Graduated from Berklee College of Music with guitar as my "principal instrument".
I consider Shannon Heaton of the band Siucra to be a mentor. Shannon is a master fluter and whistler (Won the Chicago regional once).
At this point where whistle is concerned... I would say that Mary Bergin is my main "teacher" as I'm in the process of learning all the tunes by ear of her first record Feadog Stain. Every once in a while I check in with Shannon to get her critique in terms of interpretation and variation.
I have no training in any instument, can only just barely read sheet music, and generally just hack my way through anything I want to learn. Luckly I just play for my own amusement!
Oddly enough, just about ALL my friends have formal training on one instrument or another and regularly play in local concert bands. I was always the odd one out.
No formal whistel training, I went to a group class for 3 weeks, but just to learn tunes, not to learn how to play.
I still play guitar & mandolin occasionally (guitar more so recently), and played violin and clarinet as a boy.
One thing I don't get - everyone agrees you should be comfortable and relaxed to play, whatever style of music, but my violin, guitar and mandolin teachers all tried to get me to hold the instrument in a very uncomfortable way (for me) that totally screwed me up and made me nervous, on edge, and gave me hand cramps after only a few minutes of playing.
I know there's a "right way" to hold an instrument, but for me the wrong way worked fine, I could get all the notes, and the "right way" didn't, I couldn't play above 5 minutes without finger, hand and wrist pains.
I guess that most Irish Trad players were more or less self taught (I'm thinking before the current wave of popularity of this music); they just picked up the family instrument, worked out where the notes were, and played, probably holding the thing all wrong, but nobody cared, and nobody tried to show them the right way.
If I want to play a whistle through my nose, or hold a fiddle bow between my knees and run the fiddle up and down against it to get the notes, what does it matter, if the music is free and flowing?
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that schwing
Formal non-traditional (no classical music) piano lessons from the age of 8 until 16. A friend taught me some guitar, and for the major part self-teaching myself the whistle, with great help from Brother Steve's site.
On 2002-10-21 06:28, Martin Milner wrote:
I guess that most Irish Trad players were more or less self taught (I'm thinking before the current wave of popularity of this music); they just picked up the family instrument, worked out where the notes were, and played, probably holding the thing all wrong, but nobody cared, and nobody tried to show them the right way.
I think that while it may have happened in a few cases, the youngster able fo a tune was immediately sent off to a senior player to learn the ropes, most traditional musicians, especially the older ones, are extremely particular about how things should be done, way of bowing, ornamentation and how to hold the instrument.
Classical piano lessons since age 5 but they haven't hurt my playing any.
Self-taught on whistle, inspired in part by recorder-playing parents and flute-playing brother, and the sound of Irish music in my ears throughout my childhood. Haven't taken formal lessons on whistle (audited a workshop once to steal teaching techniques), but since picking up the whistle I've had the privilege of hanging out with some very accomplished Irish musicians and learning from what they do.
You can pick up techniques from the most unlikely sources - I learned a new way to breathe from studying sh*t Jujitsu for 4 years with a 5th degree black belt sensei...
I started tin whistle when I was 8, & had a very traditional, aural-emphasising (now there's a description! ) music teacher, who also taught me flute from age 10 to 16. (I'd also done Irish [step] dancing from age 3 to 12, so I knew the rhythms & some tunes from that, and could pick stuff out by ear on whistle when I started). Learned to read music along the way by relating the funny signs on the page to what I was hearing... Have played flute for 10 years now, am studying for a degree in Music & Italian, and still don't know what all the symbols on a stave mean! And I now teach whistle & flute at CCE lessons.
Deirdre
1 year individual Piano lessons including 1 hour a day practice age 9 along with general music theory class at Geelong College. Starting age 10, I had group and individual lessons in voice 4-5 times a week for 5 years, mostly group.
In highschool, I started to participated heavily in folk music, self taught guitar.
No real formal training as an adult except for the occasional single lesson or teaching session.
Hey Martin, you are dead right about posture. An exmple of the music world's love of awkward posture is the way flute is made. If you pick up a flute, ancient or modern, the embouchure hole is positioned so that you have to hold the thing in a painful position. (I made a flute out of pvc pipe and brought the hole forward, making it SO much easier to hold.) I think a lot of that stuff goes back to the ethic that pain is good for you, espcially if you are a child.
I had six years of formal training (between 1 and three lessons a week) from 6 to 12. Then from 18 to 25 Pipes (one lesson a week). I think that'sa lot. The "rest" was listening.
Alexander
I have a whistle lesso every Monday night for a half hour at the local folk music association. My teacher has shown me some really great tricks and also some about music theory that I definitely wouldn't have gotten on my own. Mainly, though, it comes down to practice, practice, practice. There's no substitute for that. I think that if you're motivated, pay attention to people like Peter and Steve on this board, and listen to good traditional playing that's all you need.
