Penny Whistle Tutorial / Learning To Play The Penn Whistle

[tyiam]

I’m often asked about how to play the penny whistle and have found the following helpful:

http://www.whistleandsqueak.com

http://www.cpmusic.com/tradmus.html

[MTGuru]

No question that a nice selection of tunes can be a helpful part of learning to play whistle (or other instrument). And markbell is a long-time good friend of the Chiffboard.

But Whistle & Squeak is not primarily an instructional site. And I see nothing on the other hammered dulcimer link that is whistle-oriented. Am I missing something?

Between Brother Steve, Ryan Duns, Michael Eskin, and a few others, good tutorials are certainly out there. Maybe there ought to be a concise Sticky.

[Mason]

Between Brother Steve, Ryan Duns, Michael Eskin, and a few others, good tutorials are certainly out there. Maybe there ought to be a concise Sticky.

I was thinking about this today (the creation of a Sticky regarding good learning resources). I think it would be a real help. So here's my vote that you would undertake the endeavor

BTW - I'm not sure if Ryan is redoing his tutorials, but it seems that way.

http://www.tinwhistler.blogspot.com/

I wrote him to ask if he envisioned this replacing the Fordham set. I will put something up if I hear back from him.

[tyiam]

The two web sites have a nice selection of Folk, Traditional, Classical, Hymns, etc... with sound clips. Although basic, it is nice for a beginner to hear the clip and then play the piece. Brother Steve whistle site quite a nice resource and great examples, with insights and content:

http://rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/

[markbell]

I agree that a sticky thread would be nice. A lot of new folks drop in, and it would help them get to some good learning resources. It's a topic that comes around on a regular basis.

I didn't even bother trying to create instruction or tutorial stuff on Whistle and Squeak, because there was already a lot of good material out there - better than I was likely to create.

Mark

[tyiam]

I firmly believe that if you give a kid music, it will be a livelong gift.

[Mason]

Between Brother Steve, Ryan Duns, Michael Eskin, and a few others, good tutorials are certainly out there. Maybe there ought to be a concise Sticky.

I was thinking about this today (the creation of a Sticky regarding good learning resources). I think it would be a real help. So here's my vote that you would undertake the endeavor

BTW - I'm not sure if Ryan is redoing his tutorials, but it seems that way.

http://www.tinwhistler.blogspot.com/

I wrote him to ask if he envisioned this replacing the Fordham set. I will put something up if I hear back from him.

Seeing this thread reminded me of my promise.

I reckon this is just an expansion. I receive a lot of correspondence asking for help so I'm trying to help out!

It sounds like these may go a little beyond the Fordham set (although the new set seems to be on hold).

http://tinwhistler.blogspot.com

[cboody]

Love to see a sticky of "Learning Materials for Whistle." I'm in process of gathering a list of such sites for a handout at a workshop this summer. If you had a sticky I'll bet I'd only have to give folks one URL!

[ecohawk]

Oh yes, please make this a sticky.

[tyiam]

How many web sites have you found... that are Whistle Tutorials ? Check this out:

http://www.nigelgatherer.com/whistle/tut.html

[electricmime]

I've learned from those sites as well (Brother Steve and Ryan Dunn especially). I also used Comhaltas extensively to get reliable recordings of tunes to use as a baseline, and ventured out onto youtube to hear other variations (as well as whistlethis.com and tinwhistletunes.com). Having a couple of sites where I can hear several correct variations was helpful to me... especially after hearing the 'horror stories' about people playing it all wrong in session and being gently (or not so gently) guided by a more experienced musician.

Another thing that I had struggled with in the past was figuring out what tunes I wanted to learn. Ryan Dunn's course helped a bit with that, even though I really didn't learn things in his order. I ended up contacting my local slow sessions and using a list of their favorite sets to get going. I'm not sure I want to play sessions right now, but expect that I will before the year is out.

For people with even less access to an actual session, or those that don't want to play sessions, it would be useful to have a "suggested set list", so the beginner will have some clue what is a reasonable goal to aim for. Personally, I think it should have a set of each type of tune (reel, jig, hornpipe, polka, etc) at a beginner level, to further encourage the beginner to learn varied music, and not concentrate just on one type. Of course, hashing out an "official C&F tunebook" is going to be tricky at best.

[cboody]

These lists are not aimed at whistle, but are aimed at either Irish or Scottish/Irish players. I hope they will be of use and not just a waste of space.


If you want a somewhat scary large collection of common tunes by type check out

Reels: http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/18036
Jigs: http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/18049
Hornpipes: http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/18069
Polkas: http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/18087
Slip jigs: http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/18120

The lists were put together by Will Harmon who is a long time player and teacher in, of all things, Helena Montana. He's responsible for the Helena tune books too which are huge and rather wonderful collections of tunes. No chords though for those who insist on such things. I suspect this would be a good, if huge, starting point.
==========
Here's a much shorter list that seems pretty good (I don't remember the source), though I must admit I'm not enough of a session player to know if this is the things that nobody wants to play anymore or the things folks folks expect from those getting started. I do know they are many tunes I enjoy on the list:

REELS

The Banshee [James McMahon]
The Bird In The Bush
The Bucks Of Oranmore
The Concertina Reel
The Congress
Cooley’s (Luttrell’s Pass)
The Cup Of Tea
Drowsy Maggie
Farewell To Ireland
Father Kelly’s (Rossmore Jetty)
The Foxhunter’s
The Gravel Walks
The High Reel
The Humours Of Tulla
The Maid Behind The Bar
The Man Of The House
The Merry Blacksmith
Miss McLeod’s
The Mountain Road [Michael Gorman]
The Pigeon On The Gate
Rolling In The Ryegrass (The Shannon Breeze)
Saint Anne’s
The Sally Gardens
The Silver Spear
The Star Of Munster
The Wise Maid (All Around The World)

JIGS

Banish Misfortune
The Blackthorn Stick
The Blarney Pilgrim
The Cliffs Of Moher
The Connaughtman’s Rambles
Donnybrook Fair (The Joy Of My Life)
The Irish Washerwoman
The Kesh
Lannigan’s Ball
The Lark In The Morning
The Lilting Banshee
Morrison’s
My Darling Asleep
Out On The Ocean
The Pipe On The Hob
The Rakes Of Kildare
Tripping Up The Stairs

HORNPIPES & SET DANCES

The Boys Of Bluehill
Harvest Home
King Of The Fairies
Off To California
The Rights Of Man

SLIP JIGS

The Choice Wife (An Phis Fhliuch)
Drops Of Brandy
The Foxhunter's
The Kid On The Mountain

HOP JIGS

The Butterfly
The Rocky Road To Dublin

SLIDES

Merrily Kissed The Quaker’s Wife
The Road To Lisdoonvarna

POLKAS

Denis Murphy’s
Egan’s
John Ryan’s (The Keadue)
The Rakes Of Mallow

=================
Finally, here's a list some friends put together when they started up an session devoted to Scottish and Irish tunes where they live. It has the advantage of taking things in some sort of difficulty order (at least that was their intention), and the disadvantage of containing more jigs and polkas than one might find in many sessions as well as many tunes that might be on the "too common to play list."

Tunes Everyone should know

Ballydesmond Polka
Bill Sullivan's Polka
Blackthorn Stick (jig)
Denis Murphy's (Polka)
Flowers of Edinburg
Hundred Pipers
Jamie Allen
John Ryan's Polka
Kitty Magee (jig)
Maids of Ardagh (polka)
Mairi's Wedding (polka)
Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre (jig)
Red Haired Boy (reel)
Road to Lisdoonvarna (slide/jig)
Rose Tree
Shandon Bells
Smash the Windows
Southwind
Swallowtail Jig
Temperance Reel
Tobin's Favorite (jig)

Next Level

An Irishman's Heart to the Ladies (jig)
Arran Boat Song
Boys of Bluehill (hornpipe)
Coleraine (jig)
Drowsy Maggie (reel)
Kesh Jig
Lanagan's Ball (slide/jig)
Off She Goes
Off to California (hornpipe)
Rakes of Kildare (jig)
Rickett's Hornpipe
Rights of Man (hornpipe)
Scully's Reel
Sheebag Sheemore (take your pick on spellings
Tenpenny Bit (jig)
Garryowen (jig)
Tripping up Stairs (jig)
Wind that Shakes the Barley (reel)

Expand your repertoire

Calliope House (jig)
Cliffs of Moher (jig)
Father Kelly's (Rossmore Jetty) (reel)
Greenfields of America (reel)
Irish Washerwoman (jig)
Maid Behind the Bar (reel)
Morrison's Jig
Mud of Brown Ale (jig)
O'Keefe's Slide
Rollicking Irishman (Jig)
Star of Munster (reel)
The Banshee (reel)
The Merry Blacksmith (reel)
Trip to Sligo (jig)

Multipart tunes

Banish Misfortune (jig)
Butterfly (hop jig/slip jig)
Jig of Slurs
Merrily Kiss the Quaker (slide)
The King of the Fairies (hornpipe?)

Most Advanced

Chier O'Neal's Favorite (hornpipe)
Cronin's Hornpipe
Julia Delaney (reel)
Kid on the Mountain (Slip Jig)
Mason's Apron (reel)
Morpath Rant (reel)
Ships are Sailing (reel)
Speed the Plow (reel)

[cboody]

Oh Yeah,

There is also the "Twin Cities Slow Session" collection still available some places (I have it in pdf, but do not have permission to send it to folks..I might be able to get that permission if someone is particularly interested), and at

http://karenashbrook.com/monthly_session.html

You can down load a pdf file for the session tunes for the Children's session that Karen Ashbrook put together. Lovely tunes nicely presented, and good starting points for adults too.

There are lots of other lists and collections of common session tunes. This is more than enough from me!

[electricmime]

Yes. There are lots and lots of tunes... too many for the beginner, who will have no idea what is appropriate as a starting point. I was just thinking if we're giving them links to resources, it would be nice to point them at a starting repetoire as well. I'm sure that question is asked all the time.

[cboody]

I was just thinking if we're giving them links to resources, it would be nice to point them at a starting repetoire as well. I'm sure that question is asked all the time.

If you look at the last two lists I posted you'll see that one apparently is common tunes and the other common tunes organized for starting out. It seems to me they fit your bill.