Could anyone provide a brief review/opinion on the L.E. McCullough Complete Tinwhistle Tunebook?
I have his instructional book (updated with CD), but I found it to be a bit advanced, the sound quality was not all that great, and it did not have the feature of each song being played twice (once slow and once fast).
I’m just looking for a new tunebook that comes with a CD. Perhaps there are others I should consider?
I don’t have this book, but I do have the 121 Favorite Irish Session Tunes by McCullough w/ 4cd’s. I highly recommend it.
He plays the tunes twice, once kind of slowly, then a bit faster.
Tony
On 2002-12-28 12:40, Kerry wrote:
Could anyone provide a brief review/opinion on the L.E. McCullough Complete Tinwhistle Tunebook?I have his instructional book (updated with CD), but I found it to be a bit advanced, the sound quality was not all that great, and it did not have the feature of each song being played twice (once slow and once fast).
I’m just looking for a new tune book that comes with a CD. Perhaps there are others I should consider?
That was the first book I bought. It is written for someone with about 3 years whistle experience not for the novice.
If you are a beginner musician go the Pennywistlepress and get Bill Ochs books. He is the only one out there offering anything of value for the beginner musician.
The Whistle Instructors I have met all agree that the instructional material for new musician on the whistle is very sparse and Bills is the only one worth spending your time and money on.
http://www.pennywhistle.com/
Good luck with your whistling and be careful it is addictive.
Its not even written for the advanced. The book is allright but the CD is just horrible. When he plays a reel its sounds like someone playing as fast as they can without any feeling. There are much better materials out there. His 101 Session Tunes are very good and the playing is much better.
On 2002-12-30 09:42, dlambert wrote:
Its not even written for the advanced. The book is allright but the CD is just horrible. When he plays a reel its sounds like someone playing as fast as they can without any feeling. There are much better materials out there. His 101 Session Tunes are very good and the playing is much better.
? The fist tune in the version I have is the Kerrigan’s Jig with tongued notes and notes in the second octave. It is immediately followed by the same tune with grace notes and rolls.
Now I may not be that bright but both Bill Ochs and Jerry O’Sullivan do not approach these until after about 10 lesson and then only the basic grace notes. They start will marches and air’s and scales to developed basic technique.
In my opinion this book is written for someone who already plays flute or whistle and is looking to improve, not for the novice musician. I am not faulting the book for its content it just way beyond anyone but a accomplished musician.
I have his tutor book too, and no, I still can’t do ornaments and I can’t play jigs and reels.
I did learn “si bheag si mor” from the tunes in the back of the book, but that’s about all I got from it. Most of it’s just too hard for someone who isn’t already pretty good with the whistle and Irish music in general.
I still have the book, and one of these days I’ll pull it back out, but probably not any time soon…
ps. if you’re already pretty good and just want to learn how to do ornaments and stuff, I think it would be a good choice, but it’s not beginner or even early intermediate stuff…
[ This Message was edited by: TelegramSam on 2002-12-30 13:20 ]
Well, I’m afraid I’ll not be much help in answering the original question, but the discussion has made feel that something needs to be said…
There is no special trick to learning to play jig and reels. There is no intricate techniques that need to be learned to play them. There is no book that can make it any easier for you. You just have to dive in. I started to play dance tune when I had playing for about four months. I had no timing at that point. I had no ornamentation. For that matter, I wasn’t even playing whistle, I was on recorder!(dance tunes are somewhat harder to play on recorder) But the point is: if you can get the notes out, then eventually, as long as you keep trying, they’ll start to come in the right places. Just jump in, give it your best shot, and set your will power to improving.
If you want to play dance music, then the approach is very simple: take it slow. Take the tempo down to where it’s easily within your ability. The speed comes with time. Really, it’s not that hard…
On 2002-12-30 15:38, energy wrote:
But the point is: if you can get the notes out, then eventually, as long as you keep trying, they’ll start to come in the right places.
Well, I needed Brother Steve & Bill Ochs to slap me hard several times before I started to have the notes come out in the right places (and I was trying).
L.E.'s Tutor was the first I got, and I don’t know if he is responsible for it, or the lack of early tutelage: But my playing was stylistically horrible and my rolls all wrong. McCullough at the very least did not prevent me from getting it all wrong. My take on it now that I don’t use tutors anymore is that his didactic approach isn’t the sound. It skews a beginner’s perspective to even read about double (and triple, forsooth) cut rolls and crans.
What he offers is good enough, I guess, but you get no sense of structure, priority, and style.
I’d recommend Bill Ochs’s over McCullough.
YMMV
Thanks for all the advice, but I think this went a little off topic.
I should have pointed out that I am not a beginner, but an intermediate player looking for more tunes to play. I know there are piles of tunes online, but I still benefit from having a CD to listen to and good instruction. (plus I have X-mas cash burning a hole in my pocket)
As I mentioned in my original post, I have L.E.'s Complete tinwhistle TUTOR, and I am familiar with it’s shortcommings for people brand new to the tinwhistle. What I was looking for was opinions/reviews of L.E.'s Complete tinwhistle TUNEBOOK and the two CDs that accompany it.
Thanks,
Kerry
[ This Message was edited by: C4 on 2002-12-31 20:35 ]
I’ve got the 121 Favorite Irish Session Tunes (published by Homespun and available at http://www.homespuntapes.com ) It comes with four CDs (2 reels, 1 jigs, 1 hornpipes, polkas & misc.). Every tunes is recorded slow and a bit faster & ornamentation. I like the thing and have learned several tunes by ear from it, although I usually don’t use the slow tune recordings anymore.
Here are some minor gripes: Some of the version of familiar tunes are non-standard, like the B-part of Earl’s Chair. I fix this by checking everything against the Norbeck collection and by listening to CD and at sessions.
Also, in the reals long rolls are written eightnote+eigthnote triplet which is strange, awkward, and silly and exactly the way no one plays it. Unfortunately McCullough plays that way on the slow tracks (Why? Odd), but on fast tracks he plays proper rolls. (You notice though that he belongs to the DaaaaaahBlaBla school of rolling rather than the DahBlaBla school (the latter is recommended to start with by Brother Steve)). You can ignore the weird transcription & playing on the slow tracks if you know what a roll should sound like, but if you don’t and you learn from McCullough, you’re gonna sound like silly to an experienced player.
I am not an expert on this, but I have heard people say very very nice things about the accompanyment and I know of several 'zouk & guitar players who’ve bought the book to practice accompanyment.
FWIT.
I also saw recently that there is another McCullough tune book (with Don Meade accompanying) with more tunes. I saw it at http://www.thewhistleshop.com .
Happy New Year.
I have this book on order.
When it gets here, I’ll be glad to add my thoughts to the thread.
Best,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
I have the book. I got it to add tunes to my repertoire. It serves my purposes very nicely. I also have all the Walton’s books. The Complete Irish Whistle TuneBook has a greater variety of tunes IMHO page for page. It is very well organized, grouped by dance type. I highly recommend it for quick acquisition of a variety of tunes, but only for people who can sight read because the cd tracks aren’t that slow. By the way, I found L.E.'s playing to be instructive rather than entertaining, which is why I bought the package. I can’t remember how much I paid for it from The Whistle Shop, but I do remember how impressed I was at the bargain after I got it. The fiddler in our group prefers this book of all the ones we have he says because the tunes aren’t run of the mill.
Lisa
[ This Message was edited by: ysgwd on 2002-12-31 16:39 ]
On 2002-12-31 16:06, Bloomfield wrote:
I am not an expert on this, but I have heard people say very very nice things about the accompanyment and I know of several 'zouk & guitar players who’ve bought the book to practice accompanyment
I’m not that much of an expert either but I do play some guitar and bouzouki. I really like the guitar work of Nancy Conescu on the 101 Tunes. I don’t care nearly as much for the keyboard. There is great stuff there for the aspiring guitar player. She uses DADGAD but DADGBE will work pretty well.
One of the things I feel I need for developing my whistle playing is to practice with rhythm accompaniment. I don’t like metronomes much and I thought the 101 (or is in 110?)tunes might be good for that. However, I would like to practice faster than the fast tempo that McCullough plays. Some of the slower reels at The Virtual Session are about right. So I was disappointed with 101 for that reason. I also concur with Bloomfield about some of the versions.
Another set of tunes with melody on one track and accompaniment on another is offered by Homespun tapes. It’s called Steve Kaufman’s Celtic Workout or something like that. I wonder if anyone here has tried that one. On another message board someone said that the backup tended to be a little bluegrassy. Kaufman is mainly a bluegrass guitar player.
Obviously the best way to practice with backup is to have a live musician to play with. Alas the only decent backup guitar player for Irish music here is way too good to come around and practice tunes with me.
Steve
[ This Message was edited by: SteveK on 2002-12-31 16:38 ]
Ok, I’ve got the tunebook.
I’ve not had a chance to play the CD’s yet, but here’s my take on the tunebook:
This is a good collection of tunes. They are pre-ornamented, so for an intermediate player still learning how to place the ornaments they are great.
Someone who has been playing longer might prefer an unornamented, bare-bones tune that they could dress up themselves according to their own taste.
Not a bad book at all, though.
Best,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
James, which of the books mentioned did you get? Sounds like I might like that one.
Tery
On 2003-01-09 00:32, tkelly wrote:
James, which of the books mentioned did you get? Sounds like I might like that one.Tery
“The Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tunebook” published by Oak.
This is the new one out that comes with 4 CDs.
Best,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com