hey all, i was just wondering where most people get there whistle sheet music from (if they use sheet music). I get mine from the tinwhistler page, but i was wondering if there were any other websites that give out free sheet music. and/or where you guys get the songs that you like to play.
Try searching using these words:
Wild Dismay Tunes
JC’s ABC tune finder (regular sheet music here too)
Slowplayers tunes
BBC Virtual Folk Session (you can play along with a recorded band and see the sheet music in front of you on screen).
Also if you go to Google and hit “images” you can enter the name of a tune and very often get several versions to pop up. Caution: if you’re looking for “Pricess Royal” you’ll get Lady Di. It works best if you add “reel” or “jig” to names that might be misunderstood that way.
thesession.org and the tinwhistler page
I’m happily working through Clare McKenna’s Guide to the Irish Whistle tuition book at the moment. Just finished the techniques bit with all the tunes in that under me belt and now i’m onto the extra 99 tunes at the back of the book. Well good stuff and plenty to keep me busy and happy for a while yet.
Here is a good source which I use most often.
http://www2.redhawk.org:8080/irish/index.pl
Here are some features I haven’t been able to find altogether anywhere else:
- I can print out the sheet music in standard notation, which I prefer to ABC.
- I can change the key to any other key !
- I can change the bar breaks, number of bars (measures) per line
- Get larger printouts. Big notes are easier to read in poor lighting, etc.
- Multiple settings for many tunes gives you more choice.
- Large selection.
- Although most tunes do not come with guitar chord acconpaniment, a small percentage does have this feature, which is valuable to me nonetheless.
If you want good print-outs, this place is one of the best, IMHO.
I encourage all interested to check it out by all means.
Celtic ABC Tunes , if Googled, may get you the site, too.
Hope this is helpful. Lloyd
ABC is meant to be converted to standard notation using software,
you know. You don’t have to read it directly…
The ABC notation basically converts standard musical notation (that is not usable for a computer software application) into a file fomat for the ABC software program. So, generating the standard musical notation is part of the software application.
In Ireland, people sometimes write out music with an ABC format - letters with small or Cap for octave - an easy system with enough to allow someone to recreate the tune later.
I’m mostly writing out my own transcriptions of tunes that catch my fancy these days. Between ABC notation and the various slow-down applications that are out there, I find it increasingly unnecessary to rely on someone elses’s transcription of a tune - and it’s eminently more satisfying on a personal level. Gosh, I wish I’d known about this stuff 20 years ago.
For the ABC
Then I convert it to a PDF here.
I never could get the session abcs to work on my Mac. They were always missing a field or something.
I prefer http://www.norbeck.nu/abc/
I still find what I’m looking for most often at JC’s Tune Finder:
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind
It usually has quite a few versions so you can pick out the one that fits the tune version you’re looking for best.
I find many of the Session.org trascriptions a little too simple.
However, for the last couple of years I too have mainly been making my own transcriptions of all the tunes I’ve learned from recordings. It is very satisfying (I’ve got a bunch if you want any).
-Brett
Try here
http://www.tinwhistler.com/links.asp
For fife I usually go here
http://www.fifedrum.org/resources/music/
I have more than enough to keep me busy between O’Neill’s Music of Ireland and Foinn Seisiún.
Redwolf
Hmmm… Im on a Mac OSX 10.3.9 I use Firefox browser and it works just fine.
Ramble, thanks for that site. Never saw it before. It’s a goldmine.
I have a small selection of songs with tablature on Whistle and Squeak, as well.
Mark