I’ve been working on four or five tunes, which I guess I have down reasonably well. They are either slow tunes, or jigs (not up to full speed yet), and I’ve been thinking of learning a reel for variety’s sake.
What are the best reels for beginners? Or should I go back to my previous tunes until I have my paltry repertoire down solid?
I’m a beginner of a few months and I’m working on “Sally Gardens”,“Cooley’s”,“Merry Blacksmith”,“Old Copperplate”
I have the most problem with Old Copperplate, even though it feels the least complicated musically. It’s hard to get the runs in a rhythm that sounds flowing.
I like one called “Rolling in the Ryegrass”. It’s pretty simple and uses common reel motifs, so it’s a good one to learn as a beginner. It doesn’t have any rolls or anything; I use cuts on the downbeats for extra rhythmic emphasis, but that’s a personal preference 
Ah … which one do you mean by “The Old Copperplate”? Do you mean the one that used to be called “The Copperplate” but which some people now call “The New Copperplate”? Or do you mean the one that used to be called “The New Copperplate” but which some people now call “The Old Copperplate”?
Mockingbird
The suggestions so far
Rolling in the Rye Grass - courtesy of Michael Eskin
New and Old Copperplates
Cooleys reel - courtesy of aanvil
Sally Gardens - the reel starts properly about 30 seconds into the vid.
Merry Blacksmith folowed by Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrel
There is also
The Kerry Reel - courtesy of Josh Dukes
Flowers of Edinburgh and Spootiskerry
Silver Spear - Courtesy of Ryan Dunns
The Banshee - Again by Michael Eskin (Sorry for over using you as an example Michael, but your version on tin whistle was the one I liked most).
David
There are thousands of reels, so the best thing maybe is to just pick one you fancy, and learn it.
When I’m teaching, I choose tunes for the specific techniques required.
So at one point I give beginners Polly Put The Kettle On to gain facility over the crossfingered C natural in combination with “going over the break” as clarinetists call it:
| Cded CAAC | BCdC BGGB | Cded CAAG | EDEG A… | &c.
When teaching long rolls I might give out Sean Reid’s Reel which to boot is additional C natural practice:
| DGGG BGGG | CAAA dCAG | DGGG BBBd | CAdC AGGE | &c.
So I suppose to answer your question I would need to know the purpose of learning a reel, for pure enjoyment or to gain mastery of the whistle in general or to improve a specific item of technique. Good luck and keep practicing!
LOL! Well, giving it some thought, I suppose I’d just like to have one tune simple enough to master quickly and thoroughly, as the jigs tend to whallop me. Rolling in the Ryegrass sounds promising. Thank you so much for the links! Bookmarking…
Kathryn Tickell does a lovely set with
Faroe Rum
Farewell to Edinburgh
Temperance Reel
Barrowburn
You can find them all on thesession.org. They are all really easy reels with the possible reservation of the Temperance Reel, although I learned that one before I learned the others. She plays them on fiddle, I think, but they suit the whistle very well.
I’ve been playing over 30 years and I don’t know of any reels that I could master quickly and thoroughly!
Though I guess I do encounter reels sometimes that mostly or entirely consist of phrases that I already play, they being parts of reels I already play.
Then it’s not a matter of learning a new tune per se, but rather just remembering the sequence of the already-familiar motifs.
I’m with pancelticpiper – your best bet is to pick out some reels that catch your fancy off of recordings that you like and to work that way. There are plenty of free software applications (like Audacity) for slowing down audio files (with or without changing the pitch), which can also be helpful when you’re learning by ear (or in combination with dots/ABC). Keep at it!
Says who? I play it with rolls Ok just to be clear here, tunes don’t have rolls or any set ornament, so don’t feel like you have to play rolls on any particular set of notes or just because you’ve heard someone else using them.
Rolling in the Ryegrass is a great beginner’s reel and goes well with wind that shakes the barley, another easy reel. There was a nice example of these played together on this site by one of the regulars, I can’t remember who, maybe someone else can point you to a link.
I agree. There’s no such thing as a reel that doesn’t have rolls or a reel that has rolls. Any decent player can play any given reel either with rolls all over the place or with no rolls at all, at whim.
I made a couple little videos on YouTube demonstrating the plasticity of Irish reels and jigs. On either of these tunes, after listening to these videos, who could say whether either tune has rolls or doesn’t have rolls or where the “correct” place to put rolls in might be?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyj5LMH6aOI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6fmINqse5Y
For example, the first line of Rolling in the Ryegrass with no rolls:
|ABAF# DF#AF# | G2BG dGBG | ABAF# DF#AF# | BF#AF# EF#D2 |
with rolls:
| A~3F# DF#AF# | G~3B dGBG | A~3F# DF#AF# | BF#~3 EF#D2 |