Hello to all!!
I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!!
For Christmas I got 2 song books.
I was wondering what everyone thought of them!
#1 The Penny Whistle Book
by Robin Willamson
#2 The Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tune Book (4 CDS)
by L.E. McCullough
What do you think?
Robin Williamson’s “Penny Whistle Book” was my very first tutorial/tunebook for the whistle, and the L.E. McCullough book was my second. If you already read music and have some familiarity with the style, they’re great books. If you need a bit of instruction in music reading, you might want to add the Bill Och’s tutorial (the one he did for Clarke’s)
About the only argument I had with the Williamson book is that it starts out with The Ash Grove, which is NOT a beginner’s tune (in fact, played correctly, it has at least one half hole, which I only knew because I learned to sing it long before I learned to play it). He also kind of gets turns and rolls confused, and I don’t think he annotates hornpipes at all well. If you ever hope to play for Morris Dancers, however, he’s your guy…and if you’re not totally hung up on doing pure Irish Trad, he may be all you need. He does include a lot of tunes one doesn’t normally find in whistle books (including some English, Scottish and American tunes), and I find that a nice feature.
The great thing about the McCullough book is the CDs…not only do you get a feel for how the tunes should be played, you can easily play along. AND his music is more “classically” Itrad.
Redwolf
Thanks Redwolf!
I found the “Penny Whistle Book” in a music store here in town.
I was glad to find a book that was over 10 pages for the penny whistle.
I already had a 10 page book that I got with my Feadog.
I can read music, I was a French Horn player in college.
Sometimes when I really get into a tune I try to go back to my French Horn fingerings. (they don"t work very well on a penny whistle!)
I liked the The Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tune Book because I could hear how the tune should sound & I can play along when I get good enough!
I think those are primarily tutorials, not songbooks, the difference being that a tutorial shows you how to play, and a songbook is a bunch of songs without directions to play.
If this distinction really is important to you, the McCullough 4 CD / book set is a tune book, as suggested in its title.
Sonja
I happen to have an old yellowed copy of the Williamson book open on my music stand at the moment. Got it in…maybe 1980 or so. It’s a nice change from the relentless insistance on jig after jig I find in some books. Here’s something fun to do: Check out Robin Williamson’s website (I don’t know, just Google it,) to see how he’s changed from the pics in the book.
Oh, and I like the last tune, Farewell…I was just playing it.
I found the McCullough instruction on triplets (same note repeated three times) hard to follow. It seems that hardly anybody does it that way.
Check the thread on triplets:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=16743
Brian
TOO FUNNY!! I got a gift certificate from Amazon and ordered Robin’s book and the L.E. McCullough book, only the tutor one, not the tune book. The only thing I don’t like about the tutor one, is on the CD he jumps awful fast from one thing to another. I will have to listen to each thing over and over again. sigh