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The world's largest group whistle lesson. Hear a tune -- get the music. Learn the tune -- make it your own. Share the tune -- upload your recording.
Every two weeks a new traditional tune is posted: sheet music, whistle notation and a sample clip if it's available. You grab the music and take the two weeks to learn the tune and make it your own; then, record the tune on your PC and upload it to WhistleThis.com for others to hear!
We're currently learning The Sailor's Wife -- join us and contribute your style!
"What's the purpose of this concept of pure genius," you may ask -- well, if you think about it, the reasons are beneficial to any level of player. To the beginner, it offers exposure to trad tunes they they mightn't have otherwise hear. For the intermediate player, you'll be able to get the critique of fellow feadóggers to improve your skill. For the session regulars, you'll be able to hear where others place ornaments and interpret the tune... It's fun for the whole family!
To get started, register an account then head over to our current tune to get the music or upload your recording!
Greetings, folks! Just a quick notice that I've updated the Whistle University videos with Week 9 of Ryan's Irish Whistle course, as well as his video on breathing. Also, in an attempt to be as consistant as possible with how he's identifying his courses, I've indicated what weeks (or if it's a supplemental video) on the links as well. Enjoy and thank you Ryan!
If you've perused YouTube at all for whistle music, you've no doubt come across the videos of Ryan Duns and some of his effortless whistle playing. Well, after being contacted by Ryan with some great ideas, we've decided to join forces in an attempt to give a broader platform for beginners with the videos that Ryan has created for his Tin Whistle class at Forham University. It is our hope that this will make WhistleThis a better resource for whistle players of all levels of playing ability and that this will further spread our love for the instrument and Irish traditional music.
I've replaced the old 'Tutorials' second on the left hand menu with pages that contain Ryan's video tutorials -- if you're at all interested, please hop on over and watch through them. As the semester progresses and Ryan produces more videos, we'll add those as well. If you have any comments or feedback, feel free to leave a message on the forums!
So, having caught up with the new tune and the holday/New Year mess, I've gotten back to working on the site a bit -- I had three whistles in my queue to review and I'm still waiting on one other to arrive. A while back, David O'Brien had sent me another whistle -- a three-piece Osage Orange Wood whistle. An absolutely delightful instrument to play and probably one of the cheapest hardwood whistles you'll find of this quality.
You can read the review here.
Greetings, folks!
In an effort to make the site a little more friendly and interactive, I took a couple of hours this morning and implemented critique subscriptions. Here's how it works:
Hope these make the site a little more fun and easier for you to track comments through critiques.
Today, I've updated the site to include a Flash-based MP3 player so, when you click on a tune page, the MP3 should begin playing for you automatically, whereas in the past, you needed to download the MP3 and play it with an MP3 player. This was done as a measure of convenience and in an attempt to eliminate any codec issues which a small minority of you were experience. If you prefered downloading the tune, there's still a link on the new flashplayer to download the tune to your PC. Please try it out, then take the poll on the messageboards and let me know if you like the change!
Just as an FYI, I've revied Paul Busman's Tulipwood high whistle in D -- aside from being one of the prettier whistles I've ever seen, it has a great tone along with some interesting playing characteristics. For the full review and picture, check out the High Whistle page. As an aside, I do plan on redoing the reviw pages sometime in the future to be a little more organized. Enjoy!
We're fast approaching our one month anniversary! And, so, I move us along to our third tune. :)
Part of why I'm doing this is to get folks learning new music so that they might be able to step into a session one day and be able to sit down and start playing or, at least, recognize a lot of the tunes. In order to do that, we need to learn a large variety of interpretations (which we're doing a great job of here!) and a good variety of tunes. We've learned a reel and a jig, so I've picked one of my favorite Aire's. I've posted a nice backstory to it on its tune page, because I also think it's great when you can talk to people about the history of a song you're playing -- in any case, enjoy Si Bheag, Si Mhor.
In addition, I should be recieving a Busman whistle and a narrow bore brass O'Brien whistle to review -- thanks to both of these makers for allowing me the opportunity to provide you with my thoughts on their instruments.
I got my birthday gift -- a Tony Dixon Polymer in D... You can read my review on the High Whistles page!
Our first changing of the tune!
Our new tune is a fun little jig called "Calliope House" -- it plays around a common melody with similar fingers throughout the song. I'm hoping it'll be a bit of an easier tune for people to learn, so grab the music and sample MP3 and get learning!
I'm in the process of preparing the music and recordings for our next tune and I'll be switching over to that this coming Monday (May 29th). I still haven't had a chance to pick up ABC notation, so anyone willing to convert them over for the convenience would be appreciated. Along those same lines, I'll be starting some of the tutorial content in the near future and if anyone would like to contribute content, thoughts, audio, video or diagrams, also feel free.
Seeing how well we've taken off, I'll be actively seeking whistle manufacturers for review models of their whistles to add to our review section. So far, all of the whistles I've reviewed I personally own, but that would be quite expensive to provide a large number of reviews without the help of their makers. As an aside, Sunday is my birthday and I happen to know that the Birthday Fairy (aka the wife) will be dropping off a Dixon polymer in D, so a review for that will most likely be coming next week.
Greetings, folks!
I wanted to note that I recived my Sweetheart African Blackwood Pro in D and, after playing with it a bit, I threw up a review under our High Whistles section. Also reviewed are Burke's Brass Pro Sessioner in D and a Brass Generation in D -- be sure to check out our review of Burke's Aluminum Low D Viper and the Howard Low D in our Low Whistles section.
