Hello there , I am a fairly new whistler, however have played the recorder on and off for many years. I thought this would give me a bit of a head start, O.K., the fingering is slightly different (no hole at the back - theres a clue! ) and I can read musical notation which helps. Being a big headed over confident sort of person I decided to start with something simple like Morrisons (yeah, I know) apart from a blister on my lip and both the kids threatening to leave home the result was quite unsatisfactory. I then decided to go back to basics.
Question 1. Can anyone recommend a sort of intermediate beginners book with some cracking good tunes (not Frere Jaque or Londons Burning please!)
Question 2. I have a Shaw traditional conical whistle which has a georgeous tone, but am having problems with getting the upper high register out of it without scaring the cat. Is it me or the whistle? You can be honest.
Question3. As I play the tenor recorder, would I find it easier to play a low D Whistle, or am I deluding myself ?
I am smitten by the whistle to the point of obsession and practice for an hour a day, so please help a sad sick Newbie to whistle success. Kate
Welcome Kate. Morrisons is filled with E, B, G rolls and there are places where you’d probably do well to leave out a note to breathe. I really like the tune too. I’d suggest the Bill Ochs tune book and cd (I think he has cd now; I have a very old one with cassettes). A nice variety of all levels of tunes with straight forward explanations for ornaments, etc. He has a site you can order from (pennywhistler.com, I think).
Best,
Philo
What he said. As a relative newb myself I like the book because it lets you go at your own pace, and yes there is a cd now. Welcome to the board.
I haven’t ever heard anyone state that they find it easier to play a low D than a high. There could be someone, but I haven’t heard it yet. I play both, and find them suitable for different things–if, as it sounds, you like “cracking” tunes…the little whistle is going to respond faster.
I have a Shaw with a very playable upper register, but it’s been tweaked by Jerry Freeman. Someone else may be able to chime in here on whether scary high notes are typical of the untweaked variety.
Yes, it’s available with CD now.
Very useful for learning a new tune, since you can set the CD player to loop on a track again, and again, and again . . . until you can play along or your family throttles you. 
Decent tunes. Not all ITM (a good part of the tunes are English, Scottish, and American folk tunes) but it has a good selection, especially in the second half of the book. And if you can work your way through the tutorial to the end, you should have the basic skills to pick up more on your own.
The Mallinson tunebooks are great: “100 Essential Irish Session Tunes,” “100 Enduring Irish Session Tunes,” etc. Mallinson also publishes the Shaskeen tunebooks “The Crossroads Dance” and “Through the Half Door,” which are really good as well.
Welcome,
I have the Bill Ochs Book & cd. I got it along with a Clarke original whistle as a package deal. I found it a great help to use Audiograbber (freeware) to convert the cd to individual mp3 files and store them on my hard drive. Audiograbber also will link you to a site that finds the Bill Ochs tutorial cd and will label each mp3 file with the appropriate title. Then you can listen to any of the tunes with just a mouse click. It’s a lot easier than trying to diddle with your cd player.
All the best,
Mike
Well thanks everybody, will order Bill Ochs book A.S.A.P. I really apppreciate your replies. Glad you like Morrisons as much as I do Philo. Anyway, went back and tried the high register on a descant recorder I dug out of my daughters bedroom just to double check I wasn’t going mad, and apart from the high ‘b’ (what can you expect from a plastic school room descant recorder) made the grade! So Emmline, looks like I might need a tweeked whistle. Where can I get one? I was also interested to hear what you said about ‘cracking a tune’ , interestingly when I put down the sheet music, I played a lot better! Went to Sidmouth (Devon, England) folk festival this year, and was so jealous of all those spontaneous, jamming muscisians.
Played in Baroque and Medieval recorder groups before, but long for that spontaneous whistle sound. Guess thats just down to practice eh?..
Kate
Private message (pm) Jerry Freeman, right on this board. Or check eBay…he sometimes sells 'em there.
Kate,
Sounds like you have a big head start playing tenor recorder already. Watch out when you start on a low whistle, though-- I bought one I loved but during the first week discovered that it really made my hands hurt!
Besides Bill Ochs, I’d recommend The Tin Whistle Toolbox by Grey Larsen. Really precise explanations of how to play the ornamentation and lots of practice with great tunes as well as exercises. The problem with this book, though (as well as his other, more in-depth one) is that before I got it I used to think I was pretty good. My self-image has gone from being the Best Whistler in Town, which I still am (small town) to a Barely Intermediate Tooter. Had to relearn fingerings, fix things that used to sound pretty good to me. In fact, since I’ve been reading this forum, I’m becoming more and more intimidated about playing in public. And I’ve started to buy more whistles, now that my old Generation doesn’t cut it any more. Maybe you should stop now.
Jennie
Dave Shaw is based in the UK and an email telling him of your fondness for this whistle and a request to make it work for you/supply one with a strong second octave might be an idea. Sometimes it is technique rather than the whistle - they’re all different.
Whistles “individually voiced to give maximum performance”.
Trisha
Suggestion.
Get all of your tunes and recordings online and save your money for more whistles.
There are more tunes than you’ll ever play already on the devil-net just waiting to be downloaded.
VB’s got it exactly. I’ve got about three 1 inch binders full of standards off the net. You can usually find one or two sounds files on the tune as well.