Conundrum...

S.B.O'Gill · Post by **S.B.O'Gill** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 12:40 pm

Ok... I'm at the place where I've played all the way through my beginner book starting with Hot Cross Buns & Merrily We Roll Along (LOL!) and going all the way to Scarborough. Everything in my book is too easy for me now. Here is where the conundrum comes in. The music I go out and look at on the web (like on Wanderer's site etc.) and in more advanced music books is WAY over my skill level!! I can't seem to find intermediate level stuff. The stuff that I have found that says it's intermediate makes my eyes go crossed! Sixteenth grace notes!! Yeah RIGHT!! So anyway, does anybody know of some next step up stuff for a guy like me? There are no sessions within a 4-hour drive radius of me. I don't have any whistling mentors. Everything I do is 100% on my own. I'm getting very discouraged...

khl · Post by **khl** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 12:49 pm

Why not try this: http://www.thewhistleshop.com/catalog/t ... eland'.htm
It has various tunes for levels of ability. And the CDs are good to listen to and play along with.

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 12:51 pm

Well, to start off with, you can ignore grace notes. In ITM, those are
usually used to denote cuts and taps anyway, and are not really grace
notes as they are thought of in classical music. If you're not ready for
an ornament that's notated, just ignore it. You could search
<a href="http://thesession.org">thesession.org</a> or <a href="http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/F ... html">JC's Tunefinder</a> for the same tune name you see on
Wanderer's site, to find a score that doesn't have the ornaments.
Most people don't bother to put them in.

Or, you could start trying to learn things by ear. You could find
recordings you like, and slow them down with <a href="http://www.ronimusic.com/">various</a> <a href="http://www.xs4all.nl/~mp2004/bp/">software</a>.

Can you link to an example of something that is too difficult on
Wanderer's site, so we have a baseline?

bjs · Post by **bjs** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 2:07 pm

Try Bill Ochs book and CD. It's hard to beat and will take you far without tears.
Brian

Whitmores75087 · Post by **Whitmores75087** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 4:15 pm

I've been there. I overcame that wall by playing airs and laments. Some of it is easy to play, but beautiful enough to hold interest. South Wind, Bonnie Doon, Fanny Power, Si Beag Si Mor, Carrickfergus, Road to Lisdoonvarna, Over The Sea to Skye (Skye boat song), Dunmore Lasses (played slowly), Planxty Irwin, Aran Boat Song.

All should be available from JC's ABC Tune Finder. Use that as a search phrase to find it.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 4:49 pm

Not sure if you've seen these websites. They're tutorials and they seem to me to have a good selection of tunes. And you can start learning ornamentation, etc.
http://nigelgatherer.com/whist.html
http://www.whistleworkshop.co.uk/home.htm
http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/b ... index.html
http://www.whistletutor.com/

StewySmoot · Post by **StewySmoot** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 5:03 pm

Try playing along with CDs or MP3s as best you can with the stuff you think you might be able to play. Forget mastering the 16th notes or the other fluff. Just focus on the basic tune. Get a feel for the whistle and the beat. Dont worry about not playing it correctly the first time, or the hundredth time... I remember the first time I tried to play Banish Misfortune (by Slainte) along with the band. I got blowed out of the water, but I stuck with it.

Finger speed for the fast notes and the ornamentation you will want to place will come with practice.

S.B.O'Gill · Post by **S.B.O'Gill** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 7:04 pm

I worked all day on "Down by the Sally Gardens" and by tonight I had it down to passable (but not perfect). I really like that song. I wish I could play it the way Wanderer does!! WOO!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 7:22 pm

Hmmm there is no magic potion to learning. I must have messed for months with no particular aim and got absolutely nowhere. Later I was introduced to one of the old school from Co Sligo Ireland and he set me straight.

Course at that time I could play simple songs and such but could not play in C on the D stick, nor was I much in G either.

To correct any illusions of brilliance or brains on my part the gentleman told me NOT to play at all but develop what he called ' schlap' of the boot/shoe on the floor since thats what really matters in the old school. Sure enough he was right, and is right.

So for example a bit of 'The Heatherly Breeze'

G - B G / D G B G /
F- A F/ D F A F /

as a melody to train with. Remember its your foot you are training NOT your hands - they will take care of themselves if you just let them :0)

Also dont be worrying about 1/16 notes and decorations at this time, aim to keep your tempo slow and even.

Start with the foot schlapping the floor and play to that. Use your diaphram to frame stops instead of the tounge by making 'uuuh' sounds to start.

If you want to hear how simply the Sally Gardens reel can be done look for any good Harmonica players setting, it can't get any simpler than that! OTOH you need to avoid complicated settings such as Seamus Ennis or similar until you have a grasp of the basics.

All the best.

S.B.O'Gill · Post by **S.B.O'Gill** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 7:27 pm

I totally don't have a clue about what you mean in regards to the boot schlap thing. Could you try and elaborate on that some?

michael_coleman · Post by **michael_coleman** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:47 pm

Try the Mad for Trad tutorials on CD-ROM. Great instruction from great players.

The 110 tinwhistles songs khl mentioned isnt bad, I'd probably go with the mad for trad if I had to do it all over again.

ctilbury · Post by **ctilbury** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 1:14 am

I like the Cathal McConnel book because the CD has separate guitar and whislte tracks. You can turn one completely off. Also it has examples of music in all of the different scales you can play a D in.

here's a link
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/079356 ... s&v=glance

Adrian · Post by **Adrian** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 1:55 am

Be encouraged! You can play ANYTHING if you slow it down enough, even if it is ridiculoulsy sloooooowwwww like one note a second. In fact if you are playing from music and are making mistakes you are playing too quickly. DON'T practice making mistakes or you will reinforce them. Slow is the quickest way to learn a tune. Don't add ornamentation to a tune until you have mastered the basic melody.

Good luck

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 6:41 am

toasty wrote:develop what he called ' schlap' of the boot/shoe on the floor since thats what really matters in the old school. Sure enough he was right, and is right.

Sounds like toasty is saying that tapping your foot, and keeping a good beat is the important thing.
Most would say that the rhythm is the important thing, so perhaps there's a bit of that in toasty's
statement, too.

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 10:44 am

michael_coleman wrote:Try the Mad for Trad tutorials on CD-ROM. Great instruction from great players.

The 110 tinwhistles songs khl mentioned isnt bad, I'd probably go with the mad for trad if I had to do it all over again.

There is a substantial advantage to the Mad for Trad CD (Brian Finnegan of Flook), for both flute and whistle, in that you have the sheet music, you have the tune played at an appropriate speed (that is, at a speed your learning ears can hear), and you also have a nicely done video of the tune being played.

The series of tunes is laid out in a logical progression, from less complex to more complex, incorporating different keys, tune types, and ornamentation.

There are enough tunes on this CD to keep you busy for a while, if you work with them to develop your abilities, rather than just blowing through them.

You can listen to the lesson tune over and over by bringing it up on your computer and setting the player to repeat. I do this at work, minimizing it and plopping on headphones so that I can continue working on other things. After a few hours of this, I find that the tune is stuck in my head and I can play it by ear. It's very convenient.

Don't discount the advantage of being able to see a video of the tune being played. It really helps. Yes, you can get more tunes with one of the huge books and the huge books may be cheaper, but you really gain a lot by being able to SEE the techniques. Everything clicks much faster.

The Scoiltrad Whistle Lesson set (Conal O'Grada) was put on a CD. It's much the same as the Mad for Trad--video, explanation, sheet music--but using different tunes for the most part. If they are the same tunes, they're played slightly differently. Shannaquay may have some left. They were 20 Euro with shipping included, and Shannaquay ships quickly.

For those of you learning flute, Mad for Trad has a very good flute tutorial by Seamus Egan.