Title pretty much sez it all. Is this a good “flute 101” book for somebody familiar with Irish/Scots music but new to the intrument? IE is it as good as the hype on his website?
I haven’t read the book but I’ve studied with the
teacher, who was writing the book at the time.
Probably it’s very good; certainly a good
teacher.
It’s a good book. Loads and loads of information, at times there is a lot more than you really need to know, but it’s all good. By the time you have worked your way trough it you should be a good way down the road. It’s the most complete guide to ITM flute and whistle out there.
Can anyone suggest a place to find said book?
Amazon.com doesn’t have it (I couldn’t believe that, myself).
Thanks!
[EDIT: My bad – I spelled Larsen with an “o”. I found it!]
It’s a great book.
Try greylarsen.com or elderly.com to buy a copy.
i think if you order it from Grey directly he’ll get a better cut than if you order it from Amazon, and the service should be just as quick… he sent mine right out to me when i bought it.
Grey seems like a very nice chap, lets support him and his forthcoming projects as best as we can shall we? Order it at www.greylarsen.com
Oh Poo.
I wish I’d waited an extra hour before ordering it through Amazon.
I would much rather have ordered it from the source.
Amazon also nicely suggested the WorldTrad wooden flute CD’s which I obligingly added to my cart as well, so I guess I didn’t make out too badly.
Still I’d have liked to have supported Larsen directly. Oh well. Next time.
Plus, if you order it directly from Grey, you have the option of having him autograph it. I wonder how much that adds to its re-sale value on eBay? 
I ordered the book directly from Grey, but when the book arrived, it had a sticker inside the front cover from the Glen Rose Music Company in Texas. At the same time I ordered a whistle from Grey’s website, and the whistle was shipped directly from the maker. I gather that Grey’s online store is a virtual store with the merchandise being warehoused elsewhere.
With regard to Grey’s book, “The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle” , I can see that it is a wonderful resource of instruction, music history, sheet music, and two CD’s of instructional recordings. It is 480 pages, though, and reads somewhat like a college textbook. When I first saw it, I had the same reaction that I had when I looked at my first calculus book in college, a bit over-whelmed.
The only minor criticism that I have with the book is Grey’s system of notating the embellishments that make Irish music so unique. I seem to be more comfortable with the standard notation of writing out the embellishments with individual grace notes along with the standard symbolic notation. This issue has been discussed before on the flute forum.
Hello everyone this is a fantastic site for a fluteplayer. This is my first reply so I thought Id ask a question that is relevant to me only Im afraid. So here goes…Who is Grey Larsen??
Id never heard the name before I started messing around with the internet. At the risk of showing my ignorance, maybe someone could fill me in on what Im missing, I must say I`m very curious, and also keen to improve my knowlegde of other players. 
Welcome to our little board Maire. This is a nice place for sure, with lots of useful and sometimes less useful information.
To answer your question: Grey Larsen is a fluter and whistler who plays Irish traditional music. He’s from the states, but grew up in or near a place were lots of Irish imigrants resided. I don’t remember if he’s got some Irish blood himself. He’s learned from some old masters living there, and he’s a great player, although many people don’t find his style of playing very attractive. He plays a very small holed, small bore Firth and Pond flute, and he’s got a truly unique sound. He’s a recording artist, but this (the book) is what he’s been mainly associated with lately. Check out his website (link above in my previous post) for more info.
Mr. Larsen pays great attentions to details in his missive and, barring anything of similar work on this side of the ocean, I would presume it is a one-of-a-kind text.
But his attentiveness to detail is somewhat lacking on his covers as the original back of the book shows the great Matt Molloy holding his flute left handed! I trust Mr. Larsen has corrected this oversight. I wonder whether the originals are now worth more? I hope so!
I didn’t notice until you said it and I had to go check. But really, why would he change it? I don’t think it’s something wrong with the editing of the picture, how could anybody reverse the picture without noticing? I think, for one reason or another, Mr. Molloy was just holding his flute lefthanded at the moment, he’s not playing it anyway. And besides, what’s wrong with playing left handed??
What’s so wrong with lefthanded??? 
I’m glad to see Molloy finally got around to the real way to play!
Actually when I went to see Gaelic Storm it took me a while to notice that the piper was a lefty (actually, really, a righty if you think about it.) Anyways, every time he had a solo I shouted “Lefty Pipers rule!” at the top of my lungs.
Grey lives in Bloomington Indiana, where a lot of folkmusicians
have collected–there’s a folklore Ph. D. at Indiana University;
also a terrific music school. Grey leads one of the several
sessions that meets in Bloomington each week, his
meets at the Runcible Spoon, a restaurant/coffee house.
Grey has a sort of theoretical mind, I think,
and has really thought deeply about flute and whistle
playing, especially ornamentation. This may explain
the relative complexity of his book, which was
a long time coming. He seems to have poured
the accumulated cogitations of decades into it.
He also plays a Casey Burns Bb/A blackwood flute.
Also he is very good on concertina, which he
also teaches.
Definitely Grey L is an institution worth
supporting–a lovely fellow and an excellent
teacher who has devoted
his life to this music.
I might add that Matt Molloy is playing right-handed on the back cover of the edition that I own.
Definately will check him out. Im sort of bored with what Im doing at the minute and something new might be just what the doc ordered, been playing with alot of pipers lately you see and I feel like Im losing my flute style. After 15 years on the flute I think Ill lose the will to live if that happens, anyway thanks for the enlightenment fellow flute trekkie.
maire.
Definately will check him out Henke, Im kind of bored with what Im doing at the minute. Been playing with too many pipers of late you see, and I feel as though Im losing my flute style. After 15 years of very hard slog I think Id lose the will to live if that happened, a wee bit of something new might be just what the doc ordered.