CDs for newcomers

artguy · Post by **artguy** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 12:27 am

Well, a relatively new newcomer/beginner. (Got my first whistles sometime in the middle of Nov. 2002.) I'm looking to buy some CDs to listen to and attempt to learn a tune or 2 from.

I'm buying at least one of Mary Bergin's and a Joanie Madden but not sure which one yet. They seemed like pretty much the obvious choices. But does someone know another route I should take? I've also been considering the book of tunes by L.E. McCullough as well. I've read about making sure to listen to good traditional players right of the bat to help with learning the different timings, how the ornamentation sounds, etc. and would like to know which road to take according to all of your professional opinions.

I've tried to search the forum for a thread about this assuming someone MUST have asked this question, but I gave up. Perhaps too soon. If you know a thread, please point me in the right direction so as not to waste your time answering something that has been talked to death before.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Bob

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:36 am

Stay away from Mary Bergin until you've been playing for many years. She'll just depress you. McCullough is good, and Dossan of Heather is good, as well. One of my faves to listen to for inspiration is one I just aquired a couple of months ago. If memory serves, it's called Totally Tinwhistles. I think you'll have to order is from www.thelivingtradition.com or Custy's Music or the Knotted Chord. These are all Irish sites.

michael_coleman · Post by **michael_coleman** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 2:42 am

I'd go with Bothy Band 1975 or Planxty's black album, easy to listen to and some great tunes. I'd also go with Flook's Rubai, I haven't bought it, but I've heard all the tracks and seen many videos, they are amazing.

burnsbyrne · Post by **burnsbyrne** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 7:35 am

I would recommend that you not limit your listening to whistle players. One of the nice aspects of the whistle (for me anyway) is how it blends with other instruments. In addition, the whistle represents only a part of the Irish musical tradition. IMO it's important to learn the whole tradition while you are learning the mechanics of playing the whistle. It will make you a better whistle player in the end.
Mike

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 8:26 am

Check out the tune transcrptions in the Irish Traditional Music Forum (on this board). You can listen to master players there for free and read along on a transcriptions.

When you buy CDs, it's not so important to get great whistle players, I think. It's more important to get good music, and preferably solo or duet performances. If you are serious about the music you'll regard listening as part of practicing.

artguy · Post by **artguy** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 8:48 am

blackhawk wrote:Stay away from Mary Bergin until you've been playing for many years. She'll just depress you. McCullough is good, and Dossan of Heather is good, as well.

I've been listening to a couple of items from Mary and just enjoy the sound and kind of view that as a goal. Yeah, I'm very seriously considering McCullough as one of my purchases.

blackhawk wrote:One of my faves to listen to for inspiration is one I just aquired a couple of months ago. If memory serves, it's called Totally Tinwhistles. I think you'll have to order is from www.thelivingtradition.com or Custy's Music or the Knotted Chord. These are all Irish sites.

I just checked out thelivingtradition.com. That's a cool site! I'll give the others a go as well.

michael_coleman wrote:I'd also go with Flook's Rubai, I haven't bought it, but I've heard all the tracks and seen many videos, they are amazing.

I've heard several of their tracks as well. They don't seem traditional but, man they can play! I'll be getting their 2 albums down the road.

burnsbyrne wrote:I would recommend that you not limit your listening to whistle players. One of the nice aspects of the whistle (for me anyway) is how it blends with other instruments. In addition, the whistle represents only a part of the Irish musical tradition. IMO it's important to learn the whole tradition while you are learning the mechanics of playing the whistle. It will make you a better whistle player in the end.

I think I've got that part somewhat covered. I've been listening to the Chieftains pretty much nonstop since Dec. 2002 getting my irish groove on. I throw in some Gaelic Storm when I'm not feeling quite so "traditional." I also listen to Altan, an occasional Irish Rover or Dubliner, some Loreena McKennitt (even though she doesn't really use a lot of traditional instruments, I still like her stuff once in a while). I do love the "blends" of all the different instruments. I just need a whistlin' album or 2 to learn from as well.

bloomfield wrote:Check out the tune transcrptions in the Irish Traditional Music Forum (on this board). You can listen to master players there for free and read along on a transcriptions.

I wasn't aware of being able to listen to master players for free. I'll be right in there checking that out. If listening is part of practicing, I should be cranking out new tunes anyday now! I'm definitely hooked on Irish music and listen to it everyday at work and in the evenings at home to help me chill out a bit.

Bob

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 8:58 am

The transcriptions are here:

http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/b ... netoc.html

artguy · Post by **artguy** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 9:06 am

Boy, do I love the Brother Steve site! That site has been helping me enormously! (Thank you, Brother Steve and everyone else involved over there!) Now that you mention it, I did run across those transcriptions when I was there the first time but had forgotten about them. Thank you for reminding me.

dlambert · Post by **dlambert** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 9:08 am

I would recommend the following:

Mike & Mary Rafferty
The Road to Ballinakill
The Old Fireside Music
The Dangerous Reel
Mary Rafferty
Hand Me Downs
Mick O'Brien
May Morning Dew
Tommy Keane
The Pipers Apron http://www.iol.ie/~marmusic/
The Wind Among The Reeds
The McCarthy Family
The Family Album
Murphy Roche Irish Music Club
One (available from the Whistle Shop)
Gavin Whelan
Irish Traditional Music
Paddy Maloney & Sean Potts
Tin Whistles
John Skelton - you will have to email him. I can email you his address
A Few Tunes

I have learned many tunes from these CDs. I have found since I've recently been attending a local session that its the best way to pick up tunes. Find a session and learn their tunes.

artguy · Post by **artguy** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 10:50 am

dlambert wrote:I would recommend the following:

Paddy Maloney & Sean Potts
Tin Whistles

Hey! I've got that one! Those guys sure can wail on those whistles!

dlambert wrote:I have found since I've recently been attending a local session that its the best way to pick up tunes. Find a session and learn their tunes.

I don't think anyone in Jersey Shore, PA knows what Irish music even is, let alone having a session. Wish I lived near a big city.

Thanks for the recommendations.

kevin m. · Post by **kevin m.** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:26 pm

Anything by Micho Russell-'Ireland's whistling ambassador' is available as a c.d .album,plus there is a VIDEO by the same title,but with a different tune selection available via the' Penny whistlers press' website-see 'chifflinks'.The album has a good biography of the man.You can hear some of Micho's playing on the transcriptions page of brother Steve's site.A most remarkable player,and a lovely character,by all accounts that I've read.

artguy · Post by **artguy** » Tue Mar 25, 2003 8:46 pm

kevin m. wrote:You can hear some of Micho's playing on the transcriptions page of brother Steve's site.

I ran right over to the transcriptions listened to Micho. That is some real nice stuff. I also enjoyed listening to him talk at the beginning of each tune. Thanks for the heads up. i'm going to look into his CDs as well.

scottadm · Post by **scottadm** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 4:35 pm

The Clarke Tinwhistle Book/CD set is great for beginners. It is the one I started with. The downside is that there aren't many session tunes in it. LE McCullough's book is great too. The tunes are a bit more difficult but it sticks with trad tunes. It also comes with a CD so you can learn tunes off of the CD and use the book as a cheat sheet when you get stuck. I have both a Jonnie Madden CD and a Mary Bergin CD and I would recommend you got with Bergin. Joannie Madden gets funky with her arrangements and technique and although the CD is very cool, it is difficult to learn tunes from it. A word of warning about Mary Bergin, she plays so fast you'll get an aneurism trying to follow her. I would STRONGLY recommend getting a program that can slow down CD tracks. I use the Amazing Slow Downer from Ronnimusic.com. It will slow down to 1/5 speed on the fly. It will also adjust pitch which can be handy, particularly since I have found that Bergin tends to play on an E whistle rather than D or C. When it is slowed down, Bergin is actually pretty easy to learn from as her technique is extremely crisp and clear.

Here are some others that I have that I like:
Matt Malloy - He is to flute what Mary Bergin is to whistle. Insanely fast yet very crisp and clean.
"Music at Matt Malloy's" - Great CD with a lot of session tunes. It is basically a live pub session that was recorded.
Bothy Band - Great whistling from Matt Malloy and Paddy Keegan. Pretty fast, high energy playing. You'll find quite a few session tunes on any of their CDs
Altan - Frankie Kennedy plays a pretty mean flute and whistle on their early stuff. You will find little if any whistle playing on their latter CDs as they never picked up another wind player after Kennedy's death.

I throw flute players in with whistle players as the playing style and ornamentation is very similar for both instruments. Other instruments are good to listen to as well, though it is harder to pick up tunes as the ornamentation and styling that is common for one instrument may be very difficult on a whistle. It is worth it to get your ear used to picking out note from different instruments, which will be invaluable if you are ever playing in a session environment.

TonyHiggins · Post by **TonyHiggins** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 6:40 pm

If you're a newcomer to Irish music and want to learn to play it, my suggestions are:
Laurence Nugent: Windy Gap flute/whistle player
Martin Hayes: Under the Moon (and his other solo studio cd's) fiddler, plays slowly w/ fantastic grace.
Chieftains #1 through 9
Planxty: Cold Blow and the Rainy Night
Bothy Band
Gentle Breeze: compilation by Green Linnet publisher. flute/whistle

These cd's are readily available within the US, often at discount prices used through half.com or amazon.com. I wouldn't start out with recordings where the players dazzle you with ultra speed. These guys don't and they sound great. (Bothy Band can get fast at times.)
Tony

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Thu Mar 27, 2003 8:58 pm

I strongly suggest "Ireland's Best Session Tunes" collection, 2 CDs, about 100 tunes, mostly reels and jigs. The same exist for whistle, "Best Whistle Tunes". You can buy that stuff from the whistleshop, and it's nicely played, very traditionnal and session-like, compared to other stuff suggested in this thread.

Another great CD is the one from Geraldine Cotter. There's about 100 whistle tunes, and she's got an amazing style. It's been recorded from a tape in the 70ies I think, and the tunes are kinda out of tune, so you'd need a tunable whistle to play along.

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