Whistle Clarke

One of the best introductions to established music ever written…a best-seller in it is field… — Don Meade, The Irish Voice, June 13, 2001

Very user-friendly…a instructing method that works well for students of all ages. — Dave Soyars, Dirty Linen, Dec. ’01/Jan. ’02

About the AuthorAuthor/musician Bill Ochs has been called “a central figure in the renaissance of the tin whistle” by National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and “the leading tin whistle teacher in North America” by The Irish Voice. He has devoted over thirty years to playing and instructing the instrument. Performing credits include playing and arranging the music for the Broadway production of O’Neill’s A Touch of the Poet, as well as touring the U.S. in the NEA-sponsored program The Best in Irish Music and Dance in America.

Whistle Clarke

The lessons are so clear and easy to follow that a finish beginner may learn to play a simple tune at initial sitting. Then through a peculiarly chosen series of folk tunes, beginners are cautiously guided through all the fundamentals of playing one step at a time. Intermediate and progressed players will take delight in exploring this book’s stimulating collection of established music. There are 83 pieces in all – gigs, reels, hornpipes, fife tunes, slow airs, Highland flings, morris dances and lots more. Each piece is played on the CD by famous New York tin whistle teacher, Bill Ochs. An progressed ornamentation tutorial is likewise included with key of D CD.

Well, time for the firstborn actual post. The appetizer’s finished, so let’s move on to the meat. And today, that meat will take the form of a bit of history. Everyone likes history, right? Right…? If not, there’s still bound to be a great deal of popular Irish tin whistle data in there, and hopefully a few amusive digressions, so don’t let the “h” word scare you away.

The Irish tin whistle is fundamentally a simple system woodwind instrument that uses a fipple to give rise to sound. Without the jargon, that means you blow into it like a recorder and not like a flute to make sound, and there are only open holes along the body, rather of the imagination system of buttons and levers you find on more classical instruments. This has the practical effect of being very straightforward to play; the less fingers you have covering holes, the higher the note, you always lift your fingers off from the bottom to the top, and you blow harder to play higher. That’s in regards to it. (Thankfully. I tried picking up my old concert flute a few months ago, and felt like my grandparents must feel in front of a computer. “What does this button do?” “It’s making a bad noise, what’s defective with it?”)

These types of instruments have been in use longer than recorded history. Just with regards to each civilization made a great deal of version of them. They’ve found versions made by Neanderthals. Really, if the Irish cultural aspect of the tin whistle doesn’t appeal to you, but a good deal of other culture does, you may probably still start out playing a whistle for that reason anyway. Odds are they have an equivalent, and the Irish tin whistle will be for less than that equivalent if anyone’s retail one.

At any rate, the modern form of whistle we have today emerged from those roots in Manchester, England, when a man named Robert Clarke started out mass-producing his version of the whistle in the 1840s. This was fundamentally the model that the other progressed styles of the whistle descended from, and where the whistle picked up two of it is main names: the tin whistle, because they were normally made out of brass or tin, and the penny whistle, because they were so cheap to make that for the duration of the 19th century, you could buy one for the price of a British penny.

In the 1900s, plastics were produced and for the most part substituted the metal fipples that had been employed in the past (though of course you may still find a great deal of whistles with metal fipples these days). In the intervening period, the whistle became widespread in use and welcomed into folk music, exceptionally European and quintessentially Celtic folk music, where it found a place with regards to as mutual as the harmonica in American music. Today, a lot of musical groups still feature the Irish tin whistle, from traditionalisti bands, to ballad groups like the Dubliners, and even bands that play more innovative types of music with a Celtic twist, like Flogging Molly or the Dropkick Murphys.

Whistle Clarke Picture

Whistle Clarke Image

Whistle Clarke Image

Whistle Clarke Pic

Most helpful client reviews

41 of 43 persons found the following review helpful.
The Best Tin Whistle Tutorial
By The_Fifer
If you want to learn to play the tin whistle, or if you’ve begun to play and need a lot of direction, this set is by far the best available tin whistle tutorial on the market. Bill Ochs is a brilliant player and teacher. Buy this set, work through it, and then go to New York and take a lesson with Bill. You’ll find all the info you need at his web internetsite (look for the web address in the book).

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Great book for beginners
By Ola B. Humphries
Very clear instructions. This book is evidently designed by someone who enjoys instructing the tinwhistle. In addition to tinwhistle basics, there are clear explanations of the basi principles of reading music. The lessons are well structured. This book is a good guide to humans who want to learn the instrument on their own. It likewise has a good selection of tunes. Well worth the price.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent
By suesmini
The history of the Penny Whistle was interesting. It gives such exhaustive instructions on playing with some good songs to play to. Just listening to the CD is enjoyalbe. I commend this book. A person will get their money’s worth with this book and CD.

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