I’ve had so little time to whistle lately, it seems. But the moments I’ve been able to squirrel away, I’ve been working on The Silver Spear, Kesh Jig, and Otter’s Holt. Vocally I’ve been working on Ripe and Bearded Barley and Anachie Gordon. 
~Andrea
Hey Bill,
I’d like to hear this tune, but I don’t read ABC yet. Could you (or someone else who knows how) post this in the ABC format that will allow me to copy and paste it to the converter thing on concertina.net? If anyone can, thanks in advance!
Hmm: Inisheer, Dallas Skies, attempting at perfecting Be Thou My Vision, and I should start learning that slow jig for the get together. Also working on Rights of Man in my spare time (when I’m searching for something a little harder) and trying to find a recording of danny boy. Oh yeah, christmas carols, I started about a month ago (my family thinks im crazy) but I should have them all memorizied by christmas this way.
Cees, it is easy to learn the basics for the 13 notes. On the tin whistle the pattern is BAGFED, with B the top hole covered, A, top two holes, down to D with all six holes. For Kristy’s Gift it is all in the lower octave, upper octave would be lower case letters.
So GAB2 is cover three holes, then two, then one, with the B a half note, twice as long as the first two quarter notes. The rhythm is basic and simple with half notes ending the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd measures (I put a 2 to indicate), all the others are quarter notes. I’ve written out the first thirteen notes in dots. The second verse duplicates ending one note earlier holding the G.
Kristy’s Gift, Copyright 2002 Denise Fernald
G xxx
A xx
B x 2 (half note)
A xx
G xxx
A xx 2
G xxx
F xxxx
E xxxxx
B x
A xx
G xxx
F xxxx 2
The improvised ending I have is eigth notes (/2)
G/2 F/2 ED2 G/2 F/2 ED2 G/2 F/2 ED2 EGG2
G xxx /2 (eighth notes)
F xxxx /2
E xxxxx
D xxxxxx 2 (half note)
repeats three times
E xxxxxx
G xxx
G xxx 2
I left out the third verse dot translation, and leave that as an exercise for the reader.
GAB2 AGA2 GABA GA2-
Just got two great Low D’s from friends on the board: a Dixon and a Howard. My first Lows. 
I’m, of course, starting with some slow aires:
Londonderry
Fairie Child
South Wind
Amhran A Leabhair
Inisheer, etc.
Trying to relearn breath control. 
Any suggestions for new Low D tunes???
Okay, you’re all gonna laugh at me, but here it goes:
I am currently working on learning the entire fiddle part, and portions of the guitar part from the song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” on the piano accordian. It started off as a teaching exercise for me, I didn’t think I would actually play it with my band. It’s just got good solo parts, and chording parts that are easy enough to incorporate. But now I’m really starting to like playing it and may try and convince my band that it’s a good idea. That’ll be a completely different challenge however.
Seth
Kenny Gilles from Portnalong
Miss Margaret Brown’s Favourite (tricky B part)
Sound of Sleat
(it’s interesting to see what everyone’s working on!)
I decided to get out my mandolin and work on some tunes. Lee’s March, Little Whiskey, Liquor Seller and Log Cabin. Look for them in the “L” section.
Steve
Stewtysmoot, the whistle was part of my motivation to quit smoking also. I noticed a notable improvement in my breathing within a few days and breath control with the whistle improved daily. Keep with it the benefits are great.
I am presently working on Off to California and the Fools Jig.
Working on a few flute tunes and a few whistle tunes.
For the flute, I moved Reel Beatrice to D minor to see if I could make it work without jumping octaves. It does go up in the marching band octave there for a while. Messing around a bit with Crossing to Ireland. And, to test the limits of patience in practice, I pull out Tommy’s Tarbukas.
On the whistle I’m trying to add varied taps, cuts, and other ornaments to tunes I already know well, note-wise. My favorite to work on is Devlin’s.
M
Working on “The Maid Behind the Bar”, a nice reel methinks, and I am going to work on ornamenting Kesh Jig a little better also.
I just put the Amazing Slow Downer on the computer, (sounds like drugs) now EEVERYTHINGis a tutorial! 
I wish I could learn tunes faster, it seems to take a couple weeks just to get the basic notes down pat, then a while longer for the ornamentation. More patience my son, more patience.
There’s also a Loretto Reid reel named “Sunset”. Though I’ve don’t believe I’ve ever heard anyone but her or her husband play it, they’ve recorded it twice. Nice tune.
Ya think whistle is hard on that B part…try it on uilleann pipes! LOL Not only do your fingers get tied in a knot, but tje on the knee / off the knee thing REALLY throws me! LOL
Avanutria, if it’s the Sunset reel you’re working on, that’s a Cathal McConnell composed tune…'tis a lovely tune indeed.
Opps…didn’t read the whole thread and Coloman’s reply. Oh yeah, and I’m learning “Bonnie Kate” on pipes.
After about a month of solid practicing, I think I finally have King of the Fairies down to my satisfaction.
Now I’m looking around for some traditional christmas melodies whose sheet music doesn’t look to scary…
A Scottish medley consisting of at the moment Wi’ A Hundred Pipers, Loch Lomond and Scotland The Brave for Christmas non-enthusiast listening, hence picking tunes that everyone knows.
Biggest challenge here is writing bridges that move from one to the next (and back again) fluidly and the ever present tendency to take Hundred Pipers at a couple of hundred miles an hour.
Any suggestions of Scottish tunes to add greatfully received but they must be instantly recognisable to the non-music community!!
I’m currently working on Knockaboul #1 (Scartaglen Polka) which gets played fairly often at my session and which I’ve known for a while as “That polka that I always think is ‘Maggie in the Woods’ but isn’t.” I’ve been struggling a bit with the B part, which I just don’t find very musically interesting. I was listening to a recording last night and found a more palatable rhythm for the repeated second octave Gs in the B part, so I think I’ve got that tackled. I’ll be on to the C part shortly, although there seem to be a lot of different variants for that.
I’m also sharpening up “Donnybrook Fair” which I think is a lovely little jig. Unfortunately, I learned it from LEM’s 121 FIST, and it seems the B part there is substantially different from what my session plays. So at some point I have to do some homework to figure out the differences.
– Scott
This is our tune list from the Spearfish group in training for sessions! Makes me feel like a real retard trying to just familiarize myself with the tunes! I know John Ryan’s in the wrong key!
Do you have the Banjo Special album yet? It’s got Loretto’s “Sunset” and a bunch of other great tunes. Four great tracks of Brian cutting loose.
I suppose I should say that I’m working on the “Shaskeen”, “Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel”, and “Captains and Ships”, and to a lesser extent, a bunch of tunes whose names I haven’t really paid much attention to.