It looks like Grey Larson is issuing his first book - Hooray for you, Grey! I’ve looked through the contents and it appears to be a wonderful book. I haven’t actually leafed through it yet, so I can’t make a specific recommendation but if the entire thing is as well thought out as the pages that I have seen it will be a valuable addition to my library. Anyway, I thought you might like to hear of it. I searched Amazon, but it hasn’t shown up there. Grey apparently sells them on his own site, though. http://www.greylarsen.com/store/books.php .
I had some contact over it with him [about a contribution ] the book went to print mid october so it may not actually be ready or otherwise it is still very fresh from the press.
Cool, Peter. You’ll have to tell us where your finger prints are
Here is a snippet from an e-mail that I received from Grey (we’re not best friends - it was a large distribution e-mail :
I am very excited to announce that my first book, The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle, is finally finished and just now rolling off the presses at Mel Bay Publications here in the US. It has taken me eight years to complete this work - 480 pages plus two CDs. … It is for the beginner to the highly advanced player of Irish flute, tin whistle, or Boehm-system (modern) flute.
I emailed Grey asking when the book would be in stock, and he wrote back today and said it would be ready Friday. I’m not sure if he’ll have copies on hand Friday, or if it’s being printed Friday.
My parents are planning on buying me a copy for the holidays so I hope it’s available soon.
I can’t wait to get my hands on it!..looks like fun.
I, along with some other forum members, have had this on order for a while. Supposed to be out in mid November so hopefully it’ll be ready to go out Friday. I’m sure looking forward to it.
Casey Burns is selling them on his website. There is a picture of the cover and a Mel Bay sticker, but I searched Mel Bay’s site and found no listing for the book.
This is the only thing on my wish list for Christmas.
I’m going to see if I can get Chapters to order it for me, as I have a $50 card from last Christmas that hasn’t been used yet (and that’s the only way that SWMBO will let me order it )
Grey Larsen sent me THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO IRISH FLUTE AND TINWHISTLE and I tell you this thing is a monster. Absolutely unbelievable. Obviously, at nearly 500 LARGE pages and 2 CDs, I haven’t been able to do anything other than look through it. But, it is scholarly, beautifully written, loaded with fabulous pictures and and diagrams. Nothing, and I mean nothing, approaches it in any of the tutors. And the idea of combining the flute & whistle this way is a real innovation. This is a triumph. Grey Larsen, if this weren’t already guaranteed, as just earned his place in Irish Trad history.
I will be selling Grey’s books from my site at the wholesale price plus shipping. I will add $2.00 USD to the price, which, once Paypal takes their toll, I will donate the remainder to The Hunger Site in Chiff and Fipple’s name. Grey tells me he will drop-ship direct. It’s a chance for you to get the book at just a couple bucks over wholesale, and do something about hunger in the same transaction. I will not take anything for myself. I should have the order page up this week.
Enjoy!
serpent
Is there any chance this book will be seperated into a whistle-only edition for those of us who don’t want to (or can’t afford to, heh) buy the parts on flute?
This is from Grey’s web site – gives a description of
the book and what it covers. Looks like a good one!
– Dan M.
The Essential Tin Whistle Toolbox $29.95
By: Grey Larsen
Release Date: 2003
Publisher: Mel Bay Publications
To be released in March/April 2004. Approximately 160 pages, with one CD.
All the tools the beginner, novice, and intermediate tin whistle player needs in order to progress to a high level of competence in Irish music. Includes an “Orientation to Traditional Irish Music” which puts the music in context, with information on scales and modes, dance tune types, the historical roots of whistle playing, and advice for learning by ear. The book is full of thorough instruction, exercises, and musical examples: from holding, fingering, breathing, and blowing, on up to advanced ornamentation, phrasing, and variations. Features a simple and penetrating new approach to understanding and notating ornamentation that goes beyond any previous method. Also includes over 30 tune transcriptions, and history and theory of traditional Irish tin whistle music. For those who don’t read music, almost all the exercises and examples appear on the companion CD
I’ve looked at it in a bit more detail. It’s not really for the musical beginner. If someone who already has a pretty good command of music, theory, notation, etc., wanted to take up the whistle or flute, it would be great. And, for people who are already intermediate or advanced players, it would be great. But, as is true of lots of tutorials, it can be fairly tough for a total beginner.
Grey has a theory about ornamentation that
underlies what he says about it. He is a deep
thinker, really. But a theory is a theory (see,
I’m also deep), and at some point, when we’ve
engaged this new work, we may
want to discuss it here.
Mel Bay already has “Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tutor” out for less than $18 at The Whistle Shop. How is Grey’s book going to be different/better than this one?
I don’t have the book you refer to, but I once leafed through it in a store. I got the distinct impression that the authors are not what you might call bona-fide players of Irish traditional music. Their biographies on the Mel Bay site would seem to confirm this. So I would regard their book as highly suspect until proven otherwise. (Maybe I would change my mind if I heard the accompanying CD, but I think it’s more likely that I wouldn’t!)
On the other hand, from my exposure to Grey Larsen, I’d be tempted to regard his book as useful until proven otherwise.
