I have volunteered to teach a one-time beginning Irish whistle class in August, as part of the Northern California Renaissance Faire Institute (non-profit program of the faire), and was wondering if any of you had some tips or suggestions for me. I’ve never taught a whistle class, but I am a seasoned instructor in other areas - dance, art, face painting. I’m doing this with a larger group of instructors and demonstrators, who are exhibiting some of the old arts, crafts and industries of the renaissance period. Yes, I’ll be in costume. It’s for a home-school conference being held in Sacramento, California for those who know the area.
I get that I’ll probably have to go over a little bit of music theory, but I don’t think I’ll get too much into actually reading music, because I want them to get playing as soon as possible, and for some it’s easier to learn by ear anyway. I have the instruction book from Walton that I learned from a few years ago, which I thought was pretty thorough but easy to read, and I will probably use that as a guide. But, as far as a short song or phrase from a song, do you have any thoughts for something super simple? I don’t want to turn off any of the teens or adults in the class, but I also want them to connect somewhat with the tune so they can remember it more easily.
I’ve also decided that to cut out the really small children, I’m asking that whoever takes the class must be able to cover all the holes on the D whistle easily.
I’ve taught festival whistle workshops. It can be a real surprise on who shows up - kids vs. adults. Here are a couple of suggestions I would offer. Teaching by ear is preferable in my experience but have whistle tabs and notation available as a take away. Music theory is generally lost on these workshops and too time consuming in such a setting, in my experience. Maybe a discussion of the diatonic major scale is enough - do, re, me… But be prepared to answer questions. Go over the basics about how a whistle works, how to hold the whistle, how to cover the holes and how to blow to sound a note. Teach tunes everybody knows to start - nursery rhymes, children’s songs, simple folk tunes. The better the crowd knows the tunes the faster they will catch on. Pick something that fits in the low register to start, then introduce the second octave. Avoid the upper half of the second octave if at all possible. Down by the Salley Gardens and Dawning of the Day are nice tunes to get into if things work out.
Will you be providing whistles? I started out using Sweetones since they had small holes, easy spacing and are quite child friendly. I later moved on to making and providing my own homemade whistles. For Ren Faires I call them Tudor Tooters (trademarked!) and used a Tudor Tooter Tutor, which I put together, to teach. In some classes we assembled the whistles before the playing began.
Thanks! Those are great tips. I plan on giving away some paper booklets, and we are providing whistles. I bought some Generations in nickel and brass, and a couple of Megs. We are also offering the whistles for sale at the end, if someone gets the bug. Not for profit really, but if they are inspired, I want them to be able to keep playing.
I hadn’t thought of other whistles that might have better spacing. I just thought those would work because of their sound. I’ll have to remember that for future.
I love the idea of assembling the whistles in class, but I’m not inspired to make my own whistles. I’ll certainly talk about that, though, if anyone asks.
Yes, I will hand out the whistles before we start - I’ll have about 12 or so… not sure if that will be enough, or just fine. Since this is a convention and people can just come sign up for the class, I don’t know how many will come or what type of person will want to do the class, other than the home-schooling adults and perhaps children who are home-schooled. I will have a sample whistle at our table for sign-ups, so people can see what the instrument is, and if a child wants to take the class, make sure they can handle the holes. My husband is teaching a beginning bodhran class as well, so we hope to be playing together for a while beforehand, so people can see what they are going to learn, and/or get excited about it and sign up. It’s all a new experience, but in a nice environment, I think. I’ll keep it flexible, use the songs that were suggested here, and try not to throw in anything complicated like note-reading, unless someone asks later after the class.
As for basic song I love London Bridge, and I think that covers all basic notes except maybe high D.
A B A G F#G A E F# G F# G A A B A G F# G A E A F# D
Good luck and have fun!
Just noting that those (F) #s are unnecessary. They’re automatically covered by the key signature, or you can specify them with carets as ^F. Otherwise, a good ABC.
You need to seek Twinkle Twinkle therapy, fast! It’s just down the hall from the Recorder Abuse support group.
is there a clue in your class title? Is it an intro to whistle or intro to Irish whistle playiing? Would you not use something from the ITM repertoire as an introduction? Maybe ask if people know anything about ITM (and check if you have any seasoned players amongst them!). Maybe let people hear something played on the whistle, yourself or a recording of a simple march, jig, reel? Maybe a hornpipe, polka, slide? Just to show what to listen for and illustrate the link to dance, see if they can tap their feet (or their whistles) along with the strong beats in two different tune types. I’d skip music theory. If the class is small enough just try the ‘copy me’ method - kids are great at that. pick a tune (simple, with a reprise of something previous in the last line) break it right down, one note, three notes, four notes, think phrases, see how they get on by ear and eye. You probably only need one tune, have two or three prepared. Star of the County Down maybe?
I would suggest you loosen the whistleheads using the hot water method and get them all tuned alike. That’s something that comes up whenever people talk about teaching whistle classes.
Yes yes yes! I would think that could be a big turn off to some folks, thinking it’s just a cheap, bad instrument all around, when if the whistle is in tune it sounds so much better.
Now that my weekend festival is out of the way, I’m concentrating on getting ready this week. I hope to get the whistles soon, so I can tune them before the class.
I’m going to assume that most people, or kids, attending this class are not intimately familiar with ITM. As much as I’d love to use a song from that genre, I think I will be most successful with a more universally familiar tune like the ones mentioned above. I want to make sure that most, or all the people feel that “win” when they can actually play through a few bars of the song, which helps them be more open to playing music in general. One of my smaller goals is to get more kids exposed to other kinds of musical instruments besides the usual flute, recorder, trumpet, piano, violin, etc. that they typically have in school.
My husband and I will definitely be playing together before and after the class, so people can get a sense of what can be played on a whistle and bodhran, and hopefully get inspired to play themselves.
Since this is a homeschooling conference, I think the audience is better-primed for this opportunity. At least, I hope so!
Yesterday was the class in Sacramento for the homeschooling convention, and though we (husband taught bodhran and I taught whistle) inspired quite a few people, the class part didn’t happen the way I wanted. The big issue was that we were not on any class list, so no one knew we were there. I ended up teaching a couple of people in the morning, and at one point we moved our table to a more populated area, and ended up playing songs for fun, and when people stopped to see what we were doing, we’d give mini-lessons. That seemed to work the best in the end.
So, I was over-prepared and had way more teaching material than I needed - and way more whistles, too. One thing I noticed big time is that it seems like the current crop of Generation D whistles are not that great - I bought nine for the class in a mix of nickel and brass. The second octave is a little screechy, and the second octave D note is a fickle one - goes in and out. I had bought a couple before this weekend when I painted them up for a project, and thought that maybe I had cracked the fipples in the process of painting, or all the painting and decor I had done affected them in some way, but that’s not the case.
THANK YOU SO MUCH to those who responded with great tips for teaching. It helped me a lot, and made me feel comfortable enough to teach the material confidently. I inspired a few adults to pick up their instruments again - or dig out that old penny whistle in their closet, and several children got their parents to buy Woodstock Clarks in the vendor room at the convention (which I thought were fairly good - same as the black Meg whistle). I hope to teach another class again, with more students!
It’s for a home-school conference being held in Sacramento, California for those who know the area.
