I think one of the tune websites was using a program to display the fingering for songs in whatever key one wanted. I think they indicated it was experimental. Now either it didn’t work or I can’t find it again.
I got a couple of songs from the site, but the fingering was wrong so I figure they just dumped the project.
I read music horribly slow and would like the fingering visuals for each note in order to be able to pick up a couple of tunes quickly.
I have been listening to different tunes, but there is so much ornamentation that I can’t get the basic tune as accurately as I would like.
Any help would be appreciated.
Cody,
Melbay’s Music Pocketbook for Irish Whistle available at the Whislte shop has finger charts (also called tablature) for a bunch of good tunes. It is small print. but at 90 cents, its a quick and cheap.
Of course if you click on the above link and WhOA attacks; you could end up spending a paycheck or two. WhOA resistance is … is… is … Oh well you can always pay the morgage with the next check right?
This is just what I feel on this matter: It is a good idea to ditch fingering charts as soon as you learn your first few tunes. Its quite cumbersome to learn from finger charts and there aren’t many tune resources in finger chart form. Its equally cumbersome to write so its not easy to swoop tunes between friends. Lots of disadvantages in my opinion.
If you do not like to learn via 5 bar music notation, you can always learn by ear, or at least learn by ABC notation. It will take you a while at first, but learning by ear is an extremely valuable skill. You’ll find sorting out the ornamentation from the basic tune isn’t so hard at all. And of course you’ll have to be familiar with the music to do this too, so listening more is good.
And you might not to rely on your charts or 5 bar scores as soon as you’ve gotten the tune out, but rather commit the tune to memory. They’re something like those extra bicycle wheels that aid you in the start, but will hinder you if you rely on them in later stages (I’ve never seen anyone doing stunts or racing with those back wheels on).
That said, fingering charts are effective for showing how some ornamentations are done though, so they are not altogether without merit.
The “Yet Another Digital Tradition Page”, as posted by LittleMy, is a good source of tunes that can be rendered with whistle tablature. If you want to add tablature to other tunes, you can use jaabc2ps, which generates Postscript from ABC. Of course, you’l need a Postscript viewer, too. I use Toastscript.
Here are some links:
jaabc2ps - http://www.guitarnut.com/abc/
Toastscript - http://www.geocities.com/toastscript/
~ Thornton
Cody,
Here’s a trick I learned from the tutorial that comes with feadog whistles. The lowest note is always #6 so you can use any sheet music and number it appropriately until you start recognizing the notes like this:
D E F# G A B
6 5 4 3 2 1
For notes in the second octave just put an underscore _ under the number to denote second octave. Within a month I was recognizing the notes and within 2 months I no longer needed the numbers.
Hope this helps,
Ron
I thought I’d give my 2 cents here.
If you want to invest a little time and $$$ you can have access to all the whistle tab you can find in ABC format.
Check out..
I have that program…It was tricky for me to figure out… (and I have not mastered it yet) but one neat feature is you can import ABC files over to it and create tabs.
There is a whistle tab feature you can choose from.
If you do not have an abc program check out
There are many more abc program links to choose from. This is the one I currently use.
Whistle tabs do come in handy for those who cannot read music. I taught a beginner whistle workshop at a festival once…handed out tabs for them. (ok I can see some of you professional whistle instructors freaking out by that one)
Some people have the gift of learning songs from ear. Some people have the gift of reading notation.
I can read notation… yet, I play the tune better once I have heard it played well and played right. Thank goodness for cd players and the repeat buttons. 
Good Luck
Laura
Hi Cody,
I have been learning Low Whistle using the “Low Whistle Book” it has a good tutorial
and comes with a CD. I also got Mad For Trad’s Flute CD Rom Tutorial by Seamus Egan. The Mad for Trad has been helpful with learning to read the squiggly lines and such.
I started out with the dots (tabulator), but for me,it’s hard to get the timing of the notes if you are just looking at all those dots. jon
I started out with the dots (tabulator), but for me,it’s hard to get the timing of the notes if you are just looking at all those dots. jon
Amen to that