” above each note.
I used to meet and play in sessions with Mally at folk festivals about half a century ago. He was quite handy on the melodeon and was in a band called “Reels on Wheels”, which was a name I wished I had thought of. Long before he became a folk-retailing and publishing magnate. All that to say that he knows his Irish music and I’d imagine the CDs would be OK.