I’m not talking about things that don’t transpose well, or ones that have more accidentals than standard notes; I’m talking about those tunes that just have digital versions of tongue-twisters. Session-type tunes that are simply tortuous on a whistle.
From a Curious Cat
The high reel is the one for me.Its fairly straightforward on the fiddle but playing it up to tempo on the whistle stumps me every time..I think I,ll go practice for awhile.
Mike
I can’t get anywhere with Drowsy Maggie. I know all the notes by memory but trying to play it is just one long hiccup.
Drowsy Maggie doesn’t stump me, but a simple tune like Sheebeg Sheemore…ugh!!
Langstrom’s Pony.
I’ve decided to take it one section at a time, and I can almost play the A part.
Yep, Drowsy Maggie for me too.
Anything with rolls or lotsa cuts, especially if it’s fast.
For Si Bheag Si Mhor, get Planxty’s first album – there’s a fantastic (I didn’t like the piece before hearing it) yet simple version done on the pipes.
On 2002-09-29 21:33, Whitmores75087 wrote:
Drowsy Maggie doesn’t stump me, but a simple tune like Sheebeg Sheemore…ugh!!
Appearently, you’re not the only one. At an Irish festival this past weekend, there was a young fiddle player who was really hot stuff, played the fast stuff very crisply and with nice rythm, then, near the end of her set, she played a slow air that was actually painful to listen to, awkward, strianed, screechy, all bad.
Go figure,
jb
I’ll probably be all alone on this one. I cannot get Irish Washerwoman. My fingers end up tied in tight knots so bad that they have to be amputated and I can’t play again for the three weeks they require to regenerate.
OK, so that last bit might not be entirely factual - the thing still completely eludes all my efforts.
(edited for spelling)
“Still 'round the corner there may wait a new road or a secret gate.
And though we pass them by today, tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run toward the moon and to the sun.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien
[ This Message was edited by: Chuck_Clark on 2002-09-29 22:16 ]
well, I’m TRYING to learn “the Collegiate Hornpipe”,(AKA the popeye song), but I just can’t 1)get a breath in 2) move the fingers fast enough. I know, take it slow! But where the heck do you take a breath with all those eighth notes?
Hey Chuck,
The reason you can’t get Irish Washerwoman is because you don’t really want to play it. But…if you really need to, turn it into an exercise.
First, play only the first six notes over and over, without any pauses. Then play the next six notes over and over, in the same way, slowing down as much as needed to play it perfectly. Do this 6 note fragmentation thing for the whole song. Then, play 12 notes in a row, over and over, etc. This is a good way to practice anything. If the song is really tough, start with only 3 notes in a row, over and over.
Hope this helps.
JP
[ This Message was edited by: JohnPalmer on 2002-09-29 23:36 ]
It helps me, if not him. Thanks John!
Thanks John. I suspect you’re right - it’s turned into an adversarial love/hate thing that I want to beat more than I want to play. But - I hate losing, so I’ll give it a try.
The main theme of “Riverdance” from the show. I bought a Riverdance book for tin whistle, and they sort of edited the tune to a 12/8 rhythm, just to make it easier. But the actual tune is much harder. The measures switch between 4/4 and 6/8, so it’s hard to stay in time. I can play that part that goes B-DD B-DD C-E-C-E-C-E, you’d recognize it if you heard it. But the rest is difficult. Most of the tunes in Riverdance are difficult on whistle anyway. My whistles either don’t have enough octaves, or the tunes are in a key other than D or C. Oh well, I guess this is a sign that I need new whistles 
The reel “Mountain Road” I just can’t get the flow of it.
MarkB
Irish Washerwoman! Arghh…
At the moment, there aren’t any tunes that really throw me. The trouble starts, though, when those wonderful fiddle/accordion players (of which there are MANY in Cork) decide to transpose the tune to, oh, F. Or Bb. Or Gminor. Or sometimes even A. Then, no matter how well I know the tune, and even if I know that it’s not so difficult in that key, it’s easier to just wait it out.
Plus, every time it happens, I get told that X knows a flute/whistle player who plays in F ALL THE TIME… 
Deirdre
This week I’m taking longer than usual mastering The Star of Munster because my fingers get the B part confused with the B part of The Swallowtail Reel, which I learned just a few weeks ago (not to be confused with the jig that seems to go by either that name or The Swallow’s Nest.)
Often when I learn a new tune, it will set me back on one with a similar part that I had down pretty well before.
I like when this happens because if I practice both carefully, it makes me that much more adept at playing either of them. An exercise that makes me feel lots of accomplishment is to be able to go back and forth between the parts that used to confuse me.
If a tune has you stumped - try this
For example - and yes it’s cheating!
The Home Ruler from http://www.fingertrip.net,
absolutley beautifully played.
However, I just couldn’t make the second section work from the third bar - dunno why.
So, going to JC’s tunefinder 107 The Home Ruler, played the second half from that version, and it sounds good.
I know it is a sort of cheat, but it works for me.
Try mixing your troubling tune with an easier version of the same tune.
Another example - the Kesh Jig from virual session compared to Kerrigans Jig from
The Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tutor.
If players of this calibre can do it, why not you (or me!)
HTH
On 2002-09-29 23:34, JohnPalmer wrote:
But…if you really need to, turn it into an exercise.First, play only the first six notes over and over, without any pauses. Then play the next six notes over and over, in the same way, slowing down as much as needed to play it perfectly. Do this 6 note fragmentation thing for the whole songHope this helps.
JP
While the idea and intention are right, I don’t think you should break up this tune, or any tune in segments equal to the bar. You’ll be phrasing it for ever like the phrase equals a measure and that’s not the right way to go.
Break the tune up, yes, but break it up in musical phrases, the old question-answer, black-white thing. In the case of the Washerwoman you can also sing the words to it
When I was a lad I was merry and frisky,
My dad kept a pig and my mother sold whiskey
…etc
That should help to make some sense of it hopefully.
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-09-30 12:19 ]