Any suggestions on a few tunes to learn , that are similiar in speed and difficulty to Skye Boat Song??
I think I would be best to start these slower tunes & get some polish before I try doing a Jig 
I guess waltzes is what Im asking for. Is Skye a waltz?
Thanks
Steve
I myself had learned âDown by yon Sally Gardensâ (waltz, not the reel), and later, âSouthwindâ.
You could try âMingulay boat songâ, which is close in sentiment to a âSkye boat songâ. 
Thanks, I kinda know Southwind. and sally gardens, I just looked at youtube & the guy made it sound beautiful, , he threw in a few more notes than are on my beginner low whistle book
Im gonna try it out.
Waltzes & airs , what is the the difference . waltz 3/4 what about airs??? 
Ah ⌠I saw the thread title and thought it was going to be about ersatz folk tunes coined by the upper classes and put to newly written words by English people pretending to be âCelticâ âŚ
Anny-hoo ⌠Down by the Sally Gardens, the waltz ⌠huh? I donât know that one. I know the rather slow song tune ⌠but thatâs in cut time, at least in any version Iâve heard. Do you have the dots, Dain? Iâd be interested âŚ
I think youâd consider Down by the Sally Gardens an air rather than a waltz. Thatâs a great tune and was actually the first one I learned.
Generally an air will be more free-flowing in time. Careful talking about them here though, as they can become hotly debated. 
If youâre looking for some nice, fairly slow tunes, look at a few planxtys (planxties?).
Si Bheag Si Mohr (this sounds like a planxty to me, not sure if it is, technically)
Planxty Hewlett
Planxty Irwin
Planxty Fanny Power
Jason
Click here http://www.tinwhistler.com/index.aspx then click on the tunes, and click on tunes by type or alphabetically. You can see them and hear them. Great site. 
When you are more comfortable with your upper octave (if you have those problems, as i did) you might try to play Sally Gardens starting from G instead of D. It might help you get a few lower notes that you cannot play when beginning in D.
And i dont know if you saw that little Chinese kid on Youtube; he rocked both Sally Gardens and Women of Ireland (one of the most haunting melodies iâve ever heard)
I didnât even think about that. Iâve always played it in G myself.
Jason
An air, being the melody of a song, doesnât signify a particular dance step the way a term like âwaltzâ does, so it doesnât automatically correlate with any particular time signature.
Well, you could also pick up any piping tune and play it as written. Thatâs how Iâm learning the whistle, as I know scads of piping tunes. On a âDâ whistle youâll never play a piping tune lower than âGâ or higher than âaâ. Opens up a lot of possibilities. Some of my favorite slow airs are âSuo Ganâ, âThe Dark Isleâ, and âHighland Cathedralâ. Piping music is readily available on the 'net, as quite a bit of it is out of copyright. I mention this because it it opens up a ton possibilities for tune choices.
2 pence from the new guy⌠
Hi Steve,
Try this waltz âCooleyâs waltz #2â, http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tuneget?F=GIF&U=/~jc/music/abc/Ireland/waltz/TomBhettysWaltz_1.abc&X=2&T=COOLEYSWALTZ2
Sorry about the looong URL, I have no idea how to shorten it, I just copied and pasted it to here.
I was in a session a few years back when I heard this tune played with Cooleyâs waltz #1 and for the life of me couldnât pick the tune, but I knew I had heard it before and was able to play along. It wasnât until after the tune was finished that I realised that I knew the #2 waltz as a jig, âTom Bhettâysâ.
So if you learn the tune in itâs waltz form it shouldnât be that hard to shift gear and rip it out as a jig in the future.
The tune is fairly simple to learn as it is full of arpeggioâs, and it is a great sounding tune when played as a jig.
Good luck.
Letâs see here, do you mean Great Highland pipes when you say âpiping tunesâ?
âPiping tunesâ doesnât conjure up the same image for some of us.
2 cents from the old guyâŚ
How about Am Rhaibh⌠(canât remember how to spell, but itâs number 5 in the chiff and fipple tunebook, which I also canât find a link to, my excuse being that Iâm away on holiday and this internet connection is pretty crumby, but the hotel is very nice, and the crumby internet connection is probably just as well for a romantic get awayâŚ)
Itâs odd, maybe, how in the Highland Piping repertoire there are a huge number of lovely tunes which could be thought of as waltzes (because itâs possible to waltz to them) but they usually write them out in 6/8 time and call them âslow marchesâ.
Iâve played Highland pipes for weddings for three decades now and when they want me to play for the âfirst danceâ I always play a medley of these tunes:
Skye Boat Song
Highland Cradle Song
Chi Mi na Morbheanna (The Mist-Covered Mountains)
Fagail Lios Mor (Leaving Lismore)
Thereâs a great scene in the movie Local Heroes where theyâre at a local dance and the dance band is playing Chi Mi na Morbheanna.
Thereâs loads of these in the Highland piping tradition and any large Highland pipes tunebook will have a section devoted to them (but some books have all marches, quick and slow, thrown into the same section).
Many are tunes to Gaelic songs, some are tunes to Robby Burns songs (of course he seems to have appropriated pre-existing traditional tunes for his songs but thatâs another story), some are newly composed.
If you just paste it without hitting the URL button,
the site automatically recognizes it as a URL and
shortens it for you. Like this:
http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tuneget?F=GIF&U=/~jc/music/abc/Ireland/waltz/TomBhettysWaltz_1.abc&X=2&T=COOLEYSWALTZ2
If you hit the URL button (or type in [before it
by hand) it is forced to show the whole address.
Or you can use the URL tag like this to make the
link say whatever you want:
[url=http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tuneget?F=GIF&U=/~jc/music/abc/Ireland/waltz/TomBhettysWaltz_1.abc&X=2&T=COOLEYSWALTZ2]CLICK HERE, dude!](before%20it%0Aby%20hand%29%20it%20is%20forced%20to%20show%20the%20whole%20address.%0A%0AOr%20you%20can%20use%20the%20URL%20tag%20like%20this%20to%20make%20the%0Alink%20say%20whatever%20you%20want:%0A%5Bcode%5D%5Burl=http%3A//ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tuneget?F=GIF&U=/~jc/music/abc/Ireland/waltz/TomBhettysWaltz_1.abc&X=2&T=COOLEYSWALTZ2%5DCLICK%20HERE,%20dude!)becomes:
CLICK HERE, dude!
Thank you all so much!!
Me & my G whistle are becoming friends on these slower tunes.
Ive just realized that I REALLY need to listen to a song tune sung, not just a inst. version of it ,to get how it really goes. If I am picking out silent night , which I have stored in my mind ,ok, but I dont believe I have ever heard Down by⌠sung , youtube here I come.
again thanks
Steve
slowly some lights are coming on
Oh, my. Hereâs one I like a lot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2UZReQGNVI
Low G or high?
Low G
As a side note, Iâve got a high G Generation from many years ago. I used to try and play it, but blimey itâs shrill! 