Hi all
Im looking for peoples suggestions as to good self-teaching materials, books etc, for whistle playing?
Im trying my best to learn, but i freely admit to being a lousy musician! My trouble is timing, i cant keep a beat!
I have a whistle, an ‘Ellis Classic’, with which i can make pleasing if amateurish noises 
any suggestions greatfully received
Martin
I’m using Grey Larson’s The Essential Tin Whistle Toolbox which I’m finding very useful. It comes with a CD packed with exercises to practice.
I’d suggest getting a metronome as well. Really useful for getting the timing even.
I’m sure others will come along and suggest other titles.
Books are good, but listening is good too.
There are some excellent learning resources on the web - I don’t have links to them, but others will post them. Google for Ryan Dunns, for example. He has some excellent teaching videos on YouTube.
Welcome, and get ready for more advice than you though possible. 
Thanks, i’ll take a look at those suggestions,
I tend to like these video clip courses, so i can see whats being done.
The electronic tuner i use to tune my sons guitar has a metronome function, i’ll try that out
Im the only non musical person in the house! My wife plays piano and, er, some wind thing like a big recorder 
cant remember what its called, and my little lad plays guitar and harmonica (my harmonica, that i cant play 
) Im having another crack at it!
Although this is not a book, I was directed toward Ryan Duns’ YouTube Tin Whistle Lessons (linked below, mentioned above). There are around 9(?) with some supplemental videos along the way. I have tried several different tutorials, and these have been by far the most helpful.
thanks for the link, i cant view it at the moment, but i’ll take a look later when i get home
The wife says if i can learn to play a reasonable tune on it she’ll get me an adjustable one! I thought she meant tuning, but she was looking on the makers website and i think now she means the volume control
Mind you, looking on Ellis’ website at them, one like that might let me practice without the embarrasment of my 6 year old showing me up!
I agree on Ryan Duns’ YouTube videos for getting started. They’re very helpful.
If you want an actual book, I’d recommend the Bill Ochs book. I have both this one and Grey Larsen’s big book. Personally, I think the Bill Ochs book is better for getting started. It’s much simpler, and very clearly written. Grey’s book is great if/when you really want to delve into every possible minute detail imaginable.
If you’re looking for a whistle with a volume control, check out the Parks’ Every Whistle. There are lots of reviews here. I have one and it’s one of my favorite whistles.
Jason
I found Bill Ochs tinwhistle tutor very helpful. It also comes with a CD and a lot of tunes. And it’s not too expensive, if that matters.
Welcome, by the way!
Ditto.
It’s cheaper than the Ellis as well (if budget is a consideration).
I have a copy of Bill Ochs’ whistle tutor you can have for the cost of postage*. Where are you? It’s the one I learned on, years ago, and it’s so old that the cassette it came with was in C. I’m willing to mail the book, but it makes more sense to rip the cassette to mp3 than mail that part. Once recorded it’d be no more than a few seconds’ more work to shift it into D, if that’s the whistle you have, so don’t fret about the key.
*Or for free if it’s negligible from Canada.
Take it from a collector of books for the purpose of learning something new…Books won’t help that much when it comes to fixing your problem. Hearing the tune in your head will have to come first, the book then tells you where to stick your fingers to make it come out of your head and into the whistle. Not knowing the tune is the biggest hindrence, to learning. It’s not impossible to learn while not knowing the tune, just real slow. I say all this only because it sounds like you have the same issues I had when I first started. I hope it is of some help. The best book to get, is the one that has the most tunes in it that you recognise.
Mick
Indeed. As well as the Larson book for basic learning I have L.E. McCullough’s The Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tunebook. 125 session tunes with 4 cds, each tune played slow (for learning) and at full speed (for practice). I use this in conjunction with YouTube and Spotify to watch and listen to other interpretations etc. TheSession.org can be quite useful if used sensibly to pick up the very basic skeleton of a tune and using Spotify etc to hear the way a tune should be played.
Going to the local session is really useful too, playing with other players and picking up new tunes. I’m lucky that there’s plenty of sesions to choose from around here, from straight on playing to one that’s good for introducing and practicing new tunes in an almost ‘workshop’ style environment.
Debbie Wilkinson’s site is a great video tutorial:
http://www.tinwhistletutorials.com/index.asp
I would recommend Grey Larson’s books and LE McCullogh’s classic tutorial books is great. I have learned alot from it.
Father Dun’s Video lessons are great too.
Good luck.
Hear! Hear! The Grey Larson book was a GREAT help to me, and it came with CDs to check your sound.
I’ll just pipe up again and, at risk of not sounding seriously interested in my music, I must admit to having a lot (read near bloody impossible) trouble bringing myself to listen to those CD’s that come with music books, more than once. I much rather listen to the tune played in a normal musical setting i.e Celtic circle, disc One, track Thirteen, ‘She moved through the fair’. And just for a comparison I might listen to, The Irish Folk collection, disc Two, track Eleven…You guessed it, ‘She moved through the fair’. I listen to music on an MP3 player (not just the afore mentioned track either) while I’m at work, so that way I’m in control of what I listen to, and not some radio presenter.
Those tutorial CD’s just end up boring me to tears. They are good for getting to know what a technique or a note should sound like, but for learning tunes there is nothing like having it running around in your head looking for a way to escape, thus forcing the fingers to learn to tap it out on a whistle. Again, this is just my way of learning, it might not suit anyone else but it does the job for me.
Thanks for all the suggestions guys, really great stuff,
i think i’ll go the video tutorial route, i must confess my previous attempts to learn guitar and harmonica via books were disasters, but i found some youtube guitar tutorials which were great (although im still utterly hopeless at both 
)
Im at least making more pleasant tones from the thing now, rather than shrill screeches, although the wife wasnt best pleased with me practicing at nearly midnight last night 
She has said however that she is getting me a late birthday present of a new C/D combination whistle. So, my little ellis classic is on ebay (she wont let me have both, and with any luck i can put the money towards the antenna analyser i want 
)
At this rate, i may even be able to play a simple lullaby by the time our next baby is born 
I vouch for the same resources named here, especially about the books. Since you’re a beginner, go with Bill Ochs’ one and keep mister Larsen book for when you’ll be more experienced.
Mister Ochs and Mister Larsen are definitely my masters.
Mister Duns videos are nice too and I started with them. But, they go way too fast in my opinion; I mean, it can be frustrating to see that he thinks that at the end of week eight you should be playing a reel. He’s too fast in teaching you ornamentations in my opinion. My advice is: learn to read music gradually with trivial tunes and learn to play well those tunes. Then gradually step up.
And, who said that listening is critical is right too. Written words can be very helpful but remember that music is an aural thing. The two books mentioned have CDs; I listened to Ochs one so many times that I learned some of his tunes by ear rather than on written music on the book.
Ciao