Overwhelmed by McCullough book

[Bartleby]

I just got the L.E. McCullough book and CD package "The Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tunebook" yesterday. I really like it, but I'm a little overwhelmed by the quantity (4 CDs) of tunes it contains. Being relatively new to IrTrad, I'm unfamiliar with most of the tunes. For those of you who have it, what are some of your favorite tunes from the book?

[arnie]

I don't have the book, I have a very old tutorial by L.E. McCullough. I'm also new to playing seriously. I've found someone who teaches me to play the basics well, that's I think much better than learning things from a book. Sean Cunningham has a free online tutorial with short films learning you how to play certain techniques.
The tunes I've learned so far and that aren't too difficult are The Sixpenny Bit (or Sixpenny Money), Morrison's Jig, The Humours Of Whiskey, an air called Southwind and my favorite so far Maid At The Spinning Wheel. I don't know if there's any of these in your book.

[scheky]

Honestly, it's a great set of tunes. You could do worse than starting at the beginning though.

If I recall, he starts with the Swallow's Tail. Great tune, not all that difficult and fun to play. From there, listen to the CDs and learn what appeals to you.

[Baglady]

Sean Cunningham has a free online tutorial with short films learning you how to play certain techniques.

Where?

[arnie]

I've been searching for the website for you and found what it. The name of the site is http://www.whistletutor.com/. The tutorial consists of a couple of lessons and you can download and save the movies. Good luck

[scheky]

Brother Steve is always a good stop..

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

[FJohnSharp]

My McCullough book has only 1 cd. I must have gotten an older version.

I really like the book, and I still work on some of the tunes in there, and try some of his ornamentations.

[dDave]

Howdy,

My McCullough book has only 1 cd. I must have gotten an older version.

There is a seperate tutorial and tune book. The tutorial has one CD. The tunebook has four.

Also a newbie great resource for learning tunes is www.whistlethis.com since you only have to focus on one tune at a time.

Best,

Dave

[Scott McCallister]

You really can't get too off course. Having the dots and the aural tune to listen to and play with is a great tool. Plus since they hard panned the melody and harmony, you can learn play with either part or against either part. Pretty slick.

My experience though is that even playing along with the record at the faster pace of each song is still pretty slow compare to most sessions in my area. Familiarity with the tunes will build the speed though.

Just dig in! Don't spent too much time on any one tune getting it just right. Build your skills as a player and develop your ear with the CDs so you can go to a session and pick up tunes quickly. You'll find after a bit that revisiting the tunes after hitting many other's will make initially difficult passages easier without any of the psychological hangups that can get in the way when starting out.

Also you could just listen to all the CDs and mark the book on which one's you like the sound of.

Scott

[FJohnSharp]

My McCullough book has only 1 cd. I must have gotten an older version.

I really like the book, and I still work on some of the tunes in there, and try some of his ornamentations.

ahhh. Thanks