I’ve been playing for about 3-4 months now, working through the Bill Ochs book. I’ve still got a little ways to go, but the end is in sight. I was wondering if someone had any recommendations for good followup books/DVDs/etc.?
Would one of the Grey Larsen books be a good choice?
The Grey Larsen books would be a great next step.
By the time you can confidently play all of the tunes in the Bill Ochs book, you should be ready to pick up any classic tune book like O’Neill’s and work through the tunes.
Learning to do it without a book.
recommendations for good followup books
… one might be tempted to ask as what genre of music you were anticipating expanding to. Doubtless you’ll get many recommendations for “Irish Traditional Music”, but if you were looking to spread your net wider there’s quite a legacy of other folk tunes that work very well on the whistle. As for books, I’d suggest looking at Robin Williamson’s “Penny Whistle Book” or Davy Garrett’s “Whistle Tutor for Highland Music”, also the "Songs and Dances of … " series from Wise Publications.
Fiddler’s Fakebook.
Tried that with bass guitar a few years back. I listened to some friends who told me I didn’t need books, didn’t need to learn theory, or how to read music, because it would only stifle my creativity. About a year later, frustrated, and still unable to play bass to any significant degree, I ended up selling it to get cash for a ski trip.
More recently, with the mandolin, I’ve been using the book-learning approach. Things have progressed nicely. After about a year, I feel I can legitimately say that I play mandolin. I think I’ll stick to that approach with tin whistle, at least for a while longer.
I also spend plenty of time noodling around and trying to play tunes by ear. But having a book to follow seems to work best for me. It keeps me focused and gives me the feeling of forward progress as I work my way through the pages.
Folk music in general is still kind of a new thing for me. In the past, I mainly listened to jazz, indie rock, and certain subgenres of metal. More recently I’ve been listening to a lot of bluegrass, old time, Brazilian music, and Irish traditional.
As far as the whistle goes, I’m really only familiar with Irish traditional. I definitely want to learn that, but I’d be interested in learning some other styles as well, if you have any suggestions.
I’ve been playing for the same amount of time and the ornamentation section is barely in sight. So, I have nothing to offer other than, wow!
Big difference… A bass can be played in any key, thus you can find yourself wandering all over the place if you don’t know at least the basics of scales and theory. Without learning a lot of half-holing, whistles play in only 2 major keys (and 1 minor key but it shares the same notes as one of the major keys), so the chances that you’re going to wander off the reservation are far less. Additionally, the bass is an accompaniment instrument so you’re not following a melody while the whistle is primarily used as to play the melody line.
Oh, and don’t take musical advice from those friends anymore. 
Another option is seeking out a way to play with others. This gives you the opportunity to hear other tunes and to slowly “work your way into the music” . Good ear training, sociability, etc.
Best wishes.
Steve
Do you know where I can pick up O’Neills book? I tried finding some reference to it and am having problems. Is it the Big Yellow Book? Again, I don’t see it available for purchase 
Please point…I hate to think there is a book somewhere I have yet to purchase
Celeste
Check Amazon.com (both new and used) or Google for O’Neill’s “Music of Ireland” (the big yellow one) or O’Neill’s “Dance Music of Ireland”.
Best wishes.
Steve
Everything that’s in O’Neill is available for free on the net. It’s just a collection of tunes with almost no text and no instruction regarding technique or performance.
True, but it’s nice to have it in printed form, although on the other hand, the big yellow edition is a major pain to handle. It would have been handier if they’d issued it as a set of volumes, one for jigs, one for reels, one for airs, etc.
I think the fact it has no text or instructions is a plus, myself. You have to really come to terms with the music, make it your own, as they say, and that’s a good thing - what playing music is all about, imo.
Bear in mind that “the big yellow edition” isn’t really O’Neills.
Well it’s got O’Neill’s Music of Ireland on the cover. Or is this another of those things where you’ve got to get a hand-scribbled copy from a whistle-playing leprechaun?
The big yellow edition is a collection which was not published by O’Neill himself. It is a collection consisting of tunes he collected not all of which were included in the three books of music he published during his lifetime. There is a ‘handier’ edition which is O’Neill’s ‘Dance Music of Ireland’ the book with 1001 tunes in it. This book was published after his first collection of 1850 tunes; many people complained that the original book, the 1850, contained too many airs, Carolan, and English ballad tunes and was slimmed down just to include dance music.
To get back on topic when learning tunes in any of the O’Neill collections bear in mind that the versions of tunes in these books are not the common settings of tunes played today. Personally my own advice on where to go next is to listen constantly and try to emulate what you hear and like.
Just to add: none of the tunes is in the setting as collected by O’Neill, IIRC. Oddly enough, hardly any of them are in the settings as collected by Krassen either. To grossly simplify (that’d be me simplifying here, not Krassen 
), they attempt to include in one transcription several of the variations which a modern player may have put in on several iterations of the tune when Krassen was recording them. I used to think that it was just terrible, but I’m coming round to the view that, from an academic point of view, there is some merit in it. Kassen himself apparently didn’t want to call it O’Neills.
This subject comes up every now and then so, rather than de-rail anything here too much, I refer you to this old discussion where the various points of view were laid out fairly starkly - the bits on Krassen (round about page 5) are interesting, IMO, and I try to look past the horrible bits running down one tune or another, despite having played my part in that 
:
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/5-tunes-you-hate/73229/61
Carry on. 
Is the Big Yellow book the Krassen then? Mine is a soothing flesh-color with brown and orange graphics. And lightly stained after an unfortunate incident with lamp oil or something a few decades ago.
Another can of worms, then. Oh well… maybe I’ll just stick to Bach and Telemann!