Vacation playing

Whistle
1

Vacation time is coming, and I’d like to spend some quality time learning to whistle (I’m a couple of months in, and still loving it.) There are apparently no teachers available in my section of the boonies, but my daughter lives in Chicago. Would there be any use in my spending only a week with a teacher? (I won’t inflict myself on my son-in-law much longer that that.)
Does anyone have any suggestions of where and who might be able to help me in an intensive week, and how much igt might cost?

Thanks folks!

Oh, by the way. I figured out my first song by ear this week: Shenandoah. Not much, I know, but I feel brilliant!

2

i have no experiance with a teacher but

  • i do belive a teacher can help you a lot, if its a good one
  • i do belive a week is short and the basics you can learn by yourself (with online sources)

so i dont know if a teacher is the right thing for this week
and because you are whistling a couple of month already
i would say;
do 3 things during this week

  • learn new tunes
  • practise a lot, what you already learned but want to make better
  • "collect" new knowlegde, learn something new, reading notations, dots or abc, some musictheory, surf and find out …whatever

for learning new tunes maybe the ones used in the challenges of my music community are interesting?
see the tunes here you can see how we did learn them you can compare … thats easy

for practising, remember it has to be fun too, dont make it be work

for collecting more knowlegde, surfing in this forum is a usefull starting point :wink:

3

Hopefully someone from the Chicago area will chime in here soon.

I’ll offer a couple of observations. Tuition can be very helpful to a beginner especially if they are not already trained/experienced in playing some instrument. And it does not have to take a lot of time to get the basics down and have you going on your way confident that you can proceed by yourself. This might be an hour workshop at a festival. It could be sitting an hour or two with a teacher. Or it could be a week long immersion at a summer school (where months of learning takes place in five or six days). How much you take away from these depends on you.

There is an Irish Cultural Center in Chicago which has a music academy. They have whistle teachers on staff. You might contact them and see what they think or would advise.

Hope that helps a little.

Feadoggie

4

If you are just looking for a vacation you might consider any of these workshops. You can at least browse to see what types of workshops are offered. Chicago has to have something and Feadoggie’s suggestion is a good start.
http://www.swangathering.com/catalog/cl/staff.html
http://www.catskillsirishartsweek.org/
http://midatlanticcce.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/augusta-irishceltic-week-2012/

Maybe seek out online Skype lessons.

I can’t believe there isn’t anything tin whistle related in Arkansas, or at least a festival.

5

I’d say if you can find a teacher for a week, go for it! I had a 30 minute flute lesson once that made a lot of difference. You might pick up some good tidbits of information. Plus it would be fun!

I love the song Shenandoah. I am originally from Virginia. There is nothing more beautiful than the Shenandoah Valley.

Now I want to learn it on my whistle. :slight_smile: