Hi fellow whistle players. I’m new to the list and fairly new to the tin whistle. Just wondering if anyone on the list has tried the tin whistle tutor on http://www.MadForTrad.com and if they can recommend it or an alternative CD ROM for someone just starting to learn? Also are there any tin whistle utors out there for Scottish music?
There is a sextion on tin whistle tutorial in the “Tutors” section of the site at the link below.
Thanks Kevin. Great website. Any special recommendations for a beginner??
A few recommendations:
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Play lots. Lots of short practice sessions are better than one or two marathon sessions a week. I keep a whistle by my computer and another in my car, so I can play whenever I get a chance.
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Listen lots. Get CDs; listen to “Clips n’ Snips;” if possible, sit in on some sessions or go to some concerts.
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Don’t get too hung up on sheet music. Find tunes that you like and try playing them by ear.
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Don’t worry too much about copying someone else’s style. Develop your own style instead. This is folk music, and it’s a fluid thing. Some people play a tune fast, some play it slow. Some use a lot of ornamentation, some use scarcely any. Some tongue a lot, some barely tongue at all. Find what works best for you.
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As you gain experience, try doing things differently. Play the same tune on different whistles. Try playing with no tonguing (or with more). Add or remove some ornamentation. Try varying the melody, or coming up with a harmony. The more different things you try, the more solid your regular playing will become.
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Relax and have fun! Music should be a pleasure. Don’t worry if something doesn’t seem to be coming to you (or coming quickly enough)…if you keep playing, the facility will come in time. The main thing is to enjoy making music.
Redwolf
One more thing…I’ve noticed that a lot of beginners get hung up on playing “fast.” Speed may be a one way to demonstrate virtuosity, but it shouldn’t be the “be all and end all,” even for “fast” tunes. Playing fluidly and accurately (and with the proper rhythm, particularly for dance tunes) is much more important. If you get that down, the speed will be there, if you need it.
Redwolf
Thanks for taking the time to write out all those points RedWolf. I see what you mean about developing your own sound. My problem is the ornamentation thing.
I mean I hear all these great players on stage and on CD but I have problems doing any of the intricate stuff they do behind the tune. I can learn the tunes OK from the sheet music because I played piano before. Are there any good ways to learn some of that? That’s what I was hoping to get from the madfortrad CD ROM - but maybe I need to get a teacher?
What I would do is pick an ornament to work on (say a trill or a turn…what some call a “roll”). Practice it a few times, to get the idea down, then try putting it in a tune, playing at half speed. The important thing is to keep the same note value (for example, if you’re doing a turn on a quarter note, the entire manuever should take no longer than the actual value of that quarter note). When you’ve got it going smoothly, take the tune back up to speed.
The actual mechanics of most of the various ornaments aren’t hard to master (and that on-line tutor should describe them adequately)…it’s fitting them into the flow and meter of the tune that can be a challenge, and that’s just a matter of practice (remembering to go relatively slowly at first).
Redwolf
There are no teachers in my area, so this is what I’ve done and it works for me:
I’ve found a few sessions in my area. Two months ago they were all going way too fast for me, but I brought a notebook and I asked for (and got) the names of the tunes they played after each set.
I then went home, installed an abc program, and downloaded the music for each of those tunes and began working on them.
Next session…half of those tunes came up again, and I was able to play one or two of them…sort of…passably…once they heard I was playing and keeping up, even for one tune, they warmed up and started giving me more info.
I now have two or three sessions worth of tunes noted in my book, and at last sunday’s session I was able to play about 1/3 of the tunes they were playing. When not playing, Im listiening to what they are doing, observing how they itneract with each other, the visual signals they send each other to tell each other when they are changing tunes or changing tempo, and studying their ornamentation. Even though I am new to sessions, and I’ve never had a one-on-one lesson, I think I’ve learned as much from the few sessions Ij’ve gone to as from any of the tutorials I’ve taken…especially pharsing, how to infuse a sense of lilt to the tune, and the beginnings of how to adjust your playing style to compliment other players in a group session.
All of this without a single teacher/tutor. But also Im listening to Mary Bergin and others constantly, and that helps too.
I also take new tunes painfully slowly, even if I think I have it down, until the tones and the fingerings are burned in my brain and I then can speed up the tune and still give full tone quality to each note.
Well, thats what Im doin and it seems to work so far. I hope so, anyway…I’ve got my first open mic performance tonite.
Kev/DAZED
On 2002-06-12 12:11, whistlingdave wrote:
Hi fellow whistle players. I’m new to the list and fairly new to the tin whistle. Just wondering if anyone on the list has tried the tin whistle tutor on > http://www.MadForTrad.com > and if they can recommend it or an alternative CD ROM for someone just starting to learn?
Personally, I didn’t really care for the madfortrad whistle tutorial. The interface uses your internet browser, which seemed awkward to me. I would recommend searching for sound files and sheet music images online. There are a lot of free resources.
"or a turn...what some call a "roll""
If we’re talking trad. Irish music, I think 99.9% would call it a roll. A turn may seem to include the same “notes” (based on how rolls are notated in books) but it doesn’t capture the correct rythm. Rolls are also notated on sheet music with the same symbol (~) as turns are in jazz music (maybe others too), which increases the confusion factor. This is a common mistake people make when learning to play rolls. Sorry to go on… 
my $.02
-Brett
Something that helps in my practice is not to play just ONE tune each time - even if it’s only a ten minute practice. I have three or four songs I’m “working” on, a few more I play at without trying to improve right now; by working at least some of each in I don’t get bored, and what I learn on one tune helps another.
Another thing: I had an interesting experience the other day. Just for fun, I started playing the very first tune I learned after not having played it for a month or so. WOW! It sounded great and I got “fancy” with it (syncopation and a couple taps and cuts, a couple variations) without even trying. So, not only did I see a major improvement in my ability to play, my subconscious seems to have been at work. So I suggest that any tune that becomes tiresome (as this had done), try setting it aside for a while and come back to it later.
Thanks for all those tips folks. Avanutria - tell me a bit more about the interface on the CD ROM - the free example on madfortrad looked pretty easy to use, although it is for the banjo. Is the whistle one different?
I agree with Avanutria about the interface thing. It’s not as convenient as it can be, and I’d prefer a book tutorial myself because I can take it anywhere and use it anywhere - I myself began with Geraldine Cotter’s and LE McCullough’s. The video clips might be good for total beginners though.
There is another drawback I can think of. Sometimes when you’re looking for instructions for a particular ornament, you can’t find it easily because they scatter these ornament explainations all over the place. There is no index or content page for ornaments so you’ll have to scroll around until you find what you want.
However, if you found that the banjo interface was good/acceptable, I don’t think you’ll have any complaints with the whistle tutorial. The interface is the same for all their tutorials.
That said, I think this tutorial is very complete technical content-wise. All ornaments that are commonly used (and some less so) are covered well, and the lessons start from scratch to a high-intermediate level (lots of practise required).