Tin Whistle - A Complete Guide to Playing Irish Traditional Music on the Whistle

Coming to the Irish tin whistle from a saxophone background, I didn’t expect to rethink something as fundamental as articulation but this guide made that happen almost immediately. Within the first few pages, it clearly and effectively reshaped how I approach tonguing and accents. As a sax player, I’m used to relying heavily on tonguing to separate notes, but this book introduces a more nuanced approach that feels far more natural to traditional Irish playing. The explanations are concise yet insightful, and they helped me let go of habits that don’t quite translate to the whistle. What I especially appreciate is how quickly the book gets to the heart of musicality. Rather than overloading the reader with theory, it focuses on practical techniques that noticeably improve phrasing and flow. It opened my ears to the importance of subtle articulation and ornamentation in shaping the character of a tune. Overall, this is an excellent resource for anyone transitioning from another wind instrument, particularly those who may be carrying over habits that don’t serve the style. It’s clear, approachable, and genuinely helpful from the very beginning.

This book is excellent - the most thorough and detailed self-tutor I have seen for tin whistle. In the first part, the author focuses on teaching all of the notes, working on breathing and rhythm, and lots of simple but lovely songs and slow airs to practice fundamentals with. Only after you are comfortable with these basics do you move on to the next section, which has a thorough introduction to the structure of traditional dance music (jigs, reels, hornpipes), with special attention to patterns and rhythms, as well as more breathing work. And only after mastering this do you move on to ornamentation, again introduced in a graded fashion, with lots of tunes to practice with. I especially love that there is downloadable audio with literally every single tune and practice exercise for you to listen to, as well as tablature for each and every tune. I can't read music well, and this has always been a barrier to learning from books. This author encourages you to learn the traditional way - by ear. Musical notation is included as well for those who want it, but for those who do not, you can just listen and learn.

This book has been so helpful to me the past year that I came back to this listing to look up more books by this author. I saw a lot of people are marking it down a few stars for not being able to find the audio files. If you look at the image I included with my review, the information you need is at the bottom of that page. (I covered the directions with post-it notes to protect the instructions from being shared willy-nilly). This is one of the first pages of the book and should be easy to locate. Downloading the audio is a smooth process and the files are even organized by section. I recommend this from one beginner to another. I felt it did a great job explaining things and illustrating via samples of the songs. The 400 Irish Tunes book has been a fun complement to this one, as well.

Review also applies to Ducke's _Irish Music: 400 Traditional Tunes_ book (prch'ed together). Both these books are fantastic learning aids for playing the Irish whistle. The sections on ornamentation are some of the best I've ever seen on this topic. Even better are the audio downloads: simply outstanding. Great practical advice given throughout the book too on performance & general musicianship as well. I wish I had a book like this when first beginning my musical career many years ago.

Easy layout, great format. Would be very nice if book pages were set on spiral binder instead of solid spine.

I was reluctant to get this book due to the high price, but I can honestly say it’s an excellent book for learning the whistle. It has hundreds of songs and teaches the basics. Haven’t got a chance to get through all of it yet, but it’s good so far! Just buy it, it’s worth the money!

I have tried and failed to learn the Irish tinwhistle before. I recently started again with YouTube videos and this book, and I'm loving it. I realized the problem before was WAY too many boring American folk songs, not nearly enough IRISH songs! This book goes into great depth about not just the instrument, but all aspects of Irish music and Irish tinwhistle style, including very detailed discussions of ornamentation. I don't feel like I'm doing another Suzuki method, but rather that I get to jump into playing real Irish tinwhistle right away. (Disclosure: I used to play recorder so I already have some of the very basic skills, but I can still say that the instruction on those basics is also excellent.) The author really, really wants you to play and enjoy Irish traditional music!

This book (a bit expensive) is worth every penny. Yes, we all know the forms: jig, reels, hornpipes but who of us know the nuances of ornamentation and phrasing that make the tune sing? This book has an excellent downloadable MP3 file made by the author to show you exactly how it can sound. A MUST for authentic Irish Whistle (and flute) style.

Tolles Lehrbuch für die Whistle

Purchased a Low D whistle and used this book as a start to learning. Was well organised and took me through the steps I needed to learn.

This is a good course for learning the tin whistle. I have had to unlearn some bad habits, which would not have happened, had I learnt proper technique, that are taught in this book.

Ideal para los que quieren aprender a tocar la flauta irlandesa desde cero.

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