Learning to play the Whistle: What works best for you?

[Eric N]

I was hunting around looking for some kind of information on learning to play the whistle by ear. I came upon this essay. It convinced me to go the 'learning to play by ear' route. Its worth a look. http://www.treelight.com/music/playByEar.html

I would apreciate any tips on what has wored/works well for you while trying to learn the whistle.

Eric

[FJohnSharp]

both

[avanutria]

By ear.

The only way I can successfully use sheet music is with the help of an intermediary - I make them play it off the sheet, and learn from listening to them.

[jsluder]

I can't learn a tune from the sheet music by itself. I can learn a tune just by ear, but I learn it faster if I use both ear and sheet music.

Cheers,
John

[Eric N]

By ear.

The only way I can successfully use sheet music is with the help of an intermediary - I make them play it off the sheet, and learn from listening to them.

Thats very cool. Playing by ear seems to be more fun once you get good at it.

Eric

[IDAwHOa]

Learn to play? What do you mean by that? I thought it was all about WHOA and buying, selling and trading whistles. No one told me about learning to play the things!!!!

[Miwokhill]

I had been flatpicking alot of fiddle tunes on guitar in the last few years and pretty much used tablature to learn the tunes, usually with a cd playing the tune as well. It's a great way to learn tunes but the downside is I tend to become dependent on the music and don't train my ear to learn the music. I think learning to read music is great; it's like someone jotting down the tune for you so you won't forget it later. I think though it's a good idea to give just as much time if not more to playing by ear or try and play what you just learned without the music. I think you lose a feel for the music somewhat when reading it off the page while playing. Maybe it's like if you went to a play and all the actors had the script in hand while performing. But I wouldn't entirely dismiss the idea of learning to read music. It's a great avenue for learning tunes as well I think.

[izzarina]

I use both as well. It's better for me while I'm listening to have the music in front of me...that way I can see each note as I hear it.

[JillyKB]

I do a bit of each. I can't just print out a song and play it without having heard it enough to be at least vaguely familiar with the tune. At the same time, though, I can't just sit there and listen to a song and be able to pick out the notes correctly.

[greenspiderweb]

I don't have the patience to learn from books and written music. I have been playing guitar for years by ear, learned some fiddle by ear, and find as you go along, your sense of music is very good by learning that way.
Learning from sheet music is fine, it's a great idea, as Miwokhill stated, to be able to remember tunes it would help immensely. But strictly learning from written music has the danger of becoming mechanical sounding without that feel for the music that ear training gives.
I really need some theory training to better understand music, but to me, it all seems like math-not my favorite subject in school!

[whiskeylvr]

I haven't been playing long and have no musical background, so it probably is not suprising that I cannot play a toon simply by ear. I have learned to read sheet music over the past month or so fairly well, and find it easiest if I hear the song played through first, then learn the actual notes through the sheet music.

I find I pick the tune up with greater ease when it is siting in front of me and can pick out any screw ups or problems if I have already heard the correct playing of a tune.

[Miwokhill]

I do have to agree with greenspiderweb that playing by ear is the way to go. I do use music alot to learn and wish I'd rely less on the sheet music. The sheet music should be a means to an end. I heard once that to play violin well you have to be able to sing well. I guess that's what it comes down to, being able to hear the song and have it in your head. Maybe being able to sing (or whistle without a PW) a tune is a good way to see if you're getting it. mike

[Darwin]

I was hunting around looking for some kind of information on learning to play the whistle by ear. I came upon this essay. It convinced me to go the 'learning to play by ear' route. Its worth a look. http://www.treelight.com/music/playByEar.html

I would apreciate any tips on what has wored/works well for you while trying to learn the whistle.

I'm not too good at hearing the nuances of tunes, so I like to use the written music to get me started, though software like The Amazing Slowdowner can often substitute for that--and has the advantage of working with tunes that you can't find the written music for.

If I can sing a tune, I can find all the notes, so that's what I aim for first with a new tune. Some tunes come easily, some don't. There are a few that I still haven't quite wrapped my head around, but I keep listening to them, and I know they will sink in eventually.

In fact, within the past week or so, I've suddenly found myself able to play three airs that I had let slide: Do You Remember That Night, Bríd Óg Ní Mháille, and My Lagan Love. I was pretty surprised when I sat down and started to play them from the written music, and found that the notes just came out by themselves. So, for me, nothing beats simply listening--over and over and over. Still, the written music is a great help to me.

Once I can play the notes, I start playing the tune, working on the feeling. I don't see any way to play with feeling if I can't hit the notes.

I had been flatpicking alot of fiddle tunes on guitar in the last few years and pretty much used tablature to learn the tunes, usually with a cd playing the tune as well. It's a great way to learn tunes but the downside is I tend to become dependent on the music and don't train my ear to learn the music. I think learning to read music is great; it's like someone jotting down the tune for you so you won't forget it later. I think though it's a good idea to give just as much time if not more to playing by ear or try and play what you just learned without the music. I think you lose a feel for the music somewhat when reading it off the page while playing. Maybe it's like if you went to a play and all the actors had the script in hand while performing. But I wouldn't entirely dismiss the idea of learning to read music. It's a great avenue for learning tunes as well I think.

Well put. By the way, have you seen my flatpick tabs at http://www.coastalfog.net/flatpick/tabl ... _main.html? Not great stuff, but it does include sound files. I haven't put anything new up since about 1997, but I just found my computer microphone, so maybe I'll add some more.

Everything I learn on the whistle, I try to play on the guitar, too. It's another way to get it into my head.

[Miwokhill]

Darwin, I'll check out the flatpick link, thanks. I'd gotten some pretty cool tunes out of Flatpicking Guitar magazine which has alot of tunes tabbed and a cd option when subscribing. Oops, this is supposed to be about whistling and here I am blatting on about guitar and violins. Yikes.--- One thing I've been doing lately to learn tunes is going to Clips and Snips and dubbing some tunes I like onto a minidisc and then try and play what I hear. With having the tunes recorded I can playback quickly or repeat sections. Having a book with the tunes on a cd is handy too. You can read the sheet music or try to play the tunes solely by ear from the cd. - mike

[BillChin]

Again, for Irish Traditional Music, learning by ear is the way to go. Slowing down tunes helps, someone mentioned the Amazing Slowdowner, Audacity has this function also. I can also mention my Sony voice recorder device with a built in slow down function. The latter is a good way to go for session players. Record, asking permission first, at session and slow down the tunes and learn to play that way. In lieu of live musicians, MP3s and CDs are good, and again slowing them down helps.

Do be careful of whose playing you learn from. There was one incident here of someone posting sound files for beginners to learn from. The experienced players did not care for the phrasing, or intonation on those recordings. The same caveat might apply in person, though most session players learned from other session players, so the odds might be decent.

If the goal is to play other genres, sheet music or MIDI files is often the most direct route. I find it useful to get MIDI files and slow them down and play along. As far as sight reading, I find ABC notation to be easier to process than dots, but am not proficient with either. I can mention the tunefinder site with has MIDI, ABC and dots.
http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/findtune

and clips and snips (with the caveat above):
http://www.tinwhistletunes.com/clipssnip/slowairs.html

Enjoy.
+ Bill