If you were teaching a beginner to play whistle, what would you do?
I’m thinking of getting Jerry-tweaked Generations for me and the student, to level the playing field. No need to spend money in anything expensive at this phase, right? Would you go for Sweetones instead of Gens? Something else?
Would you use Grey Larsen’s whistle book? Or just start with tunes, without having a book? I think polkas make good beginner tunes, because they’re straighforward and not very ornamented.
I’m thinking that after a couple of lessons the person should be able to continue on her own, maybe join a slow session. This is an adult, and she probably has at least some idea of how to read music.
Any ideas are very welcome. I’ve never tried to teach anyone before.
Jerry’s Generations should be terrific. I’d recommend getting your student a copy of Bill Ochs’ The Clarke Tinwhistle, and working through the lessons step by step. It’s VERY systematic and stepwise and will go through the most rudimentary basics and right up to fully ornamented Reels. In between lessions, the student will have Bill’s CD to listen to and emulate. Don’t be surprised if you pick up a few pointers and good tunes yourself.
I wouldn’t go for the Sweetones but maybe that’s only my pre-occupation.
Once you have a basic scale established, do a bit of a song tune, move on to a few marches like the Eagle’s Whistle, Dawning of the Day etc, start introducing a few cuts in them. Then move on to a polka, a few jigs, a hornpipe and on to reels, each time introducing a bit more in the way of variation and ornamentation. Go back over old tunes each time and introduce a different approach if your pupil is getting the hang of them, don’t let tunes go stale but get more out of them if you can.
I wouldn’t use a book, try do it by ear, maybe write down a tune to help the memory but you’re better off letting a pupil bring a tape recorder, play the tune for the tape and work let them from that.
keep an open ear and an open mind , everybody is different, go with the abilities of the pupil. I am not sure letting a pupil go after a few lessons is a good idea, going to a session does not help getting rid of bad habits at beginner level. Going back over the old tunes can help you correct habits that creep in and will enable you point the pupil in the right direction.
Overall I think it is more important teaching the music than teaching the instrument , the instrument is only the vehicle, firing up someone’s imagination by dealing with different approaches to tunes and how to have a bit of fun by playing with the tune is probably more motivating than teaching all the rolls without explaining why they are there and what they do, help developing a musical language rather than just going through the mechanics of playing.
But it isn’t. Thank you very much for your post, and you too, Paul!
I wish i were a better player. Maybe if this teaching thing comes true, it will force me to become a better player.
One advantage of Sweetones is price. I think a JerryTone is $15 and a Jerry-Generation is $36 (Sweetones are probably easier to tweak). Not a big deal when getting one, but i was going to buy 3 to stock up, and it starts becoming expensive. I have to buy one for me too. The only problem i had with a Sweetone D was the weak low end. But maybe the Gen is a more “average” whistle?
This music is social music so the best way to teach it is to get the person involved developing there ear fairly quickly!!
If you are trying to teach Celtic music, sheet music may be helpful but the ear is “highly” recommended for a beginner. Learning this music comes from 90 percent listening & 10 percent all else.
I have a number of student’s & the first thing we do is listen to tunes so that they can get a feel for the music! Even though they may already know the music. My goal is to get them to look at it very differently than before. Ask them what do they think about what they are hearing? Example: airs, reels, jigs. You would be surprised of some of there answers! But it gives you an idea of who you are dealing with. It may be a confidence issue with some. Others have an amazing natural ear and cant wait to get started! I have seen them all.
If you understand certain things first hand you’ll know how to proceed with them as an individual student. I have one student who is extremely shy to play in front of me. When I realized this it taught me to give him certain goals to shoot for regarding his shyness & it worked.
Ornamentations:
1- As you are beginning to teach the tunes give them the bare tunes, RAW! Use a good but cheap whistle.
2- Teach the grace notes, separately. Avoid playing to much & let them enjoy the lesson without your skills getting in the way to much as this can be intimidating for some. I usually just teach & that’s it. I do not play much at all.
3- In time put it all together (bare tunes raw & grace notes) & it works!
4- I always tape all the sessions because I want them to hear there improvements that they are making. They enjoy that because now they can go back & have the lesson all over again. Good Luck.
we don’t teach whistle, but we DO teach mountain dulcimer, and I think some of our techniques could easily apply to both.
We teach technique, NOT repetoire! We figure that as long as you get the technique down, you can always go out and get tunes on your own, and maybe just need help with certain phrasing or ornamentation. We use ONE song (ok, for the dulcimer it’s Boil Em Cabbage) to teach basic strumming, flat and finger picking, chording, and ornamentation. Thought being that the SONG is familiar and already in the student’s head, so they can concentrate on the technique we are trying to get across, and not learning an unfamiliar song at the same time. This takes two to three lessons, depending on the students background and ability.
We also do a lesson on LISTENING. We wend a recording home with the student of a song (in our case it’s Gray Cat on a TN Farm) played very plainly, played the usual way you’ll come across it in jams here, played by a “master” of the mountain dulcimer, and played in a totally different way by a blue grass group. After a week of listening (with instructions to pay attention to when the song is going UP or DOWN the scale, timing, etc.) we have the student see just how much they can actually get on their own, without TAB. Surprisingly, most get at least the bare bones of the song, even those that say there’s no way they can play without music in front of them.
We teach one class on reading TAB. Even though WE don’t use it, we want a student to be familiar with it.
After about 8 weeks, we’ve actually “taught” all a student needs. We do have some that continue past that point, but these are students that have a particular goal in mind (playing a certain kind of song, wanting help with learning songs from a specific source, or even a particular tune).
As I said, I think the principal and path of what we teach could easily be adapted to teaching the whistle. Since I use it mainly as an accompaniment, I’m not sure what particular tune you would want to use in place of “Cabbage”.
I didn’t want to sound like a broken record but here in town there are well over a hundred kids coming to whistleclasses and they all play your ordinary generations without a bother. It will do you for under a fiver if you don’t want to lay out the money for a tweaked one.
A good thing about teaching is you have to re-assess your own paying, why you do it, what you enjoy about it and all that stuff. I find I get as much from my piping students as they get off me.
I am not sure I completely agree with the techmique vs reprtoire thing Missy describes. Generally teaching of Irish music is done through tunes and the tunes help putting the techniques in context. I personally feel that is more helpful, afterall the technique is there to make the best of a tune and showing different approaches and effect in different tunes enhances the understanding of that, more than applying all techniques in a limited number of tunes. I sometimes find it helpful though to really stuff a tune with everything you can throw at it, just ot show what works and what not and why not, or what would work for me the way I see it but that there may be different ways that will suit the student’s outlook (although you have to realise you can throw more at a tune playing the pipes than you would when playing the whistle).
Also you should take a layered approach to the tunes, first and foremost you will have to get a steady rhythm with correct phrasing, create a basic understanding of a tune, from there you build on further layers, ornamentation, variation etc.
1st, i am not a teachers orifice, but
i was taught by a very wise and wonderful person,
the most memerable thing he did for me as a youngster, was not to push but to steer me,
he always asked what tunes i wanted to play.
this is important in maintaining interest and entheusiasm,
when he thought i was progressing past the tunes i knew he made suggestions, and set me a challenging piece every now and then to keep progress happening, but was still patient with the effort,
music is about enjoyment, it is up to the teacher to maintain the enjoyment and challenge in a lesson, then hopefully the student will respond,
let the student decide what is a “cool” whistle empowerment is a powerful tool
I second the suggestion of the student bringing a tape recorder (or some other recording device, if they’re more high-tech than that) to the lessons, and taping the tunes you’re teaching. Either that or you can pre-record a tape for them to use for practice at home.
Start with tunes that they already recognize - it makes it easier to focus on technique if you aren’t learning how the melody is supposed to go. The first tune I teach a new fifer is “The Bells of St. Mary’s” from the Bing Crosby movie. “Battle Hymn of the Republic” is another good one to start with. And of course, “Yankee Doodle”. Find out what they know and go from there. Marches are generally the easiest (rhythmically), especially for Americans.
Every student is at different levels right from the very beginning. However, what is really fascinating to me is how they approach what they are learning right from the get go. It’s up to the teacher to figure all these things out & bring out the best in each, individually. Not always easy at times!
Example: They all seem to have a feel for the music in the beginning. That is until they are taught to see things from a more musical standpoint! My philosophy in the beginning stages is, 10 percent playing and 90 percent of finding out what makes them really tick! Once you understand there character, they immediately become better players in time very quickly. The reason for this is because you have opened up there minds w/out any reservations. A better way to put this is that your personal life can affect your abilities to learn!!! So I’ll find out whats on there minds right away to get the most potential from them right from the beginning. I make them think for themselves & not just learn tunes!!
One of my students, Rod Castillio. He’s really nervous & shy to play in front of me because he is so caught up in “Tears Of The Forest”. All he wants to do is talk about the music. But I am not interested in discussing my music in this setting because I’m more interested in him, not my music! Its very complicated to play the Low Whistle in that fashion. It takes lots of energy & lots of practice.
I will on purpose use another recording from another artist and play it & ask, “What do you hear in that, lets say, reel?” Some will say, “I hear lots of things.” Others will say simply, “I hear that it’s really fast!” The exceptional one’s will always say something like this. “I hear that the breaks are hear & there and that you must understand the pauses in order to play it effectively. Ornamentations must be on time so that you dont lose the timing!” Guess what? Those are the ones in almost all cases excel very quickly! Why? Because they have gone beyond the “Hype” and concentrated on the “Type” of tune it is and what it will take to play it effectively!!
My goal as a teacher is to find out whats on there mind’s & this gives me the chance to really see how far they will go. It’s nice because a number of them prefer actually slow-airs over all else! I tell them that the slow-airs get avoided a lot because they are not that easy to play. It takes lots of expression to really capture the feelings behind a slow-air! They seem to want to excel in that area now. This also teaches them proper timing. That is learning things, slowly.
I think it is wonderful that you want to share the world of whistling with your friend!
I teach weekly classes in my home, week long camps in the summer, private lessons and workshops.
I am constantly learning and developing the art of teaching and probably will until I die, but I would be happy to share a few relevations.
People are all different. They learn and retain new information in their own ways. Some need visual clues (music, tab) others need to hear a song over and over. Others need to touch and learn through repetion. Your challenge as a teacher is to discover your students ideal learning environment, work off of it and also challenge them to explore other ways of learning.
Start with songs that only use one hand. IE: Hot cross buns, Merrily we roll along. Once they can do it with the top hand, do the song with the bottom hand. It will still work. Use this time to help them to cover the holes with the right part of their fingers and to breath correctly.
Teach through doing and dangle many carrots. If you teach them a cool toon (can be an easy one) they won’t mind the diciplines you slip in along the way.
Always compliment on their progress, don’t lie, you can always find something positive to say and gently encourage them to challenge themselves.
Play the tunes for them without all the fancy stuff. It is intimidating for a student to hear an instructor total slaughter them with a tune. Once in a while they want to hear you break out just so that they know you can do it, but don’t over do it either. Instead make them feel comfortable with playing things slow and simple.
Teaching an individual is different from a class. In a class, the student can see that others are struggling with the same concepts. But with you alone, they are harder on themselves. Don’t let them become too intimidated.
A short class is better than a long one. Beginners need time to go home and try out the concepts alone in their bathroom! Especially when you are teaching one on one. 15 - 20 minutes is enough for the first few lessons. Once you see the deer in the headlights look, let them go! If you are teaching a class, an hour is fine because they aren’t your only focus hence, it isn’t so intense.
If you are teaching a tune with lyrics, teach them to hear the words as they play. It helps with timing and feel.
If you have the luxury of having the students for longer than a day or week, don’t rush the ornamentation. It will come with time and they will crave it as their confidence with the instrument increases. A tap or cut will be much easier to play and understand once the student is over trying to figure out if he has the f hole fully covered.
It doesn’t matter if your whistle is the same brand as your students, they will be out of tune due to their lack of breath control anyway. As long as their whistle is in good shape, can reach the high notes easily and if comfortable to play, it will be just fine.
Laugh lots, use humour and enjoy, remind your students that as long as they are better than they were last week, it doesn’t matter how fast they progress. Challenge yourself, not others and above all, have fun!
I think it is wonderful that you want to share the world of whistling with your friend!
I teach weekly classes in my home, week long camps in the summer, private lessons and workshops.
I am constantly learning and developing the art of teaching and probably will until I die, but I would be happy to share a few relevations.
People are all different. They learn and retain new information in their own ways. Some need visual clues (music, tab) others need to hear a song over and over. Others need to touch and learn through repetion. Your challenge as a teacher is to discover your students ideal learning environment, work off of it and also challenge them to explore other ways of learning.
Start with songs that only use one hand. IE: Hot cross buns, Merrily we roll along. Once they can do it with the top hand, do the song with the bottom hand. It will still work. Use this time to help them to cover the holes with the right part of their fingers and to breath correctly.
Teach through doing and dangle many carrots. If you teach them a cool toon (can be an easy one) they won’t mind the diciplines you slip in along the way.
Always compliment on their progress, don’t lie, you can always find something positive to say and gently encourage them to challenge themselves.
Play the tunes for them without all the fancy stuff. It is intimidating for a student to hear an instructor total slaughter them with a tune. Once in a while they want to hear you break out just so that they know you can do it, but don’t over do it either. Instead make them feel comfortable with playing things slow and simple.
Teaching an individual is different from a class. In a class, the student can see that others are struggling with the same concepts. But with you alone, they are harder on themselves. Don’t let them become too intimidated.
A short class is better than a long one. Beginners need time to go home and try out the concepts alone in their bathroom! Especially when you are teaching one on one. 15 - 20 minutes is enough for the first few lessons. Once you see the deer in the headlights look, let them go! If you are teaching a class, an hour is fine because they aren’t your only focus hence, it isn’t so intense.
If you are teaching a tune with lyrics, teach them to hear the words as they play. It helps with timing and feel.
If you have the luxury of having the students for longer than a day or week, don’t rush the ornamentation. It will come with time and they will crave it as their confidence with the instrument increases. A tap or cut will be much easier to play and understand once the student is over trying to figure out if he has the f hole fully covered.
It doesn’t matter if your whistle is the same brand as your students, they will be out of tune due to their lack of breath control anyway. As long as their whistle is in good shape, can reach the high notes easily and if comfortable to play, it will be just fine.
Laugh lots, use humour and enjoy, remind your students that as long as they are better than they were last week, it doesn’t matter how fast they progress. Challenge yourself, not others and above all, have fun!
I didn’t want to sound like a broken record but here in town there are well over a hundred kids coming to whistleclasses and they all play your ordinary generations without a bother. It will do you for under a fiver if you don’t want to lay out the money for a tweaked one.
If you are teaching a tune with lyrics, teach them to hear the words as they play. It helps with timing and feel.