As a beginner, I’ve been trying to learn from sheet music, which does not contain the ornamentation that I can tell. My ear (or my little ebay special flute, or both) is not really good enough to learn from recordings right now.
Is there a website, video, or something online you guys would recommend for learning songs with ornamentation?
Also, is there a good explanation, preferably with video demonstrations, of the ornamentation techniques?
Thank you in advance for you advice.
i don’t know much about it but this looks pretty good imo: http://www.blaynechastain.com/i-teach
It’s been said here many times, but the best (IMHO) is Grey Larsen’s book/CD. It’s at Amazon here:
Sorry about the long link…
Pat
June McCormac’s tutorials are really good.
Brother Steve’s Twiddly Bits pages on his whistle tutor site are quite clear.
http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/twiddlybits1.html
(Oh, I see Tintin mentioned this above.)
Just get The Amazing Slowdowner (Roni Music) and slow the tunes down until you can hear the ornaments clearly. Then try to play the tune that way. This is, IMHO, the absolute best teaching tool of all. One time charge. Don’t worry about speed. If you want to, you’ll get there eventually. Remember to take your time, play pretty, and enjoy the journey.
Go through the basic bits that MTGuru suggested, then go to the further study bit on Brother Steve’s site. That has some discussion of actual renditions of tunes that are very instructive.
But as JD said, listen, slow down, play, repeat. And remember that a flute isn’t a side-blown whistle, it’s a whole nother instrument. The differences may seem subtle, but they’re real.
This was going to be my suggestion, so let me simply second the motion.
http://oaim.ie/
Because you have to be a very good player to be a very good teacher, but some great players, who may also be great people, don’t have a clue about how to teach.
Not that there is anything wrong with some of the suggestions above, just that this one is well worth checking out too. And you can get a good taste for free before you get earnest.
I’d like to second the suggestion to check out blaynechastain
After a set of video lessons on various techniquest (including some of the basic ornaments), he goes through each tune with and without ornamentation. Then he takes each section of the tune without ornaments and slowly teaches it, then each section with ornaments and slowly teaches it. By the end of the lesson, you’re pretty far along. I like the other resources mentioned above, and there are also some really nice tune-based lessons (I think Brother Steve?) on youTube for free, but I find Blayne’s lessons to be pretty close to a live teacher (lacking only the live feedback from a teacher, but I believe you can also get that for a few bucks). He’s even including guitar backing tracks in the most recent tunes, and has about 50 tunes up on his site at this point.
I wish I could have (and afford) a live teacher, but I’ve learned a lot from Blayne’s iTeach site.
Best,
Jaydoc
I’ve always been an advocate of just lots of listening. At speed. In fact, I used to think it was a waste of time to use something like the Amazing Slowdowner. But then, I’ve never used it. So now (clearly a softened person in my old age) I’m curious. I would still say you can get it just by listening and not slowing down. But I’m interested in how slowdown software might help a beginner. Once you’ve heard the individual parts of the ornaments, is it then relatively straightforward to speed it up to ‘normal’ speed in one’s own playing?
I should probably add that it’s a good idea to learn how the ornaments are actually played, so that your technique for doing rolls, slides, strikes, etc. are correct. How to incorporate them is what you will learn in listening, and the Slowdowner is a great tool, but to get the full effect, you’ll want to listen at tempo. The Slowdowner is just a means for breaking things into parts, which speeds the learning process.
Remember, too, that Slowdowner isn’t an all-or-nothing thing. The speed is completely variable without any change in pitch. So, you dial it down to catch elusive bits, etc., and then crank it back up to standard listening tempo. (Very much like being with a patient teacher).
I haven’t used it very much, but I was impressed when I tried the trial version. Recommended. 
And I’ll also put in a good word for June McCormack’s ‘Fluit’ book/cd. That helped me get the ornamentation going in the right direction, and it’s also a good source of tunes.
I use the slow down software to ‘speed up’ my ear. I don’t happen to use The Amazing Slowdowner but rather BestPractice which is free. It has full variability in speed.
After I learn the tune I ‘grind and polish’ it by playing along to the software in 5 percent increments in speed. This allows me to correct any technical or fingering errors along the way.
It also allows me to increase the speed above the speed of the example given me by my teacher up to 150 per cent (I wish!) if I choose. . .
Bob
I found June McCormacks books with CD’s good and
http://oaim.ie/ looks like a useful site
Once you’ve heard the individual parts of the ornaments, is it then relatively straightforward to speed it up to ‘normal’ speed in one’s own playing?
Glad you put “normal speed” in quotation marks. There isn’t any normal speed. Speed varies from session to session, dance to dance, player to player. You want to play a tune within your comfort zone, whatever that may be. There is no shortcut to the 10,000 hours you have to put in to reach a highly accomplished level of playing. Ok, maybe those who simply showed good results achieved the level in only 8,000 hours. This is why it is so important to enjoy practicing and vital not to rush things. [ http://tinyurl.com/5ngqot ]
It’s nice to have started early but even if you start at forty fifty, or even sixty you can achieve an acceptable level of playing. And the good thing is that if you’ve achieved a certain level of accomplishment on one instrument, then a lot of what you’ve learned will transfer over. But if you try to speed things up and play tunes at what you think is a normal session speed then you’re doomed to get stuck in a rut. So take your time and learn to love to play slowly, fitting in the ornaments as you have learned them.
Finally, find a good teacher, even if you have to travel. Or go to workshops at festivals.
A single lesson or two can keep you busy for a year.
Another satisfied Blayne Chastain customer here although I am using his whistle tutors not flute. His videos are the next best thing to a live teacher (of which there are none in my part of the world). As others have said each lesson includes a phrase by phrase breakdown of the tunes with the ornamentation - it’s great to be able to both hear and see where in the tune he’s adding ornamentation, the type of ornamentation that fits the bill and how he is doing it. His teaching style is friendly and his instructions are clear. He is also an excellent musician. I’ve made a lot of progress in a short time using Blayne’s videos. And no, I don’t know the guy.