Kade1301 wrote:Has anybody learnt to play the tin whistle with the Kirsten Allstaff's Whistle Basics? I was happy with the first free lessons and ready to sign up - but then I found lesson six, Shoe the Donkey, to be rather disappointing. Because when the tune became difficult and hard to retain, the lesson speed suddenly increased - no more repeating each phrase individually a few times (and my tablet doesn't work well with the OAIM website and doesn't quickly stop the video, grrr...)
So now I wonder, was that just the team having a bad day and going faster for once, or do they expect students to be quicker on the uptake than I am? How fast does the rest of the course progress?
It has been a few months since I've done the lessons. I think I completed 1-12 of the Whistle course but mostly focused on the flute course where I did most of the introductory flute course (taught by Steph Geremia) and the several of the Flute Fundaments course (taught by Kirsten Alstaff).
I myself don't have much ability to play by ear at this time and the courses greatly encourage playing by ear. As a result, I think they do speed up a bit as you noticed (and I think that is a common complaint that I've heard). That being said, I did manage to learn Shoe the Donkey and a few other tunes in the whistle course even though I am not good at playing by ear. It is unfortunate that your tablet does not work well with the website, because as I recall, I did need to go back a lot while working on tunes.
(My perspective may be skewed as my main barrier in doing the OAIM lessons is that I'd get distracted by the flutes and daydream about the flute I had on order... as a result I couldn't get anything done. Having received my flute recently, I am just now starting back into it again.)