Good CD to learn tunes?

Whistle
1

So, I finally have a question that’s forcing me to come out of the lurkers closet. I’d like to know what would be the best source for me to learn tunes from, given the following.

I’m a beginning whistler (a couple of months), and I’ve noticed that some tunes I can pick up surprisingly fast, others I just can’t get, or can’t get to a point where it’s got the right rythm to it. I learn best by first listening to a tune over and over, getting the rythms and melody. Then I try to get it on the whistle–mostly by ear, with a small assist from the sheet music. I don’t read music, but I can get enough from the dots that it helps me with some of the fingering that I can’t get by ear. Once I learn the tune I don’t refer to the sheet music, but keep listening to versions of the tune to make sure I’m getting the rythm.

I’ve found that the tunes I can learn quickly have some things in common. 1) The version I learn from is on whistle, not flute or anything else 2) It’s a tune I like 3) It’s a fairly simple and/or traditional version and not super fast. So far this has meant tunes from the “geezer” site (http://www.rogermillington.com/tunetoc/index.html) which I totally love, especially Micho Russell–the few tunes on Brother Steve’s site–and a few from Cathal McConnell’s tutorial. I have Bill Och’s tutorial, but to be honest, there are only a few tunes there (or maybe it’s his versions) that I hear and say, “boy, I want to learn that”. I have a thing about only learning tunes that are fun for me to listen to.

I’m able to borrow from friends lots of good traditional music CD’s that have been recommended here, but almost none of it is whistling. I like the simpler, pure-drop stuff more than much of the newer, faster-paced music. At some point I’ll start running out of tunes on the online sources I’ve mentioned above.

So my question is this–given the above, which of the collections of tunes done on whistle do you think would be best for me to get so I can learn more tunes? I’ve seen mentioned here the two volumes of Waltons/Mel Bay 110 Ireland’s Best Tin Whistle Tunes, L.E. McCulloughs CD’s, Geraldine Cotter’s CD’s, Skip Healy’s, and maybe some others. Would one of the Waltons/Mel Bay collections be easier to learn tunes from than the other? (On the first one the whistling was done by Claire McKenna, the second by Harry Long.) I’m on a bit of a budget, so I can’t just throw money at every CD out there until I find the best one, that’s why I’m asking y’all.

I know everyone learns in a different way–if your learning process or taste in the music is something like what I’ve described, please say so, I’d probably value your suggestion even more.

I’m thoroughly enjoying playing the whistle, I love the music, and this site is totally cool. It’s like a library–if you know how to use the Search function, you can learn a ton of facts about whistling and the music (a few opinions, too, heh, heh), and also learn about the bizarre personalities of the cast of strange people here. That’s why I’ve mainly been lurking… because I’ve learned how strange most of you are. (Actually, all my questions until now have been answered by searching, but not the one I’m asking in this post.)

Please forgive my rather lengthy question.

Cheers.

2

Get the whistle CD from www.madfortrad.com

I am still working my way through the beginner’s tunes but it’s great. It has a ton of good stuff on there. The tutor is Brian Finnigan from the great band, “Flook”.

Video and audio of the tutor playing the tune. You can watch as he plays the A part, then the B part. Then you can watch the whole thing straight through. During the full version, he often throws in ornaments and variations that were not heard in the basic A part or B part. It also has sheet music for those that use it.

He goes through every ornament he uses on video the first time it is presented in a tune. The tunes range from fairly basic airs all the way to some very fast (to me) reels. And for the price, I don’t think you can get a better beginner’s tutor.

-Derek-

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Hi lyrick!

Glad you came out of ‘lurk’ and joined the madness. I have the “110 Ireland’s Best TinWhistle Tunes” & CDs – The CD music is focused on the whistle with a accompanying guitar. I like listening to this CD even when I’m not trying to learn the tunes. I also have L.E. McCullough’s book with the 4 CDs - this songbook is harder for me to get into at the moment, but there are 2 tracks for each song, slow & ‘at speed’; and I just bought Geraldine Cotter’s book - the CDs are 100% whistle, very nice. The Whistle Shop sells the CDs for “Ireland’s Best” & Geraldine Cotter’s separately from the book if you just want the CDs.

Yes, I know I’m not really suppose to be learning tunes by reading music :blush: – but when you live in the ‘land of no sessions’, the books help.

Welcome to the Club! :slight_smile:
~Judy

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Welcome, lyrick. I too recently came out of lurk mode and have found this site to be full of information. Personally, I’m partial to Bill Och’s Tutorial and CD. If you take his material step-by-step it’s pretty straight forward, and you don’t even need to know how to currently read music to use it. The other thing that I found helpful for learning tunes at a slower pace is the Whistle Shop’s Slow Session Site. It has a number of traditional tunes (with sheet music) played at normal tempo and also at a much slower pace so that you can get the feel for each tune and slowly work it up to speed without losing the basics that you learned while playing it slowly. http://thewhistleshop.com/slow/session.htm

Will O’Ban

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Thanks for asking this question, Lyrick. Thanks to everyone for their excellent info. I’ll be stocking up. And Will, the slow session link is great. I’ve just got done giving it a try. What a great resource! :slight_smile:

Fran

6

You could download the three free tunes at Grey Larsen’s Tune Bank:

http://www.greylarsen.com/services/tunebank/vault.php#freetunes

  1. The Steam Packet
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  3. Contentment Is Wealth

I don’t remember if they’re played on flute or whistle, but maybe they’d be easy to learn for you.

-Brett

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Thanks for your suggestions, I wasn’t aware of a couple of these online sources. I’ll try those and probably get the CD’s for one of the volumes of 110 Best Irish Tin Whistle Tunes. If anyone has both volumes, do you prefer one over the other?

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I think your approach 100% right.

I have Geraldine Cotter’s CDs (two) plus the Green book from Ossian that has the dots. I like the playing and the dots help as you say.

I also think that Micho Russell’s CDs are very good because he plays in an approachable style. Its not as intimidating as say Mary Bergin.

And thanks for the links and discussion - found some things I didn’t know!

Paul

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The ‘Ireland’s Best Session Tunes’ book and CD are pretty good too. Tunes played at moderate speed and one tune per track, unlike the Cotter collection that tends to do that two-song medley thing, which can be a nuisance.

The melodies aren’t all played on whistles, though. This obviously means that, although the book/CD are great for learning new basic tunes, they won’t always feature the ornamentation most whistle players will want to use.