new member and question about best whistle instruction book

[Baen]

Hi everyone,
glad I found this board! Sometimes surfing the web for hours pays off in gold, doesn't it? You all sound like a great group of people!
I'm starting on the tin whistle path at the late age of 40 (have been playing on and off for about a year, actually). Perhaps I shouldn't admit this, but I hope that the tin whistle can help me to arrive at some day learning the Uilleann Pipes. Not that I'm just using them for that reason, though!
I have a Clarke D whistle, and have been using the book by Bill Ochs that came with it. I have recently decided, however, that I only want to learn traditional Irish, and his book only has it near the end. I want to start learning Irish music now, and so am trying to figure out what instruction book I should get. It would have to come with a CD or cassette, since I'm basically not a music reader and have to hear the piece to make sure I know what I'm doing. I have the Tom Maguire Irish Whistle Tune Book, but when I bought it didn't realize that it didn't have any instruction at all. ("Oh, is that what a 'Tune book' is? I said afterward, showing my lack of musical sense) I basically like the tunes, and so could get his instruction book, but don't know how good it is. The other two I'm considering are: the Tradional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor by Geraldine Cotter, and the Complete Irish Tin Whistle Tutor by L.E. McCullough. Unfortunately the local music stores carry none of these books, and so I'll have to order them online and sight unseen. Can anyone offer suggestions as to what is the best book?

Thanks for any help, and look forward to future visits here!


best,
Baen

[cowtime]

Welcome!

If you've been playing a year or so, and made it to playing the tunes in the back of Bill Ochs' tudor, you really need to get "A Dossan of Heather".
A collection of traditional tunes in the memory of Packie Manus Byrne, a Donegal whistler who's style is a bit different than the usual.

It has the companion cd of some of the tunes and they are great. You will have no trouble learning these by ear if you want. I just got the book last week for myself and I only wish I'd gotten it eariler. This book has a web page you can check out to learn more. I got my copy from the Whistle Shop. It's a lot of fun.

[Baen]

If you've been playing a year or so, and made it to playing the tunes in the back of Bill Ochs' tutor

Thanks for the reply, cowtime, and the welcome! Actually, I have just gotten the tune "Drummond Castle" in the Bill Ochs book, which is still fairly beginning ( I'm a "beginner in the middle" you might say). I not only want to start playing some fairly simple Irish tunes which I will be able to handle now, but also want to have more tunes to practice the various forms of ornamentation which appear later in the book. I may be revealing my novice-ness, though, and it may be that most whistle books take this approach.

It may also be that I should just press on, and keep using his book to learn from. I am certain that I want to focus on traditional Irish music, though, and so am less interested in learning other tunes that aren't Irish. Just call me narrow-minded!

Baen

[cowtime]

I certainly understand the desire to skip to the tunes you really want to learn. I see no problem with that if you are reading the music easily(note recoginition is automatic with no thought needed). Just skip to the tunes you want to learn. That's the beauty of music outside of a structure- you play what you like. BUT, if you are not reading the music automatically, you should discipline yourself to wade through the lessons so your music reading skill will develop.

All of the above is based on the idea that you actually want to learn to read music and be able to "sight read " a tune.

If you just want to be able to play, have no real desire to read music, and can learn by ear, then go for it. You will really have a handle on a tune that is learned by ear that you will not have by just playing off a sheet of music.

The book and style I mentioned eariler is very spare when it comes to ornamentation. That is one of it's endearing qualities to me. Although I love ornamentation, it revealed to me how wonderful sparce but skillfully placed ornamentation can be. The style is really intresting.

You really should go to the webpage and listen to a few examples.

[Baen]

Many thanks, cowtime, for the insightful comments. It started me thinking about whether I really want to learn to read music, or just want to play it? I'll have to mull that over. I suppose each has something to recommend it. I will keep that in mind, though, to make sure that I'm not just wanting to skip over what I should be learning. At this point it's probably a good idea to combine both a basic ability to both read music and learn by ear. Indeed, I had to use that technique with a couple of parts of "Drummond Castle" that I was having trouble with. Using both got me through.

In terms of ornamentation, I will have to check out the website you mentioned. Even from my beginning level, at times I feel that some pieces that I've heard seem to overuse ornamentation, and by doing so tend to clutter the tune so that nothing really sticks out. Of course, it all depends on the style one likes. It makes for interesting comparisions between two players performing the exact same piece, though, with one being very memorable and the other being just another tune.