I’m a beginnig whislter–I recently got mine over a birthday after searching years and years for what the beautiful instrument I loved so much in Irish music was. Anyway, I’ve been looking at tin whistle tutorials, and have the very basics down. i can produce a good tone, and understand basic ornamentation. But I don’t have anyone who can teach me, and there isn’t anyone who plays around where I live at college. I’m wondering a couple of things. Are there any exercises I can do on the whistle regularly that will increase my proficiency in practice and performance (scales, ornament exercises, etc)? And what songs are good for a beginner like me to learn? How should I go about learning songs? (I should add that I am blind and cannot read print music, so I will need to learn songs by ear.)
Well, learning by ear probably is best anyway if you want to play Irish music. Playing scales is also good exercise. That being said, for learning tunes, if you are having trouble learning by ear, there is another resource you can use. Do you know about ABC notation. I assume your computer either translates what is on the screen to either braille or to speech. Anyway, ABC notation literally writes tunes like that so you should be able to figure them out.
First, welcome to the world of whistles. Secondly, what college do you attend or area do you live in? There may be someone here who could recommend a near-by teacher or a learner session.
I traditionally learn everything y ear. I guess I’m wondering what songs would be good to start with and if anyone has any tips besides “practice, practice, practice”. (Being a music major it’s hard to practice the whistle as much as I’d like, since it’s not my specialty and there are other things I have to concentrate on.)
Also, any tips on how to play a C with a good tone on a D whistle?
half-hole. It works with any whistle. If you want a cross fingered solution, experiment – some whistles take different cross fingerings for optimal sound. Some whistles are better than others. My Mellow Dog plays a nice sounding, in tune cross fingered C.
As to your general question. Pick a tune you like (one that’s not too hard) played by someone you like, and slow down the recording. Learn to play it note for note, with all the ornaments. Eventually the ornaments will come automatically.
On Youtube, Elizabeth Velez Urie demonstrates how to play the whistle solo from Lord of the Rings ( Concerning Hobbitts) It is a very easy tune for beginners to play but sounds really nice. You might enjoy playing this.
Scales are ALWAYS useful exercises! My freshman year, 1st semester as a piano major, it seems that all I played was scales, arpeggios and Hanon exercises. By the time my senior recital rolled around, there wasn’t much that my hands couldn’t keep up with.
Scales done well (evenly) are great for training your fingers to do what your brain tells them to, no matter if it is for piano, whistle, or tuba.
Scales may be useful exercises on chromatic instruments, but I’m no so convinced of their value on whistes. A whistle is very different from a piano or a tuba.
I thought there were a hundred or so threads here with suggestions of tunes for beginners.
Here’s a few from me:
Peg Ryan’s Polka.
Johnny Mickey Barry (Polka). These two go nicely together, too.
Time in Arrears. - Nice tune, you can play it fairly slowly and it still sounds jaunty.
Cock of the North
My Darling Asleep
The Spanish Lady.
It is probably useful to play scales on whistle to learn to play even and steady. Especially if one alternates them with arpeggios. I wouldn’t spend a lot of time on it though. No point to develop technique in isolation from music.
I must admit, I wouldn’t bother with scales on whistle at all. Partly for the reason that hoopy mike says - diatonic instrument, so you can only go up and down, which isn’t hard - and partly for the reason that h-p says - which I would paraphrase as “Why not just practice the tunes?”
Polkas are often thought of as ‘beginner’ tunes, and a lot of them do fall under the fingers nice and easily, but you can spend a lifetime perfecting them. Other than that, I would suggest practicing the most common sessions tunes, at whatever speed you can play them steadily without mistakes.
Hi, a couple of tunes I enjoyed learning are Swallowtail, Kesh, and Over the Ocean (all jigs). Someone above said “learn what you like” and that’s good advice also. Lucy Farr (barn dance) and Hector the Hero (waltz) are also easy to learn. All lend themselves to ornamentation.
My opinion–don’t play scales, just play the tunes.
I’ve only been playing whistle a couple of years, so am still a beginner. Good luck with it, it’s a fun instrument.
I would be glad to help if you are interested in Skype lessons. You can also check out my blog that is posted here under my signature. There are several tunes in the library that are easy to play along with, like Morrison’s jig for example. I teach tin whistle classes and private lessons at the New York Irish Center here in NYC.
As far as exercises, scales are useful to practice, but I would incorporate some ornamentation into them to make them more interesting!
Ear training skills are a must in Irish music, as that is truly the way to nail down the tunes. I suggest singing the tune as you are learning it.
So, please feel free to get in touch, and the best of luck to you and your new endeavor!
The best text/tutorial, IMHO, is Grey Larsen’s The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle, though it’s really more of a career (or at least a college major) than just a book. Find it here.
It gives a bunch of information on music theory—a boon to those, like me, who missed that day of school—especially how it relates to Irish music, then a ton of stuff on notes, embellishments and techniques; more, in fact, than I’ve ever been able to wade through. I’ve been whistling for several years and I use it as a reference work, always there when I get stuck.
For learning tunes, a good (relatively) ABC program is ABCexplorer(even though it’s French). Documentation is a little sparse, but the program is free and it readily translates what you find on JC’s Tune Finder or The Session. You can control speed of playback to a fare-thee-well, select one sequence of notes to play over and over, play around with grace notes if you wish.
Good advice here. I’d suggest EasyABC as the ABC program. Works on most any computer (Mac, PC, Linux) and does everything you probably need at the start.
