I’m just beginning whistle while beginning retirement. Since the transition from Susaphone to tin whistle isn’t all that logical, I’ve been using published tutorials and consulting the usual web tutorials. Making pretty fair progress too. My question - is anyone teaching whistle in the Memphis Area? Appreciate any help in that direction.
Just one point - can you read music?
If you can read music, then the rest should come easy, you just have to get used to the fingering. If you cannot read music, then you must at least learn the basic notes of a scale for your key of whistle. All good tutor books are good for this. Practice, Practice and more Practice is my best advice rather than tutor lessons. A tutor will just be telling you what is in the books. I started playing the pennywhistle only last October, and already I can play most tunes out of the Riverdance Show, both on Low and High d whistles. But this is all without a tutor, just patience and practice. You’ll get there, and happy whistling in your retirement!!!
On 2003-02-17 15:34, hackwellwire wrote:
Just one point - can you read music?
If you can read music, then the rest should come easy, you just have to get used to the fingering. If you cannot read music, then you must at least learn the basic notes of a scale for your key of whistle. All good tutor books are good for this. Practice, Practice and more Practice is my best advice rather than tutor lessons. A tutor will just be telling you what is in the books. I started playing the pennywhistle only last October, and already I can play most tunes out of the Riverdance Show, both on Low and High d whistles. But this is all without a tutor, just patience and practice. You’ll get there, and happy whistling in your retirement!!!
It kinda depends. Often it’s helpful to have a teacher available, at least at first, especially if one isn’t terribly familiar with Celtic music.
I’m a big fan of learning to read music (though, if you play the Susaphone, I’m sure you already do), but listening is just as important. Traditional music doesn’t always translate accurately to standard notation…you can learn to play the tune using notation, but to play it well, you need to have a sense of how that kind of music REALLY sounds…where the accents generally fall, how the rythmn works, etc.
If you can find a teacher in your area, that’s great. If not, I recommend getting a really good written tutorial, such as the Ochs (with accompanying tape), as well as some tune books (“Ireland’s 110 Best Tin Whistle Tunes” is a good one, and the tunes are organized from beginner to advanced) with accompanying CDs so you can really get a feel for the music.
Redwolf
there are over 50 songs in the tune-o-matic archive here. You can download all of them as a PDF. There is a great little tutorial with directions on how to play the accents at http://members.aol.com/planetmac/whistle/sheet.html I don’t know whose site this is, but it sure is a good tutorial.
Hey mrlester-- I lived in Brownsville TN from 1976-1981
[ This Message was edited by: breedlovejumbo on 2003-02-17 15:59 ]