These tutorials were all requested by WhistleTutor.com members. Please stop by the forum to post a request or hit 'contact' above to email me.
Down By The Sally Gardens
This tune was not specifically requested, but a request was made for a beginner type tutorial that bridges the gap from basic scales to actually playing a tune. You can hear and see this tune played twice -- once with just the melody notes, and then again with embellishments that you will learn in the other two sections, Intermediate and Advanced lessons. This is a great tune that at some point pretty much every whistle player learns, so we might as well jump in!
Multi-Embellishment from Donnybrook Fair
I had a request for a particular embellishment that I did in Donnybrook Fair, and thought it would be good to slow it down a bit and explain what I'm doing in that embellishment. As I mentioned in the forum, it's a bit difficult to explain by typing it out, so just check out the video and hopefully it'll make more sense. I'll see if I can write it out in notation too and post that here as well...
Finger Vibrato
I was asked about finger vibrato, which is something that probably should've gone in the advanced section, but I forgot about it so I'm glad this request came up. Vibrato is typically used in slower tunes -- airs and waltzes, etc. -- but can be used to effect in faster tunes too. The general rule of thumb is to play the vibrato on the open hole that's 2 holes below the melody note. For example: on F#, the vibrato would be played on the D hole. Now, it depends on the whistle as fas as which hole(s) are best. Try it out the way I mentioned here, and then see if there's a better way for your whistle.
- Complete Lesson - Finger Vibrato (11 MB)
The Water Is Wide
This is a great traditional song that was requested in the forum. I've had several requests for more slower tunes, so I figured this is a good one for folks to learn. I played the tune twice in the tutorial -- the first time is more straight without much embellishment, and the second is more a long the lines of how you'd hear the tune played on a recording.
- Complete Lesson - The Water Is Wide (8.2 MB)
Old Hag You Have Killed Me
A good session tune, Old Hag is a 2 part D modal jig that I got a request for via email. This is a good one to learn because it's very common at many sessions. I don't have the music for this one but when I get a hold of it I'll post it.
Toss The Feathers
This is another common session tune -- a great reel in D. The way I play this tune, it has a lot of crans and triplets, so if you're looking for a good tune to practice those embellishments on, this would be a nice one to pick up.
Whistle Keys
I wanted to create this tutorial because I have received several questions by email and in the forum about the various keys of whistles and how they relate to the tunes themselves. Hopefully this lesson will help clear things up. I play a tune, "The Walls of Liscarroll" on a D whistle in the tune's natural key, D minor. Then, by switching whistles to a C whistle and playing the tune with the exact same fingering, you can hear the tune but now in C minor. In final part of the tutorial, you can hear the tune played on the C whistle but with a different fingering which gets the tune back to the key of D minor. I did this as an example -- this is not commonly done in sessions, but I wanted to demonstrate the different tone and embellishment options that you can get by fingering the tune differently on a non-standard whistle key, while still playing the tune in the same key as it is normally played.
- Complete Lessone - Whistle Keys (11 MB)
