I just ordered my Clarke Sweetone whistle from the whistle shop and its being shipped on its way. My question is that I am a total newbie to whistle blowing and want either online tutorials or books, CD’s, or video’s that can help. I understand that L.E. McCullough has a very good tutorial? Do any of you recommend particular tutorials for a newbie. I have no music reading experience but am going to learn. I played guitar for a couple of years but learned tab and not sheet music reading, but I feel I have a good ear which will hopefully help me out playing the whistle. I bought the whistle to play when I go camping (its a little easier to lug around than a guitar) and possibly if I get better at it to play for the family during holidays or nice Irish tunes and such.Thanks in advance…
Well, I’ll go ahead and be the first to recommend the tutor by Bill Ochs called “The Clarke Tinwhistle Tutor” (I think). In my opinion it proceeds at the best pace of all the tutorials, and shows some of the different types of music that can be played on the whistle besides Irish, while nicely moving into a thorough introduction of Irish Trad as well. Get it with the CD or tape if you can. I think the Whistle shop sells it.
I think the L.E. McCullough tutorial is great, but I personally think it’s better suited to intermediate players that really want to get a handle on ornamentation. For that it can’t be beat.
I also like the CD-ROM tutorial with Brian Finnegan from MadForTrad.com. Partly just because I think he’s an incredible player, but I like having the videos as well.
But if you’re just buying one, I’d recommend the one by Bill Ochs.
Good luck,
John
Welcome to the board Raven!
I always recommend Ireland’s 110 Best Tinwhistle Tunes by Waltons, with CD. You really need the CD to get the right feel, and it’s better to have the tune through the ear anyway.
This starts off with simple tunes & takes you up to intermediate level. If I could play every tune in the book I’d be very pleased with myself.
I applaud
your idea of having a whistle for portability, I used to play guitar, now Mandolin, but the whistle beats them all for take-anywhere-play-anywhere-ability.
I’ll second both the Ochs and McCullough recommendations. I’m from the stone ages, and have only seen the cassette version of the Ochs, but it’s terrific for beginners. Judging solely on the books, I think that one is a bit better for complete beginners, but the McCullough has some great insights on ornamentation for slightly more advanced players. I think that whistlers of all levels can find something of use in both of these tutors, and they belong in your whistling library. BTW-- both authors are terrific players, and really nice guys.
Thanks for the replies! I will look up Bill Ochs tutorial as it sounds the most appropriate for me now.
The Walton series “110 Best…” are good because the CD’s record at a lightly slower speed without a lot of ornamentation.
Another good resource is Caithal McConnell’s (I may have botched the spelling) tutorial (with CD).
I’d highly recommend L.E. McCullough’s VIDEO, for beginners, in addition to the books mentioned.
The video is very well done and makes it easy for someone with no knowledge of music to learn some tunes very quickly by simply following along with L.E. as he plays each song slowly, section by section. The Video shows L.E.'s fingers very clearly as he works through each tune with you.
If I had to recommend one learning aid to get someone started, it would without a doubt be this video. I’d say get the books after the video, unless you dig being frustrated 
Loren
Check out “The Whistle Shop” web site. Thom has a great package called the deluxe beginning whistler’s set. It’s a great bargain.
Please note that the items in the set can also be bought seperately.
You’ll also find the site to be a wellspring of whistle information.
Enjoy!