Tin Whistle Tutorials/Books

mcurtiss · Post by **mcurtiss** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:18 pm

if a lot of the basics are to be found on the intertoobs (which it is), would people recommend the Larson book as a sort of next step over the Ochs book?

plunk111 · Post by **plunk111** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 12:59 pm

I second the vote for Grey Larsen's book - it also comes with sound tracks for all his demos. Invaluable!

Pat

kintailpipes · Post by **kintailpipes** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:17 pm

Cathal McConnell Teaches Irish Pennywhistle from Homespun Tapes is very good for starters and there is another follow up book from Cathal called Irish Pennywhistle also from Homespun Tapes.
I hope this helps.

Both books come with instructional CD's

Tikva · Post by **Tikva** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:32 pm

Oh, I completely forgot: A CD to go with the notes would be great!

While they could teach me reading notes, I never grasped the concept of counting them.

I can recognize rhythms allright, I just cannot keep one for saving my life.

mcurtiss · Post by **mcurtiss** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:51 pm

Tikva wrote:Oh, I completely forgot: A CD to go with the notes would be great!

While they could teach me reading notes, I never grasped the concept of counting them.

I can recognize rhythms allright, I just cannot keep one for saving my life.

the ochs and larsen books both have CDs from what i can tell.

I'm with you: I need to hear tunes in order to learn them. Learning from tabs or sheet music has never worked for me.

Tikva · Post by **Tikva** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:59 pm

mcurtiss wrote:the ochs and larsen books both have CDs from what i can tell.

Do you mean the "Mel Bay The essential Tin Whistle Toolbox with CD" or do you talk about "Mel Bay Essential Guide to irish Flute and Tin Whistle"?

mcurtiss · Post by **mcurtiss** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 2:05 pm

Tikva wrote:
mcurtiss wrote:the ochs and larsen books both have CDs from what i can tell.
Do you mean the "Mel Bay The essential Tin Whistle Toolbox with CD" or do you talk about "Mel Bay Essential Guide to irish Flute and Tin Whistle"?

the second one. According to amazon, it comes with 2 cds. That's the one I'm looking at, though I wonder if someone could compare the two you've listed.

Tikva · Post by **Tikva** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 2:30 pm

Oh you know, I'm getting frustrated. The thing I wrote about my location proves more and more true.

I just can't lay my hands on these books. Amazon.com has them all, in my country they are just not available. Add taxes and duty fees and the prices rocket to the sky.

I found a third book I'm interested in (unfortunately not available either). It's called "Mel Bay's Complete Irish TW book" by Mizzy McCaskill. There's a version with CD.

I'm wondering whether a CD with tin whistle only would be better than one with other instruments accompanying it.

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 3:59 pm

I'd vote for the Ochs book for its explanations of basic technique.

I'd also recommend the Cotter one that Peter mentioned for its examples of tunes on the CD. The book comes with one CD (or the edition I bought did), but there is an additional CD available with more tunes. If one gets the whole bunch it is a really substantial package.

Tikva · Post by **Tikva** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:17 am

Hey, now I do have a problem.

I just can't decide wether to go for Ochs or for Larsen. Then again, I should be happy that I did find a shop in my country that's actually got them.

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 6:03 am

If you can afford them, buy both.
Start with the Ochs for the lessons, but do some browsing in the Larsen too. Once you start to get a feel for the instrument and know some tunes pretty solidly, try applying some of Larsen's ideas and ornamentation to the tunes in the Ochs book. The two books make a terrific combination.

Tikva · Post by **Tikva** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 6:48 am

I'm just going maaaaad...

The thing I wrote about my "location" proves more and more true.
Neither the Ochs nor the Larsen book are readily available. If it were only for a few weeks, I would not complain. It just seems that all book stores in my country (online or real-life) conspired to claim the publishers were not able to deliver.

Hell-O! How come they don't have these problems in any of the anglophone countries?!

I've just calculated the prices when ordering them abroad. Turns out I don't have that much cash.

Seems I'll have to annoy my regular book supplier until he'll order a single copy of either Ochs' or Larsen's.

MoonMind · Post by **MoonMind** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:23 pm

Tikva

tinwistle.de offers Ochs' book as well as the Workhop books by Andreas Joseph (in German) for a, let's say, affordable price. Neither of the books is exactly cheap (in fact, the prices are pretty high), but at least they're available, and the Workshop books (I&II) fit your (enhanced) description pretty neatly, too.

I'll be getting the lot for christmas...

M.

Craig Stuntz · Post by **Craig Stuntz** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:43 am

Tikva wrote:I found a third book I'm interested in (unfortunately not available either). It's called "Mel Bay's Complete Irish TW book" by Mizzy McCaskill. There's a version with CD.

I have a copy, and would even be willing to sell it to you for little more than the cost of postage, but I'll warn you: in my humble opinion, it's not a very good book. The CD is, frankly, terrible.

PM me if I haven't scared you away already.

-Craig

Tikva · Post by **Tikva** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 4:56 pm

Craig Stuntz wrote:
Tikva wrote:I found a third book I'm interested in (unfortunately not available either). It's called "Mel Bay's Complete Irish TW book" by Mizzy McCaskill. There's a version with CD.
I have a copy, and would even be willing to sell it to you for little more than the cost of postage, but I'll warn you: in my humble opinion, it's not a very good book. The CD is, frankly, terrible.

PM me if I haven't scared you away already.

-Craig

Thanks for the offer Craig. Frankly, you've scared me... Uhm, what would be a good book in your oppinion? CD is absolutely necessary. While I know how to read sheet music, I keep the rhythm more by ear than anything else.