NEWBIE

[DC-Whistler]

I am as green as they come when it comes to the Tin Whistle. I recently purchased a beginners kit and started just the other day. I was inspired to play by my eight month old daughter. I want her to know her heritage and the great music that comes from her ancestral homeland and of course I have always wanted to learn how to play a musical instrument. I beleive the the tin whistle is that instrument. It is cheap to get started and very easy to carry around.

So I received my kit and was excited to get started then I was hit with block that comes from not understanding one how to read music. It mine as well be Sanskrit.

Any tips on overcoming this block?

[amar]

hi there! and welcome to the board!
Sorry, can't help you on the notation problem, couldn't manage to learn it myself. If you've got a good ear for music then you might be able to manage without having to read the notes.
I downloaded a software called "the amazing slowdowner" you can find it here: www.ronimusic.com, there's a test version there, the whole deal costs 40bucks. Very good for learning by ear.
good luck:)

[Redwolf]

Hello and welcome! You're going to love the tin whistle!

I have two suggestions to help you get started. First, not being able to read music doesn't have to be much of a barrier. Can you sing or hum? If so, you're set. Start by trying to pick out simple tunes you already know by ear. The fingering on the whistle is straightforward: All fingers down, you have the bottom note of the scale ("do"). Lift the bottom finger and you have the next note ("re"). Lift the bottom two fingers and you have "mi". And so on up the scale. When you run out of fingers, lift all of them (supporting the whistle on your thumbs), and you have the next note. Then put all the fingers down again, blow a little harder than you have been doing, and you are back at "do." You can continue playing up the next higher scale doing the same thing, only blowing a tiny bit harder than you did in the bottom scale. With that in mind, you can practice scales a few times, then start picking out tunes you know. Much of Irish music has traditionally been learned by ear, so you're in good company.

I'm also a firm advocate of learning to read music, as it greatly expands your learning potential (and it's not as hard as it may seem at first). I highly recommend buying the Bill Ochs tutorial for the whistle (sold under the "Clarke's" logo)...it will teach you to read music right along with teaching you whistle technique. But there's no reason you can't get started right now learning by ear.

Best wishes,

Redwolf

[lixnaw]

Any tips on overcoming this block?

hi there, welcome,
sure there's some tips to overcome sheet music like usethis free programe http://sharewaredirect.tripod.com/karaoke.htm when you use this programe, always click on easyest. this programe plays midi files wich can be found everywhere like http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/fin ... e%29&L=100

after this programe becomes a block, use http://www.ronimusic.com/ to slow down cd's, mp3,... it's shareware, but worth the money

[Northern Whistler]

What whistle did you get? I just started learning to read music myself and it is pretty easy really. In the mean time if you don't have a book with the simple penny whistle notations below. You can try using this site to find a song and you can pick your whistle (probably D) and it will give you the sheet with the notation. Good luck to you.
http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/

[Jetboy]

Welcome!

I was just like you a couple or three years ago. Learn a tune by ear, then get the music for it and replay the tune looking at the dots. Do this regularly and you will slowly begin to understand the musical notation.

I still can't 'read' music properly yet, I still need to have heared the tune so I can get the mathematics of the notes right in my head.

Best of luck
Jetboy

AKA
Simon
Weston Whistles

[fiddling_tenor]

Welcome to the world-wide Chiff and Fipple community! We are a rag-rag bunch of misfits that share one common love: the smell of coffee and grits in the morning.

Seriously, this is a tremendous resource for you and you'll always (most of the time) get more advice than you need.

If you can hum a tune, you can play tinwhistle!

[Edited for typos: there still may be one.]

[DC-Whistler]

Thank you all for the tips and allowing me to go back and see all the typos in my message . I will check out the sites and work on some of the tips and get back.

All the best

[fancypiper]

No problem if you have ears.

Learn about the ABC musical language and you can download tunes and install software that will either draw the Sanskrit for you or play the tune on your soundcard via midi.

Ceolas is full of more resources on learning the music.

[Tyghress]

nearly any of the whistle tutorials will give you much of what you need to read basic music. The Och's book, and Geraldine Cotter's tutorial come to mind.

You don't need to be fluent in reading classical music, just the basic notes of the D scale (D,E,F#, (you don't even need to know what the #(sharp) means yet), G,A,B,C#), and then the G scale. You need to have a feel for the duration of notes, and what the structure looks like (this thing means go back there and play it all again.

Yes, you need to be able to listen and all that (this is one of the flashpoints for this board "sight vs ear" is one of the hottest debates you can touch on) but being able to read music will let you learn from two directions, not just one. I think most of the people who say 'you don't need to read music' already have that skill themselves and therefore minimize it.

Oh, another way to learn a bit about reading music is to go to your local music store and ask for a tutor. It will only take a couple of lessons, and the tutor will probably be THRILLED to have an adult student. Just tell them what your goal is (Irish traditional music), maybe have a book of tunes as an example.

Third way (or am I on the fourth by now) find your local Irish club (may be called Ancient Order of Hibernians, or something like that) and ask someone there if there are classes. You'll be with kids more than likely, but you'll get what you need quickly.

Best of luck! I do recommend you go to www.thewhistleshop.com and check out the tutorials there. If you call you'll probably get tremendous suggestions.

[fancypiper]

The fingering on the whistle is straightforward: All fingers down, you have the bottom note of the scale ("do"). Lift the bottom finger and you have the next note ("re"). Lift the bottom two fingers and you have "mi". And so on up the scale. When you run out of fingers, lift all of them (supporting the whistle on your thumbs), and you have the next note.

You are likely to drop the whistle after you relax and start rolling unless you add another balance finger.

Either use your bottom hand pinkie on the barrel of the whistle, or, when you start lifting fingers on the top hand, replace the ring finger or the middle finger of the bottom hand (depending upon the tune, whatever makes getting the notes easiest with least number fingers needing to go up and down) back down on the hole. This will help in snapping the fingers back down on the holes accurately as well as it keeps your finger spread stable.

Now, you can kick it up a couple of notches without dropping the whistle.

[DCrom]

One warning - you said "beginner's kit". There is a kit currently being discounted a lot of places (Barnes & Noble, etc) - that has a whistle that's totally unplayable (makes noise, but totally out of tune). If you have the kit shown on this link:

http://www.chiffandfipple.com/cf1-27-04/cf.htm

you'll get frustated very fast, through no fault of your own.

If you already have a playable whistle, you can disregard the next bit, but a good whistle can be very inexpensive - The Whistle Show has a wide choice. I'd recommend a Sweetone or Walton's Mello D (about $5 for either one), but almost any of the inexpensive ones can be good (though the standard Walton's D or Generation whistles may need to be tweeked a bit).

And though there a number of tutorials out there, I always recommend Bill Ochs Clarke Tinwhistle Tutor as a good way to get started.

Have fun!

[TomB]

[quote="Tyghress"]Third way (or am I on the fourth by now) find your local Irish club (may be called Ancient Order of Hibernians, or something like that) and ask someone there if there are classes. You'll be with kids more than likely, but you'll get what you need quickly.


DC-Whistler. Following up on Tygh's excellent suggestion, check out the following link. It points you to "all things Irish" in the D.C. area. In particular, I would suggest you try to contact Betsy O'Malley. Her number is listed as one of the tin whistlt tutors. I have no idea if she still teaches, but she used to have a class in Northern Virginia. She is a wonderful person.

I don't know how up to date the link is, but it looks pretty bad. It's been a couple of years since I've lived in that area, but a lot of the things listed were active when I was there- sessions, ceilis, dance and music instructors, etc.

OK, here's the link:

http://www.angelfire.com/va/traditionalmusic/index.html

All the Best, Tom

[LeeMarsh]

DC-Whistler,
Please e-mail me, and I'd be glad to help you get started. either directly or by referal to other folks in our area. I live just south of Glen Burnie, MD and work in DC. I've attend a number of the area's sessions and can suggest something close that may give you some more exposure.

There is also a great teacher, Wendy Morrison, available at House of Music Traditions in Tacoma Park. She provides group classes from time to time. I also have some e-mail contacts for you for some of the area's beginners classes.

I also have a free package I put togeather for a beginner's whistle class I've taught a couple of times, E-mail me with an address and I'll be glad to send you one. It includes a small book that has notes and tablature. (Tablature actually illustrates which holes to cover). It also include a lot of links to Irish music resource in the DC-Baltimore area.

[jim stone]

The tradition is largely aural; lot's of players don't
read music. Of course it's neat to learn, but
I sure wouldn't wait to start playing.
Just start listening to tapes and Cds of
whistle music and Celtic tunes, and play
along. Slower tunes are helpful initially,
as long as any simple tunes, American
or Celtic or whatever, you know....Best