I have one book/cd that I bought but I am kinda stuck and thought maybe someone here could recommend a Good Beginner book to help me learn more songs. The book I have progresses pretty fast to hard pieces that I cant seem to master yet..I am getting bored playing the same songs over so any suggestions would be appreciated
I’m VERY interested in tune books–what makes this one hard? Time signatures? Eighth and 16th notes?
There are certainly some tunes I flip past because they look too “notey”, but that’s just laziness on my part.
Myself, I like to pick through the New England Fiddler’s Repertoire because there are enough tunes in D, C, and A for me to read through them on a D whistle. My sight reading for whistles in other keys does not yet exist.
Until someone can offers you better advice, you might try playing the “advanced” tunes MUCH slower until you build up the muscle memory to bring them up to speed easier.
Good luck and have fun!
Marguerite
One book I highly recommend is Robin Williamson’s “The Penny Whistle Book.” I haven’t seen it in stores in years, but it is still in print, and you can order it. It offers a lot of simple but satisfying tunes from a variety of traditions that gradually build your skills (and some basic music-reading training as well). It doesn’t have a companion CD, unfortunately, but it’s still an extremely useful and user-friendly beginner’s tutor and tune book that will continue to stand you in good stead as your skills progress.
Redwolf
This question comes up a lot, and I’m not sure I understand the problem. Most “hard” tunes become easy if they are played slowly enough (which seems to be the way most people begin learning the harder tunes anyway.)
The book I use most is Mel Bay’s Irish Session Tune Book by Cari Fuchs. It’s got tons of jigs, reels, hornpipes, and some slip jigs, polkas, etc. It contains many of the songs we play in the local sessions and that’s been a great help to me.
I agree, too, that if you start playing slowly and gradually work up your speed as you learn the notes, many tunes you thought you’d never master become easier to play.
Susan
On 2002-11-07 15:34, C4 wrote:
I have one book/cd that I bought but I am kinda stuck and thought maybe someone here could recommend a Good Beginner book to help me learn more songs. The book I have progresses pretty fast to hard pieces that I cant seem to master yet..I am getting bored playing the same songs over so any suggestions would be appreciated
Hello,
Which book to you have? If it’s the L.E. McCullogh one, I know where you are coming from. One of the other students in my class has it and it starts with Double Jigs and reels. I’d say start with “The Clarke Tin Whistle Handbook” by Bill Ochs. Get the tape or CD with it so you can hear the tunes, it really helps a lot.
Hope this helps,
I’d recommend the Clark Tin Whistle Book. Written by Bill Ochs who is a respected and much sought after whistle teacher in the NYC area.
On 2002-11-07 15:54, Jim_B1 wrote:
I’d say start with “The Clarke Tin Whistle Handbook” by Bill Ochs. Get the tape or CD with it so you can hear the tunes, it really helps a lot.
Hope this helps,
This is the only way to go for a student trying to learn. You must get the CD however Because you can put it on repeat and play the track over and over again.
Next best thing is to take one of Bill’s classes. The teaching CD he hands out are a fantastic tool for learning tunes.
Amen on the Bill Ochs Clarke book/CD, mentioned above. I have also gotten a lot from the “Cathal McConnell Teaches Irish Pennyshistle” (book & CD)put out by Listen & Learn/Homespun Music Instruction. I got mine on E-Bay for a reasonable sum, but had to wait a bit after the auction closed to receive it. It covers the basics and has a CD with a decent range of a lot of the tunes you will end up learning one way or the other anyway, and he is a joy to listen to. Just his description of how to play a high B ‘with sweetness’ was worth the entire purchase price. The sheet music is good sized–no squinting required, even for us older folks. There is a good progression in terms of difficuly and complexity of tune.
Tom D.
Agree with Tom all the way - Ochs and McConnell.
Philo