Tunes for beginners - numbered or pic of fingering holes?

[chhangay]

Apologies for asking this but I have spent more than two hours now searching through the whistle/flute posts using tunes/numbered/newbie/beginner. I get results between 500+ 6000+

I have found a few sites elsewhere which offer a variety of tunes and a few of those tunes showing the vertical display of fingering for holes. (Although most, including sniff below) show them back to front not the way a beginner's eyes and brain sees the holes....).


Tutor books give a few with fingering and then assume you can read music and just give straight notation.

Useful one is http://sniff.numachi.com
BUT at the end only about 30 tunes there I know and of those maybe only half a dozen in D which is what I need as a dumbo starter.
Also
http://www.arcelts.com/bbot1/bytype1.htm
and
http://unitedireland.tripod.com/id559.html

Just a few have them numbered (as in 6 5 4 etc)

With the numbers and or the dots I can really crack along learning the tune (rather than struggling with the process which will come later if u see what I mean)

I found a highly recommended site for teachers for their pupils - in fact all it gives is the notes by letter (D G etc). So I then had to find ways of pasting the numbers in against the letters which is really time consuming but ......

D6 E5B F4 G3 A2 B1 C0 D5T E5B F4 G3 A2
d6 e5b f4 g3 a2 b1 c0 d5t e5b f4 g3 a2

I saw a discussion about Karaoke Tablature here, with ABC, for tin whistle but cant find the download anwyhere and not sure if it does the holes/numbers.

It would be a great boost for beginners if there was an easy to find collection of tunes with numbers/hole fingering in one place... if not here, then does someone know where please?

Finally an interesting fingering for starters here
http://www.playintune.net/fr
and if you rotate the screen with irotate from entechtaiwan.com
you get to see the robotic fingers as you play the whistle.

Just to say that I did make some efforts to start playing a year ago trying to copy this friendly site although the fingering gets quite difficult to see (compared with playintune.net/fr
I gave up.
Then I had another bash at a teaching weekend but did not persisit.

After an excellent 20 minute teaching session recently in Wales (South not NE Jem!) I reallised the numbers/holes were the fastest way to get going and as I said earlier I am cracking along now.... hence the plea in this post.

The time of tunes I know in D are of the O'Carolan sort, or Skye Boat song, Last Rose of Summer.

Hope the many virtuosi here remember their first faltering steps and dont mind this kind of post.

[Denny]

print it, tape it to the wall .... memorize it

Code: Select all

C# OOO OOO
B  XOO OOO
A  XXO OOO
G  XXX OOO
F# XXX XOO
E  XXX XXO 
D  XXX XXX

[Kypfer]

I was in a similar situation only a few months ago ... after faffing about for a few days with various "notations", diagrams and methods I decided to settle down, memorise which dot on the stave translated to which hole directly on the whistle and went from there. Don't worry about all these "simplified" schemes for reading music, there's only one that's stood the test of time ... dots on lines. I still can't "read" music, but if I know the tune (for the timing) I can figure out which notes I need from the stave on the screen/paper and take it from there ... "simples" (almost .

[beor uaine]

Outside of learning by ear, standard notation is probably the best.

But, and remember this is from a rank beginner, I find that learning tunes I am familiar with helps me with fingering. I started by making a note of which notes a song had on a separate staff, from lowest to highest, and matching that to a fingering chart so I had a visual. But my sight reading is not very good, so I still have to listen and learn timing by ear. Some songs that have helped me are actually religious, like Sing of Mary, Pure and Lowly and Joy to the World; and also Danny Boy. They helped me learn to transition between what for me are awkward fingerings, as well as helping me learn to transition between octaves embouchure-wise, and helping me learn which fingering goes with which notes on the staff. I find that familiarity makes me comfortable. And it's easier to learn and play if you're comfortable.

[an seanduine]

Outside of learning by ear, standard notation is probably the best.

I concur.
Denny is also right.
Almost any notation system can become a ball and chain.
Lacking a sympathetic and patient tutor, we have YouTube and slowdown software like BestPractice.
No matter how, eventually you have to get the tune into your head and make it one with your inner ear. Then you'll find yourself waking up with it playing in your mind and reach for your instrument. . .and then you'll be another TuneHead
Bob

[chhangay]

Thank-u-all kindly!
Trouble is, I know the tunes and have them in my head.... the issue for the rank beginner as regards fingering is matching the dots on the paper(or the screen ) to the placing of the fingers...
It is interesting that the fastest speed at which I have ever seen beginners learning tunes on the melodeon has been a numbers-only system used by Pete Grassby**
ah well... I will certainly try out your tips but I may be stuck with my clumsy numbering!!

**
http://www.actionability.co.uk/PG/

and playing something a tad bigger than a whistle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GndDixyw8iU

[MTGuru]

Putting on my music educator's hat ... The fact that you're not finding much in the way of flute tablature should tell you something about the desirability of flute tablature.

Any notation is just a mapping from a symbol on the page to something physical on your instrument. If you can make the leap from "picture of closed holes" to D6 E5 etc., just eliminate the number and you've almost got it. There are only 7 letter names, and 7 unique fingerings. Learn the positions on the staff, and you're there. Take a simple piece and write the letter names above each note. After a few days you'll begin to ignore the written names.

In other words, staff notation is really very easy, as easy as any of the substitutes. And it rewards a tiny bit of effort and patience by unlocking the vast treasure of notated music. So there's no reason to recommend an alternative notation (except ABC notation, which is just staff notation in a different guise).

I've seen classes of 8-year-olds learn basic pitch notation in a few hours. Anyone can do it. You can do it.

[Hup]

Don't bother using any notation at all. Try playing a few tunes you already can
hum or whistle. Working it out by trial and error is much more effective than
wasting time learning some kind of code or notation. Want to learn music?
Just start playing. Otherwise you're doing programming or touch-typing.

After you've been going for a little while, if you have any great need to learn
how to read sheet music, you can concentrate on that since you already know
the basics of how to play.

[chhangay]

Tks again.

[beor uaine]

Hup's got a good point. And now that I think about it, the very first tune I ever learned to play was Amazing Grace. It's simple and you can learn it by ear because you probably already know it. The very first note is the bottom D on your flute. Goes up to the second D for its highest note. You won't even need paperwork for it!

[an seanduine]

If you know the tunes, then with only the addition of the cross-fingered C nat, which is usually available as xx0 000 or xx0x00 on most flutes and well intune, you've ready access to a ton of 'chunes. Dmaj,Gmaj, associated modes, and even Amin since a lot of tunes use a gapped mode without the G#, altho' that too may be doable on a keyless flute. All of this with the "No Paperwork Need Apply" lit.
Sometimes, when I don't have a tune in mind, I'll just noodle around and find I've played the first part of a tune, or the beginning of the 'turn' and then just 'fall to' picking out the rest of it.
Bob

[benhall.1]

If you know the tunes, then with only the addition of the cross-fingered C nat, which is usually available as xx0 000 or xx0x00 on most flutes and well intune, you've ready access to a ton of 'chunes. Dmaj,Gmaj, associated modes, and even Amin since a lot of tunes use a gapped mode without the G#, altho' that too may be doable on a keyless flute. All of this with the "No Paperwork Need Apply" lit.
Sometimes, when I don't have a tune in mind, I'll just noodle around and find I've played the first part of a tune, or the beginning of the 'turn' and then just 'fall to' picking out the rest of it.
Bob

Your C nats aren't right there, Bob. I can't decipher what fingering you mean for the second one, but the first one should have been OXX OOO, not what you put.

[Denny]

an' sometimes OXO XXX
but not "A"

[an seanduine]

Whoops! Comes from testing the egg nog mix too often!
Bob

[Jäger]

If you know the tunes, then with only the addition of the cross-fingered C nat, which is usually available as xx0 000 or xx0x00 on most flutes and well intune, you've ready access to a ton of 'chunes. Dmaj,Gmaj, associated modes, and even Amin since a lot of tunes use a gapped mode without the G#, altho' that too may be doable on a keyless flute. All of this with the "No Paperwork Need Apply" lit.
Sometimes, when I don't have a tune in mind, I'll just noodle around and find I've played the first part of a tune, or the beginning of the 'turn' and then just 'fall to' picking out the rest of it.
Bob

There's no G# in A minor. There is in A major, but not minor. A minor has the F nat on the other hand.