Has anyone “Mel Bay’s Complete ITW Book with CD” (Mizzy McCaskill,…) at home?
What are your experiences with it?
How are lessons made up?
I have already seen a table of contents, but there were no adequate example pages.
I’m glad for all your reviews!
I’m not familiar with the book, but I did look at the samples on the Mel Bay page:
http://www.melbay.com/product.asp?ProductID=96191BCD
At first glance, it seems OK; the written phrasing and fingerings look reasonable. But then I listened to the sound samples …
Good lord, what a dog’s breakfast. The whistle playing is very wrong - articulation, breathing, phrasing. It sounds very much like a classical flutist* or recorder player trying to play Irish music mechanically, with no real understanding. Not to mention the synthesizer accompaniments and mega-reverb from hell. The 4/4 Samba-style accompaniment to the double jig “Get Up Old Woman” is … incomprehensible in a beginner’s method.
*The author’s title list also suggests that this is the case, a classical flutist dabbling in ITM:
http://www.melbay.com/authors.asp?author=91
Maybe it’s unfair to judge the whole method from this. But the publisher chose the samples. And based on these, I would give it a big thumbs-down. There are far better choices.
OMG, this is hilarious. The “Fig for a Kiss” is awesome, too. It sounds like music from Myst or something like that.
I had my suspicions about this book but I never expected it to be that bad.
Screw the book. Google “Brother steve tin whistle” instead
I have the book.
The whole CD is as bad as the sound sample. Not one track is worth listening to. It’s a waste of time and money.
I have it, and I don’t think it is very great. The versions of the tunes are way different than anybody else plays. It is not a book for beginners either. I didn’t really learn anything from it. The finger charts are good for ornamentation, but the cd is olny a few tunes, and not directions for ornamentation, I was lost when I first got it. It has a bunch of songs and tunes in it, but like I said before, the cd only has just a few, and versions are different from what everybody else plays. There were also no lessons made up, I guess it is go at your own pace for that book. I would go for something different, maybe like G. Larson’s book.
I have the book. I don’t recommend it though.
Get the Bill Ochs book and CD. It’s a very good book.
–James
Thank you, folks!
My thoughts exactly. I thought maybe the sound files came out wrong on my old laptop… Obviously not. Aaah, music from hell! 
I’m now trying to decided wether it’s going to be Grey Larsen or Bill Ochs. Mind you, I’m looking for a book where I can learn ornamentation and it definately needs a CD to go with it.
I’m a newb and I also have Bill Och’s, “The Clarke Tin Whistle.” I like it and recommend it. It starts by teaching the reader to read music and then progresses from simple tunes to the much more complex (for me anyway) and includes a 74 minute CD of every lesson and tune in the book. I got mine from Amazon.com for around $18 plus shipping.
RVC
Steafan Hannigan’s book “The Low Whistle Book” is also very good and I think a lot of what’s in it also applies to the “regular” whistles. He goes through the ornamentation in a way that I found very useful and there are a lot of good examples on the companion CD.
Cheers,
Anders