I would like to know if there are any books or workshops or places (US, RI, or UK) that give lessons in learning tunes by ear.
Unfortunately I do not live near a sessions group, nor any other players and so I must go it alone or on vacation.
I have browsed the web and found some interesting and helpful advice (SCTLS) but I would like even more help.
How does a kid learn the song Happy Birthday? Familiarity with the tune is primary. You should be familiar enouigh with a tune to be able to hum or lilt it. Once you can hum the tune, try to work it out on the whistle or other instrument. You can start with a simple tune you know well, like Happy Birthday or Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. You need to be able to transfer a number of simple tunes you know well, before you go on to something less familiar. This will take some practice, but you can see some progress with each new tune. The more tunes you know that you can play on your instument without notation, the quicker you will be able to play each new tune. This gets you used to not trying to follow written notation but relying on your ear. In order to play more complex tunes like a jig or reel, you should still listen to the tune, say from a recording, a lot of times so you can hum the tune before trying to play it. Keep trying to play tunes you know and your skill at learning by ear will grow. Eventually, you should be able to pick up a new tune by ear more easily. Like any other skill, you will not learn this in a couple of weeks. It takes a lot of practice. It will also increase you ability to listen. Listening should take up more of your time with music than just trying to play it.
A nice little article about it;
http://www.slowplayers.org/SCTLS/learn.html
As a newbie whistler myself and cannot read music, I too have been learning by ear (slowly). The best help I got was from listening “live” and thru recordings (and C & F). I’ve spent much more time listening than playing and will eventually merge the two.
You don’t mention where you’re located, but do say “US, RI, UK, that give lessons in learning tunes by ear… and so I must go it alone or on vacation.” Well that certainly opens up quite a bit of territory and I am sure there is someone who plays the whistle somewhat nearby you. 
Seek and you shall find… and welcome to C&F 
Now that I think about it there is a way to learn by ear/sight;
http://www.tradlessons.com/
These two sights have a couple of free lessons, and if you like the
style you can sign up, and pay, for more;
http://www.blaynechastain.com/i-teach
http://www.oaim.ie/free-lessons
I’ve been subscribing to Blayne’s sight for nine months and really like it, but I
have no finacial interest.
Hi Grey!
Just out of curiosity, how much do you utilize technology with your whistling? I would recommend using a programme on the computer that slows down tunes and playing along with it. If you own an Ithingy (iPhone, iPad, Itouch, Android) there are a few apps that help slow down music without compromising the pitch. I currently use Capo on the iPhone and have learnt plenty of tunes by ear that way. From speaking with other sessioners, there are other apps that are cheaper as well.
http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/Capo/iphone.html
Cheers,
Melany
Thank you all!
I live in Wyoming but vacation in Ireland and UK - and would gladly turn it in to a learning vacation if I knew where to go.
There are absolutely NO whistlers near me (nor people, really…lots of sheep;-) where I live. …cowboy music…starry nights…open fields…coyotes…
I did just sign up with Blayne Chastain but I didn’t realize that there might be an emphasis on learning by ear. And I will look in to OAIM - I mean business with this process!!!
I think part of my problem is I do read music and ABC and have a huge reliance on these. Even if I learn a tune - the memory is between my fingers and my brain - I know that I am still not able to just listen and play the notes, and I suspect it IS that I don’t really know my whistle very well? I will eventually give up and go look for the sheet music!!
I was hoping for a MAGIC suggestion! Alas - I just need to perservere.
Thank you for the CAPO suggestion, I like it and had no idea. I have, of course, and iPhone, iPad, and iPod and so this may actually work for me. It has a repeat loop as well.
pick a spot anywhere… http://comhaltas.ie/ have fun and enjoy it! There’s got to be a few whistlers in Ireland! 
ahh, the MAGIC is in the PRACTICE, committed practice… and the sheep and coyotes will love ya for it!
This isn’t just an issue for whistlers. Currently there are at least two threads going on over on the Dunsire Alternative Bagpipes Forum related to the topic of ear training.
Check out http://forums.bobdunsire.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147193 and
http://forums.bobdunsire.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147210 to see what they’re saying.
Best wishes.
Steve
I pretty sure that there is an Irish music session in Casper.
Metro Coffee Company, 241 S. David, Casper, Wyoming. Wednesdays from 6 pm to 7:30 pm
Also in Casper are folks who teach Irish dance.
There are several member on this forum who whistle and who live the WY.
What I don’t know if they want company or if they are interested in teaching.
This WY fellow has a blog, you might try to contact him;
http://whistlingbadger2.blogspot.com/
And you’re right the magic is nothing but lots of hard work.
Thankyou so very much!
The Comhaltas and Piper’s Forums are incredible hits!
I am grateful for the last note and will pursue the Wyoming blogger’s advice as well.
Casper is several hours away but we do get that way every so often.
Warmest Regards,
Grey
Are you sure? 
yeah I’m sure… then again, maybe http://www.feadog.ie/ never sold a whistle as its all just fantasy 
and grey, use the C & F “search” feature http://forums.chiffandfipple.com/search.php
its whistle encyclopedic 
and have fun!
You can also do a Google search using the site:forums.chiffandfipple.com tag.
Thanks, Steve. I read as far as what Ian Lawther first had to say in the first link, and I decided to read no further since he touched on a very important fundamental truth in passing, and thought the thread was in good hands for those who would hear it. As Lawther pointed out, and as I have always said, and as Ted hinted at above, ear learning isn’t a new, special, esoteric skill in the slightest. We’ve all been doing it from birth. How is it that we know so many, many melodies for songs (holiday, popular, schoolyard, etc.) without even thinking about it? If I asked any of you from my culture to lilt “Jingle Bells”, you could do it without a moment’s hesitation, yet I’m willing to bet none of you ever learned it from the dots, did you. The very fact that you still have the tune available in your head from childhood and need no dots to recall it proves that ear learning/memory is, in fact, natural to us. We didn’t pop out of the womb clutching a sheaf of notation. Reading was a skill learned well after the fact.
I think certain aspects of auditory memory may atrophy from disuse, though. Just remember that the good news is that the basic thing is already there still - for I don’t believe it ever really goes away entirely; how could it? - and it’s yours, and yours to use. It’s your natural inheritance. All one has to do is shake hands with an old friend, and rebuild those ear muscles if that’s what it takes. It’s not uncharted territory, despite what some may mistakenly think after time away. I would instead call it forgotten territory.
Know this, and take it to heart. It may not make the process of re-learning (yes, I said that ) to learn by ear easier, but it should at least take away the fear that it is strange and maybe even impossible, and I think that counts.
Tom is a bit out of Lander
Nice guy, if ya don’t mind an euphonium 
Learning by ear, the first and main steps at becoming a decent traditional musician. Just do a wee bit every day even if it’s a couple of bars or even a bar of a slow tune. You’ll notice it becomes easier and easier, the more you do it the faster you learn. Remember you’re not actually training your ear, it’s your brain that’s working it out. And do yourself a huge favour and avoid all temptation to use slow down software, it lets you learn tunes faster but you’d be cheating yourself. Eventually you’ll learn reels at full speed without much trouble, use slow down software and you’ll always need a crutch.
So Bogman,
What you suggest is to take a song, say from the list off of Small Circle Tune Learning Session or Tradlessons etc and listen repeatedly to a bar or phrase until I have it in my head without listening, then try and work it out with just my whistle and my brain until I can match the D,G, F#, G and the spacing - timing and rhythm that I have memory of, then go to the next phrase and do the same thing?
I notice I am particularly (emotionally) responding to the posts that give huge encouragement - especially mentioning ‘years’ of practice, practice. I must be finding this task quite challenging - wishing I was younger, or had never quit music for decades. If this is how you advise me to proceed I will. I guess I am afraid of wasting years of time. I have already- by using sheet music to learn a tune when I KNEW it probably was NOT how I should be learning ITM.
When I do try to play the notes from memory it takes forever to find the proper note - that is why I said, “I don’t think I know my whistle well.”
Intuitively I believe you are correct not to rely on slow-down manuevers too much. I do like the facility for looping a bar however.
I DO know all the dittys like Twinkle, Twinkle but it is a brain-fingers thing. I suppose I should go back and try and name notes as I play? See, even now, if I pull out the whistle for each note of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle’ I have to stop and see where my fingers are, and then look at the fingering chart on the wall. I don’t know the specific sound of the “d” and then the “a” by ear alone.
I confess I have looked at the music learning programs, ie PerfectPitch and others with the intent to learn the notes by ear. I have been reluctant since they seem geared to classical music and that may have been what the error in my approach has been already.
Whatever insights or thoughts you or others have I well appreciate.
I DO know it is practice practice. I think I may be one of the duller persons. I do not know the sound of an “a” unless I play it and look - and I have been daily with the whistle for some time now. I DO know when the note is wrong however, so I guess that is a starting point?
Thanks…
Don’t loop by the bar, the whole point of learning by ear is to learn identify the correct structure of the tune and learn it by the phrase.
You don’t have to know what a ‘d’ or an ‘a’ sounds like. Learning to hear the intervals between notes is the basis to playing by ear. Many phrases and mini phrases appear repeatedly in traditional music and you begin to recognise these over time and things get easier. Hearing the tune in your head is important and if you can do that you’re well on the way. Not one minute of practising learning by ear is time wasted, so no matter how old someone is or how much time they have available it’s worth getting started. Even 10 minutes a day practicing playing by ear will be a great benefit to someones playing - even if it were to take a year to learn one tune.