Tin Whistle Toolbox?

jonharl · Post by **jonharl** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:31 pm

On the Flute Forum there's an interesting thread about Grey Larsen's big book, but I was wondering about his Tin Whistle Toolbox. Any comments?

Miwokhill · Post by **Miwokhill** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:55 pm

Jon, I had done a search a few months back and read a review of both books. The reviewer thought 'The Essential Guide...' was, despite being exhaustive and comprehensive, a little lacking when it came to beginners. His view, hoping not to mis-state his opinion, was that the 'Toolbox' was an effort to fill this gap, having more beginning exercises.
I have the Essential Guide and if I was still down in San Jose I'd let you borrow it to check it out but I'm about 3 hours away now, up near Nevada City. It's a pretty good book with lots of exercises as well, 2 cds, and quite a few tunes at the end, also on the cds. Many of the tunes are played on flute so give an idea of how they may sound on the low whistle as well. The exercises are particularly focused on ornamentation. Also a few chapters just on flute. Hopefully you could go into music music music if they have it there and page through it first.
Sorry I can't give more feedback on the Toolbox, which was your question! -mike

jonharl · Post by **jonharl** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:47 pm

On amazon.com the Tin Whistle Toolbox review said there are no full tunes, only bits and pieces. The description said there was a new way to explain ornamentation. If it clears up the description and understanding of ornamentation this would be worth the price of the book alone.

Thanks for your imput Mike.

Jon Harl

Miwokhill · Post by **Miwokhill** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 12:47 am

-you're very welcome Jon. That's true from what I read about the Toolbox, no full tunes there. The Essential Guide has 30 or so tunes that are also on the cds. If you check out the Grey Larsen website you'll see that he also sells an additional (third) book which has full versions of the tune snippets from the Toolbox book. I forget if it includes a cd but I think it was $15.00. ( the book of the 15 complete tunes) This is where I started wondering about what was going on here. It seemed like all the information could have been consolidated into ONE book, including the 45 tunes. If you want to get the 3 books it gets fairly expensive. mike

Henke · Post by **Henke** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 12:52 am

The description said there was a new way to explain ornamentation. If it clears up the description and understanding of ornamentation this would be worth the price of the book alone.

I think that is the same method used by Grey in The essential guide as well. There is some discussion of that method in the flute board thread as well. I personally think it works really well.

Jennie · Post by **Jennie** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:05 pm

I have both the Toolbox and the more exhaustive (or exhausting, whichever way you view it) complete guide. I find that I use the big book more often, just because it suits where I am as a player.

I've read and agree with lots of the commentary on these resources. The Toolbox is a little better for beginners. Larsen's discussion of ornamentation was exactly what I needed. I am: a classically trained musician, with a pretty broad collection of recorded music including a fair amount of traditional Irish music, and someone who's totally isolated from other Irish flute or whistle players. Grey's explanations really helped me transition from classical-style ornamentation to the more rhythmic cuts, strikes and rolls that were what I was hearing in the recordings without being able to figure out how to get there.

So, not for everybody, but a very good substitute if you don't have access to a great teacher. My two cents.

Jennie

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 6:21 pm

I'm a beginner and I'm using the Toolbox along with the separate finger exercise booklet. I have the great fat book as well but have not gotten into that one. I very much like Larson's approach and his explanations---he is very detailed and very rigorous. As a complete beginner, although one who does read music well, I realized I needed to find some very simple tunes to work on as well so I have found those in other books or on the Internet since the Toolbox seemed to not have easy enough ones. I do finger exercises and practice articulation or ornamentation from the Larson book and follow his advice, and then I play simple tunes from other sources to work on just getting the notes and getting a better sound. I am learning the two tunes in the chapter on cuts, but they are really hard for a beginner. His style of teaching would be somewhat similar to that of teaching classical music, which is probably why I respond to it so well, but he certainly makes it quite clear that playing traditional music is a different thing than playing classical music.

walrii · Post by **walrii** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 9:44 am

I just got the toolbox a couple days ago so these are initial impressions. The explanations are very detailed. The pictures for things like holding the whistle are great and say as much as the words. I've only skimmed the ornaments section, so can't comment on that yet. Overall, I think I'll use the book as a reference book as much as a tutorial. It has the kind of detail that I will need to read more than once as I progress along. On a side note, I found the Toolbox contained many of the same ideas and advice contained the the bible for those other fipple flute players, Kenneth Wollitz's "The Recorder Book." Instructions on posture, holding the flute, breathing, etc. are almost identical in both volumes and presented in much the same manner.

All the tunes on the CD and in the book are only examples and fragments illustrating a technique. I would have liked the entire tunes included the book and on the CD rather than in a separate volume. I didn't get the separate volume because I hadn't read this thread yet and didn't know it existed - need to spend more time hanging around the C&F!

chef Paul · Post by **chef Paul** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 4:54 pm

I have both of Grey's books. Love 'em.

His detailed explanation of rolls (long, short, condensed long, etc.) was a huge help and gave me the understanding I needed to execute, with confidence (ok with more confidence than I had before, which probably isn't saying a whole lot) moves that I had instinctively already been making (like the shake, and short rolls which I though were just my slacker attempt at avoiding condensed long rolls)( I was thrilled to discover I had already been plaing short rolls.) My playing improved overnight because my brain actually knew what was doing. For once.

I've worked through other tutorials (not mentioning any names here because they were all helpful) really to no avail as far as getiing and understanding anything beyond long rolls. Grey's books just galvainzed it all for me.

In other words...I think the books are worth getting for sure.