I am now reading “The Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tutor” by L.E.McCullough and I find that book fascinating.
Has anybody here read it and used it as a tutor? What are your opinions of this book.
Created this thread not only to hear your opinions, but also to remind people who haven’t heard about it, that such a book exists! Search indicated these forums haven’t mentioned it before =)
This might prove helpful:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=38303&highlight=tutor
I missed the dueling tutors thread when it came around before, and since it’s three months stale I’ll put in my two cents here. I started with the Ochs tutor which came as part of a kit with a tape and a Clarke whistle in C. Then I got the McCullough tutor as well as his The Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tunebook. Then I got Larsen’s Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle.
I thought the Ochs tutor was a great place to begin because it has a healthy section of simple tunes to work through. Unfortunately, the kit came with a C whistle and the tape was recorded with a D whistle. I made good use of the tutor but was disappointed that I couldn’t play along with the tape with the supplied whistle without peeling the paint off the walls and melting earwax. I didn’t find the section on Irish ornamentation very helpful because it didn’t go into nearly enough detail about how to reproduce the sounds I was hearing on the tape.
The McCullough tutor comes with a CD recorded with a D whistle and fortunately by the time I got the book I had purchased a D whistle of my own. There is a good bit more detail of how to play the ornaments and when, and I learned quite a bit working through it that I did not get from the Ochs tutor. There were several things I didn’t like about McCullough’s tutor. One was the lack of depth in discussing the mechanics of the ornaments. I didn’t think the tunes he starts with for introducing the ornaments were the best choices- there are less challenging tunes that make better display of the ornament uses. I don’t enjoy listening to the CD for a couple of reasons. I don’t think the tone of the whistle on the recording is very complementary of whistle playing. I’m sure it was recorded many years ago when recording and whistle technology was far behind what it is today, but it is quite off-putting to me and I think it could stand some updating. Also, I found it discouraging that what McCullough notates in the book and plays on the CD are at times quite different. I recognise that variation is a fundamental part of Irish music, but I think the purpose of the tutor would be better served if the student could hear what was actually notated in the book.
McCullough’s Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tunebook is far from complete as can be easily deduced from the fact that there are only about 125 tunes in it compared to the thousands of Irish tunes extant. It is, however, a very good start. A good handful of the tunes in this book are ones played regularly at my local session, and it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that each of them are played regularly at someone’s local session somewhere. I am not a fan of McCullough’s system of notating ornaments. He will often replace three eighth notes of the tune with a dotted quarter with a long roll symbol over it. I feel that how and when to ornament should be left to the discretion of the player, so I cannot endorse any system of notating ornaments that obscures part of the original tune. This book is available with four CDs, all recorded on D whistle, which are of a much better quality, in my opinion, than that of the tutor.
Larsen’s Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle addresses many of the concerns I had with McCullough’s tutor. The explanation of ornament technique is extremely thorough and methodical. He includes a section of etudes designed to exercise the use of ornaments. For the size of the book, there are only 37 tunes in the tunes section with an additional 27 transcriptions of tunes played by the masters on recordings from the last 80 years or so, including biographical information on the performers. I prefer Larsen’s ornament notation system which uses symbols above the notes that can be played, exchanged, or ignored ad lib. The book comes with 2 CDs recorded on D whistle and flute and I find them very pleasant to listen to, not just practice along with.
Personally, I wouldn’t be without any of these books. I refer to each of them somewhat regularly and would not discourage anyone from obtaining their own copies of any of them. Each have their faults, as do we all, and I’ve tried to give as honest an opinion as I can, but they all contain loads of valuable information that I think will be of use to any whistle player who doesn’t already think they know everything (which I’m sure applies to no one at Chiff and Fipple 
).
R. Otter
Thanks for sharing your experience. (btw, I agree that a 3 month conversation is not alive to begin replying to it)
I have only the Complete Tutor. So I quess I’ll just stick to it. I am not sure I can get other books, since I live in Russia and it is very difficult to buy smth from abroad.
I also found this thread very helpful. I have the McCollough “Tunebook”, and was confused by earlier discussions that were describing the “Tutor”. My book has 125 tunes, but almost no instructional material. Now I understand the difference between the two. I’ll probably think about picking up Larsen’s book at some point, since most of you favored that. Thanks!!
It’s just that having this Tutor, it’s not all that great reading it’s no good. Though, nobody said it was no good. As far as I got it, it is just best to read through several books.
Everyone has a preference on the books they read. So every book mentioned, some will like it, some won’t like it. Many discussions come up about different tutorials They all seem to have strong points and weak points. I think the tutorial is just to get you started, and if you are enjoying it then that it good. So don’t worry, just practice.
I think the main thing is to spend a great deal of time listening to CD’s made by respected musicians. And when you pick a tune to learn, pick one that you can hear a good recording of so you can try to make it sound that way.