Oh gods of tin whistle, I need practice suggestions

Whistle
21

If you want to be able to play a tune X times through, then try it to see if you can. If you can’t then figure out what the difficult spot is (for me it’s usually the start of a part or a repeat) and work on that until you’ve got it, then try to play X times through again. Break down and isolate the difficult parts and then put them back into the tunes, and work on what’s holding you back from being able to do what you want to do (i.e., don’t work on what you can already do well – that’s playing, not practicing, and you will only improve through practice).

In one of Barry Greene’s books he observes that amateurs practice something until they can play it right; professionals practice until they cannot play it wrong. All my advice is geared towards the later category. When I play a tune in public, I generally want people hearing me to think, “Oh, that’s quite nice. I’d like to hear more.” I want people who I play with to enjoy my playing, and not be thinking “oh, not him again!”

22

Sorry if we are drifting off topic. Yes, the multiple times through is for when it is getting better with consecutive repeates, not worse. If it gets worse I need to slow down and/or go back and work on something.

23

I admit that the sort of slowing down/catching up thing I’m talking about probably happens with people who are not concentrating as they should on what they are doing. But I think that, if you play on you own, without trying to play along with a recording (and therefore without having to concentrate on the recording), it’s easier to concentrate on what you’re doing. Also, even for a pipe band, I would have thought that playing with the band was completely different from playing along with a recording. With real live people, there are lots and lots of little signals, in terms of little sounds not caught on recordings and also good old body language (sensed even with your eyes shut) that you have to follow, collectively, to produce good ensemble. These things are entirely absent from recordings.

24

The body language really helps, especially as I watch my band’s leaders fingers. Exaggerated finger motions help to signal notes that are supposed to be held out, for instance, and there are other cues I pick up on that I probably only think about while actually playing. But I know that for myself (and I don’t know how common this is), playing with the band is more difficult than playing with the recordings my leader makes. If I can’t play it along with the recording, then I’ll be a train-wreck when I play with the band.

In the general case, I think that you’ll find (generic you) that beginning musicians have problems with rhythm, and that the main issue is not holding long notes long enough. If you don’t have any external rhythm source (metronome, recording, or live musician) to practice with, then (generic) you will probably never really get the hang of holding the long notes long enough, no matter how much you concentrate, because it’s not a skill that comes from within. Not until you learn it anyway.

Many people who start as kids talk about rhythm coming from within, but I believe that’s because they internalized rhythm before they knew what it was. It took me about a year of working with a metronome before my rhythm went from “profoundly bad” to “reasonably steady.” But even still, while I’m playing I’ll think I’m really hanging onto the long notes and exaggerating them, but then if I make a recording and listen back what I hear is that I’m actually rushing through those notes and not even giving them the full time they should have.

EDIT::

To be clear, I don’t think you should use any of these methods as an end-all.

I play with others, I play on my own, I play with a metronome, and I play with recordings. I also play tunes in full, play isolated bits, play tunes in loops, and occasionally play scales, arpeggios, and exercises.

I think they can each serve a useful purpose! It’s learning how to get the most from each bit that can really make your progress faster.

25

Ah ! Way off topic, but related to Ben’s post about ‘lots of little signals’ in ensemble playing, thats something I have been curious about . I saw top band on stage last year. Few of the drummers and half the pipers would not have been able to see the pipe majors foot and they were so spread out that the speed of sound would have given a problem just using ears. I suspected that sight was the answer. Curiously even though I was a long way away the sound of the drums seemed to me to be in time with the sticks striking, but it couldn’t have been; time perception is a wierd thing.

26

You’re funny Guru. You, of course, are one of the gods that I was speaking of. I hope to, someday, play as well as you do.

27

That raises another good point – a person needs to be 100% focused on practice for it to be efficient – just going through the motions and not paying attention is another way learn to play poorly. It’s probably better to spend 10 minutes in focused practice than two hours playing around.

So whistling while reading topics on C&F…prob’ly not a good idea? :wink:

28

Generally speaking, the pipers watch the fingers and the lead snare and the bass watch the foot. The other drummers watch the lead snare.

If you can’t watch the pipe major’s fingers, you watch the strongest player you can see.

But when you get to the really great bands, they probably don’t need to watch anything – they’ve played the music so many times in practice and they know exactly how it goes. I’ve actually found that if I’m not 100% comfortable with the music then I do better to look past the fingers and not actually watch them. For some reason watching the fingers mixes me up, so I look near, but not at the fingers, and focus on the sound. Then at the ends of the tunes I’ll look back to the fingers to get the break to the next tune.

Ensemble playing is difficult, and unfortunately there’s no real way to practice it other than being with the ensemble. I have a friend who plays harp, and we’re thinking of entering a harp contest as an ensemble, with whistle and fiddle. We’re trying to work things out long distance, because we’ll only have a limited time together before the contest, but there’s only so much you can do.

29

Okay, this is what I do, and the gods of tin whistle may send clouds to rain on it, so be advised.

I go to the basement (to hide from the kids), and sit in front of the keyboard to practice. I have a list of tunes (mostly just titles, but they are scribbled on the Sailor’s Wife sheet music, which, I PROMISE, I no longer even glance at!). I usually warm up by playing up and down the scale to high D and back once or twice, focusing on breathing. Then I practice doing rolls or cuts up and down the scale a couple of times. I stumble at this, and I want my fingers to get nimbler doing rolls. (That may be a lot to ask past forty.)

Then I run through my list of tunes in random order (so it doesn’t get too boring). I try to “speak” the rhythm under my breath for the jigs before playing those to sort of internalize it before I begin the tune. (Still not sure the rhythm on the jigs is quite right, but I’m not brave enough to post a clip yet for critique. It’s probably that I still play them rather slowly.)

If I have time, I’ll practice to the metronome on the keyboard with a couple of tunes. That’s hard, because I get nervous and stumble, but it does force me to keep going through the tune.

Probably three of my tunes I have picked up by ear from recordings, and frankly, they are the hardest. I don’t even know the proper name of one of them. I just can’t get them to sound right.

For the rest I got started with sheet music and once I got the basic notes (maybe 3 or 4 times through), put it away & practiced variations on the tune so I wouldn’t feel so tied to it. To add in ornaments, I slow it way down and practice the same phrase with ornamentation, over and over, then try to speed it up.

The one thing I haven’t tried is playing along with a recording. Also, not with a session yet, obviously. There is a “relative beginner” “Celtic Jam” not too far away every other week, but I doubt I’ll be up to that before they end for the year.

30

I forgot to add that I’ve downloaded clips of most of my tunes to my player, but I can’t seem to get that to affect my “lone” playing. So, playing along with them via Audacity might be a good change of pace.

31

Thanks to you all for such an outpouring of support. It seems obvious to me that one constant in all your arguments is that I spend way too much time working on tone and control and not enough time playing tunes.

I will begin tonight reversing the priority in my one hour practice session. I have Audacity and other apps which allow me to slow down tunes. I wish I’d thought of that before!

I genuinely appreciate any and all advice for improving my whistle playing. I am truly and hopelessly addicted!

Michael

32

I think we could call this forum WA (Whistlers Anonymous). Well, at least it’s a fun and healthy (all that blowing must be good for our lungs :stuck_out_tongue: ) addiction. And remember, play one day at a time.

33

Your recorder experience will only help your whistle playing and vice-versa. Being able to read music can also help but I have never learned any ITM music from reading. I have gotten all my ITM from playing by ear. I suggest you listen to recordings and live players even more than practicing. Once you can hum or lilt a tune, and have some more experience behind you, you will find your fingers being able to find the notes. I’m sure you can find “Happy Birthday” on your whistle. I’m also sure you did not learn it from sheet music. When a tune is in your head as familiarly as that, you will find it easier and easier to get the tune out of the whistle. Ear training is a great asset to playing ITM. With practice, you will eventually be able to learn tunes “on the fly”. A lot of new tunes (to me) in sessions, I can usually play along with well by the third time through.

34

Decide what your intent is and start doing that… If it is to play sessions, then pick a tune and master it… pick any goal and work on achieving that goal. The surprising thing is that after doing this act over and over… a transformation occurs and you will have moved into the next higher level of playing the whistle. I have found that it’s a never ending path to learning and that is what drives me… I am always seeking to learn more, do moer, and do it better. The main point is to have fun along the way. With out enjoying what you are doing, it all is just going through the motions and you won’t make any progress.