howdy folks. 8 months ago or so, I came on here asking for help in how to get started in playing my new tin whistle. You guys were extremily helpful and gave me all kinds of links which are the reasons I've been able to get anywheres with it.
I'm still looking for a teacher where I live, due to circumstances though, it's somewhat difficult as I don't have means of transportation which means they'd have to come to me. Therefore, I decided last night that I should do a couple recordings and put them on youtube, so that people who actually know what they're doing can provide constructive critisism which is about as close to me getting a teacher as I think I'm gonna get.
the recordings are a little staticy, and I can't seem to get rid of that regardless of whether my mic is a few inches away or a few feet.
the first two recordings are Foggy Dew, and Chanter's Tune, the third is Give me your Hand, which I learned right here on the session. I added it as a reply to Tin Whistler's version of the same song, so that it could be compared to someone who actually knows what they're doing with it. I listen to that guy intently hoping that I'll learn something by watching him.
anyways, here are the recordings, go ahead and pick em apart , I know they don't do the instrument or the songs any justice, but any feedback would help me to get better, if any of you are willing to leave any, I'll try and add the jigs I can sorta play later. (I'm kinda scared to as ya all might want to come to my house and confiscate my whistle. =P )
Hi Llamanator,
I'm very new to this site, but to me you sound wonderful after only 8 months. I admire your courage to play in front of God and everybody like this. I say keep on playing and listening, because 'wonderful' can only get better at this point.
The Chieftains have a great version of Give Me Your Hand, btw.
I listened to the Chanters Tune and have the following comments. Your rhthym is a bit off and you speed up towards the end of the tune, both are very common problems. Not reason to feel bad just reason to work on fixing it. You use a lot of tongueing I suggest useing as it will be easier to play the faster tunes with out your tongue getting in the way. Otherwise you are off to a good start and should keep listening and playing.
very good! i wish i had played that well at 8 years, never mind 8 months....
the only advice i can give you is the canonical "listen, listen, listen!" if you couldnt tell, it means listen whenever you can, and then listen a bit more, and then maybe a bit while you're in the car or falling asleep or doing your homework or surfing the web or walking to school or waiting in line at the store. just try to be respectful of your family and friends (although my car rule is if you dont like noel hill get out) and especially service people... i cant think of anything more annoying than talking to customers with ipods; i always take my buds out when i talk to anyone, anywhere, even if its just a passing comment.
try and learn your tunes by ear if you've been learning them off sheet music.
the idea is to get tunes stuck in your head, so many that you have trouble remembering where they came from. its not enough to sit there and analyze the music, you have to have tunes bouncing around like annoying tv jingles.
if you're having trouble playing tunes by ear, try out some non irish ones, WITHOUT listening to them. that means work on pop tunes or christmas tunes or tv jingles that you have deep in your memory. this helps you figure out how to put your fingers to the notesyou hear in your head, rather than just being able to put your fingers to the sounds you hear from your cd player.
good luck... i hope we hear from you as time goes on!
also ya might want to compare my saddle the pony with the version on brother steve's tin whistle page. I just can't seem to get it like his even after listening to it for hours.
I don't even try to learn new songs any more I just want to perfect the ones that I know so that they're tolerable by those who really know what they're doing. I guess it'd be okay if I'm learning for the sake of novelty, but it's something that's important to me, and after 8 months of practicing as hard as I do, the particular songs i play aren't at acceptable levels to me yet. Thus, it's dawned upon me that there is a flaw in how I'm practicing, and thus my hope is that guys like the Tin Whistler from youtube will kinda point out specific things and help me to work on em. Just like Unseen 122 did with chanters tune.
after all, practice doesn't make perfect, only perfect practice, makes perfect.
it'd even be cooler if this thread, or just someone viewing them on Youtube, would eventually lead to someone willing to have a video conversation with me, almost like a virtual session, so that he can point stuff out as I'm playing and then show examples. as I learn better that way. Of course, till that happens, or if it never does, I'm very content with fellas just pointing out stuff so that I can try to work on it on my own =)
yeah youtube is a great source of music. I've got asperger's syndrome, am on SSI for it, I practice hours a day, and I obsess about the music, which is common for anyone passionate about his music much less someone with obsessive tendencies.
That guy Tin Whistler is simply amazing, and of course listening to some of the more classic bands and all, like the wolfetones doing the foggy dew. You can truely feel the emotion and power in the song. When they play that music, and sing it, it's not just another pretty song to them, they believe in what they're singing, it has significance to them, and to me is something I try to emulate.
what about Give me your hand? Was the ornamentation okay? Tin Whistler did an amazing slow version that made me cry, mine was a bit faster, as that's how I've heard it played.
I'd like to keep the focus of this thead more on pointing out the flaws and giving suggestions to improve the songs I've shown.
That's the great thing about video, is that you can also see my face and my breathing and my fingering and everything yer not just listening to it, you can see my mistakes, which makes it easyer to help explain ways for me to improve.
I know it's nobody's job to help me, but I really want to get better.
On Give Me your hand I would say pretty mych the same thing. IMO, your version sounds to me a little bit choppy. You need to relax a bit, it just sounds a bit forced.
BTW, talk my advice with a grain of salt. In the end we will all always be noobs.
that's a scary thought. If I thought I'd never reach a skill level comparable to the Tin Whistler, I'd give up playing all together. My playing as it is drives me insane, and I recognise and understand that I'm just a beginner and can't expect that kind of playing from myself but it still manages to irk me. Mediocre isn't acceptable. I just need to get better. And that's the bottom line.
And you will Llam. I just listened to Saddle the pony and it's obvious you've got a good feeling for the music. You've come a long way in a very short time. With your drive to improve and persistance you will continue to make rapid progress. Have you played other instruments before?
While it's good to keep pracising the tunes you know, don't keep going over the same ones too much or you'll end up hating them. Learning new tunes gives your mind/breath/fingers new vocabulary that will constantly broaden and improve your playing. When you go back to the earlier tunes with better skills you'll find you can play them better ( after a bit of refamiliarising).
thank you =) then I won't hold off from learning the swallow tail jig or king of fairies any longer. I've been wanting to learn those for a while but failed to see a reason to do so till I was able to perform the songs I already was learning on to my liking.
How was the shaping of the three notes in Saddle the Pony? were they shaped adequetly or could I do a better job and if so, what are your suggestions?
all this stuff is new to me, as far as shaping notes, and notes in general, this is my only instrument I've played, and one I've wanted to learn to play for years ever since my step dad brought home an irish music CD. Give me your hand specificaly, has been a song I've long wanted to learn to play. Anyways, back to the jig, I really want to get those things down, I don't want to play them badly like discribed on Brother Steve's page.
Also, how was The Foggy Dew? I know I didn't play but a single verse, but that's all that was needed I felt. I'm not very good at ornamenting my own tunes very well yet, that one has only my own ornamentation in it, more importantly though I try to represent the emotion of what the song was about. I tried to imagine the effects of 700 years of opression and occupation, bottled up and concentrated and then released all at once, and that was my biggest focus. Did I acomplish that? Could I have done it better? was my rythem okay, or are ya not sure cause it was so short? I could do a longer version.
I'm sorry, I'm hammering out too much stuff all at once. I''ll stop there, apply the feed back given and await further feed back before hammering out a bunch more stuff =)
Learn some marches, basically to get you into a steadier flow, to help establish a strong beat / pulse. If you aren't doing it already, and marches are good for this, use your feet to keep a steady (but quiet) beat going as you play... You've done well on your own. I hope you can find a teacher, there's nothing better, and one that understands your needs and aspirations...
tell me about it, I can only take so much before I'm gonna snap and just move to Ireland or Halifax, Canada or something.
how about things like the battle cry of freedom and the girl I left behind me? It's american civil war music, but definately marches =) I'll work on those a bit and make some recordings.
Foggy Dew was fine, when the tune means something to you it shows. You played a c# instead of a c nat in "..from the plains of royal Meath.." which doesn't fit. Rhythm still needs a bit of work as it's a kind of marching beat.
thanks! I didn't even realise that I was doing that with the "c"
and thanks for pointing out the rythem thing. see, all these 3/4 4/4 6/8 I know that the first correseponds to a waltz and the second to a polka and the third to a jig because thats the number they had on the sheet music when learning those songs. but other than that, I have no idea what it all means. I'm doing the best I can to try to match it audiably and not doing too good of a job at it.
I'll fix that c and step up the pace a bit on it and post a take 2.
all day today I've been working on trying to match my give me your hand with the Tin Whistler's version, kinda trying to copy and learn his ornamentation, it's nice that he's playing it so slow, I can note each ornamentation he does and try to emulate it, if poorly.
he doesn't just go to e and then d, he hitting f as well. and actualy, he's probabally not hitting those exact notes as that tin whistle is in a different key than mine, but corresponding to mine, e, d, and f are the notes in question. And I'm hammering at that right now, not yet close to making it sound like his though, will continue with just that same part of the song till I get it right or have to put it down
i think I might have gotten it, I think i was messing up before because i was using the d note first and trying to bring it all the way up to f and then down to e again, instead of just e to f to e to d.
if I'm wrong someone please point out how he did it so that I can go on to the next part of the song =D
new tin whistler, 8 months later
new tin whistler, 8 months later
howdy folks. 8 months ago or so, I came on here asking for help in how to get started in playing my new tin whistle. You guys were extremily helpful and gave me all kinds of links which are the reasons I've been able to get anywheres with it.
I'm still looking for a teacher where I live, due to circumstances though, it's somewhat difficult as I don't have means of transportation which means they'd have to come to me. Therefore, I decided last night that I should do a couple recordings and put them on youtube, so that people who actually know what they're doing can provide constructive critisism which is about as close to me getting a teacher as I think I'm gonna get.
the recordings are a little staticy, and I can't seem to get rid of that regardless of whether my mic is a few inches away or a few feet.
the first two recordings are Foggy Dew, and Chanter's Tune, the third is Give me your Hand, which I learned right here on the session. I added it as a reply to Tin Whistler's version of the same song, so that it could be compared to someone who actually knows what they're doing with it. I listen to that guy intently hoping that I'll learn something by watching him.
anyways, here are the recordings, go ahead and pick em apart , I know they don't do the instrument or the songs any justice, but any feedback would help me to get better, if any of you are willing to leave any, I'll try and add the jigs I can sorta play later. (I'm kinda scared to as ya all might want to come to my house and confiscate my whistle. =P )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvx0PAaIVJc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTsHSMpSmUc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_QjZIpXaX4
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by llamanator
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
Hi Llamanator,
I'm very new to this site, but to me you sound wonderful after only 8 months. I admire your courage to play in front of God and everybody like this. I say keep on playing and listening, because 'wonderful' can only get better at this point.
The Chieftains have a great version of Give Me Your Hand, btw.
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by morning star
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
I listened to the Chanters Tune and have the following comments. Your rhthym is a bit off and you speed up towards the end of the tune, both are very common problems. Not reason to feel bad just reason to work on fixing it. You use a lot of tongueing I suggest useing as it will be easier to play the faster tunes with out your tongue getting in the way. Otherwise you are off to a good start and should keep listening and playing.
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by Why Bother?
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
thank you very much for the input about Chanters Tune, give me a week or so and I'll post a "take 2" and hopefully that'll have improved.
and as I said I would, here are the two jigs, that well, I won't say that I can play them >.>
brace yourselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc9554xu-JA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CadXgTTMoE
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by llamanator
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
Umm, I hope I'm that good in 8 months!
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by ballyfingers
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
very good! i wish i had played that well at 8 years, never mind 8 months....
the only advice i can give you is the canonical "listen, listen, listen!" if you couldnt tell, it means listen whenever you can, and then listen a bit more, and then maybe a bit while you're in the car or falling asleep or doing your homework or surfing the web or walking to school or waiting in line at the store. just try to be respectful of your family and friends (although my car rule is if you dont like noel hill get out) and especially service people... i cant think of anything more annoying than talking to customers with ipods; i always take my buds out when i talk to anyone, anywhere, even if its just a passing comment.
try and learn your tunes by ear if you've been learning them off sheet music.
the idea is to get tunes stuck in your head, so many that you have trouble remembering where they came from. its not enough to sit there and analyze the music, you have to have tunes bouncing around like annoying tv jingles.
if you're having trouble playing tunes by ear, try out some non irish ones, WITHOUT listening to them. that means work on pop tunes or christmas tunes or tv jingles that you have deep in your memory. this helps you figure out how to put your fingers to the notesyou hear in your head, rather than just being able to put your fingers to the sounds you hear from your cd player.
good luck... i hope we hear from you as time goes on!
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by daiv
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
well, if ya think it's actually good, let me show ya a guy who's been doing this for six months and is already up to reels =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8V9Xoi7KCw&mode=related&search=
and of course, ultimately you want to be at least as good as this guy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGteinY_pZA&mode=related&search=
also ya might want to compare my saddle the pony with the version on brother steve's tin whistle page. I just can't seem to get it like his even after listening to it for hours.
I don't even try to learn new songs any more I just want to perfect the ones that I know so that they're tolerable by those who really know what they're doing. I guess it'd be okay if I'm learning for the sake of novelty, but it's something that's important to me, and after 8 months of practicing as hard as I do, the particular songs i play aren't at acceptable levels to me yet. Thus, it's dawned upon me that there is a flaw in how I'm practicing, and thus my hope is that guys like the Tin Whistler from youtube will kinda point out specific things and help me to work on em. Just like Unseen 122 did with chanters tune.
after all, practice doesn't make perfect, only perfect practice, makes perfect.
it'd even be cooler if this thread, or just someone viewing them on Youtube, would eventually lead to someone willing to have a video conversation with me, almost like a virtual session, so that he can point stuff out as I'm playing and then show examples. as I learn better that way. Of course, till that happens, or if it never does, I'm very content with fellas just pointing out stuff so that I can try to work on it on my own =)
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by llamanator
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
yeah youtube is a great source of music. I've got asperger's syndrome, am on SSI for it, I practice hours a day, and I obsess about the music, which is common for anyone passionate about his music much less someone with obsessive tendencies.
That guy Tin Whistler is simply amazing, and of course listening to some of the more classic bands and all, like the wolfetones doing the foggy dew. You can truely feel the emotion and power in the song. When they play that music, and sing it, it's not just another pretty song to them, they believe in what they're singing, it has significance to them, and to me is something I try to emulate.
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by llamanator
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
what about Give me your hand? Was the ornamentation okay? Tin Whistler did an amazing slow version that made me cry, mine was a bit faster, as that's how I've heard it played.
I'd like to keep the focus of this thead more on pointing out the flaws and giving suggestions to improve the songs I've shown.
That's the great thing about video, is that you can also see my face and my breathing and my fingering and everything yer not just listening to it, you can see my mistakes, which makes it easyer to help explain ways for me to improve.
I know it's nobody's job to help me, but I really want to get better.
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by llamanator
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
On Give Me your hand I would say pretty mych the same thing. IMO, your version sounds to me a little bit choppy. You need to relax a bit, it just sounds a bit forced.
BTW, talk my advice with a grain of salt. In the end we will all always be noobs.
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by Why Bother?
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
that's a scary thought. If I thought I'd never reach a skill level comparable to the Tin Whistler, I'd give up playing all together. My playing as it is drives me insane, and I recognise and understand that I'm just a beginner and can't expect that kind of playing from myself but it still manages to irk me. Mediocre isn't acceptable. I just need to get better. And that's the bottom line.
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by llamanator
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
And you will Llam. I just listened to Saddle the pony and it's obvious you've got a good feeling for the music. You've come a long way in a very short time. With your drive to improve and persistance you will continue to make rapid progress. Have you played other instruments before?
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by cabers
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
While it's good to keep pracising the tunes you know, don't keep going over the same ones too much or you'll end up hating them. Learning new tunes gives your mind/breath/fingers new vocabulary that will constantly broaden and improve your playing. When you go back to the earlier tunes with better skills you'll find you can play them better ( after a bit of refamiliarising).
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by cabers
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
thank you =) then I won't hold off from learning the swallow tail jig or king of fairies any longer. I've been wanting to learn those for a while but failed to see a reason to do so till I was able to perform the songs I already was learning on to my liking.
How was the shaping of the three notes in Saddle the Pony? were they shaped adequetly or could I do a better job and if so, what are your suggestions?
all this stuff is new to me, as far as shaping notes, and notes in general, this is my only instrument I've played, and one I've wanted to learn to play for years ever since my step dad brought home an irish music CD. Give me your hand specificaly, has been a song I've long wanted to learn to play. Anyways, back to the jig, I really want to get those things down, I don't want to play them badly like discribed on Brother Steve's page.
Also, how was The Foggy Dew? I know I didn't play but a single verse, but that's all that was needed I felt. I'm not very good at ornamenting my own tunes very well yet, that one has only my own ornamentation in it, more importantly though I try to represent the emotion of what the song was about. I tried to imagine the effects of 700 years of opression and occupation, bottled up and concentrated and then released all at once, and that was my biggest focus. Did I acomplish that? Could I have done it better? was my rythem okay, or are ya not sure cause it was so short? I could do a longer version.
I'm sorry, I'm hammering out too much stuff all at once. I''ll stop there, apply the feed back given and await further feed back before hammering out a bunch more stuff =)
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by llamanator
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
Learn some marches, basically to get you into a steadier flow, to help establish a strong beat / pulse. If you aren't doing it already, and marches are good for this, use your feet to keep a steady (but quiet) beat going as you play... You've done well on your own. I hope you can find a teacher, there's nothing better, and one that understands your needs and aspirations...
# Posted on December 9th 2006 by ceolachan
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
tell me about it, I can only take so much before I'm gonna snap and just move to Ireland or Halifax, Canada or something.
how about things like the battle cry of freedom and the girl I left behind me? It's american civil war music, but definately marches =) I'll work on those a bit and make some recordings.
# Posted on December 10th 2006 by llamanator
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
i'll see if i have time this week to post a "video response."
# Posted on December 10th 2006 by daiv
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
really? that'd be awesome thanks =) I'd apreciate it so much.
# Posted on December 10th 2006 by llamanator
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
Foggy Dew was fine, when the tune means something to you it shows. You played a c# instead of a c nat in "..from the plains of royal Meath.." which doesn't fit. Rhythm still needs a bit of work as it's a kind of marching beat.
# Posted on December 10th 2006 by cabers
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
thanks! I didn't even realise that I was doing that with the "c"
and thanks for pointing out the rythem thing. see, all these 3/4 4/4 6/8 I know that the first correseponds to a waltz and the second to a polka and the third to a jig because thats the number they had on the sheet music when learning those songs. but other than that, I have no idea what it all means. I'm doing the best I can to try to match it audiably and not doing too good of a job at it.
I'll fix that c and step up the pace a bit on it and post a take 2.
all day today I've been working on trying to match my give me your hand with the Tin Whistler's version, kinda trying to copy and learn his ornamentation, it's nice that he's playing it so slow, I can note each ornamentation he does and try to emulate it, if poorly.
the part I'm working now is the ornamentation 16-17 seconds into the tune as seen in this recording
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg5rRKYS1vY
he doesn't just go to e and then d, he hitting f as well. and actualy, he's probabally not hitting those exact notes as that tin whistle is in a different key than mine, but corresponding to mine, e, d, and f are the notes in question. And I'm hammering at that right now, not yet close to making it sound like his though, will continue with just that same part of the song till I get it right or have to put it down
# Posted on December 11th 2006 by llamanator
Re: new tin whistler, 8 months later
i think I might have gotten it, I think i was messing up before because i was using the d note first and trying to bring it all the way up to f and then down to e again, instead of just e to f to e to d.
if I'm wrong someone please point out how he did it so that I can go on to the next part of the song =D
# Posted on December 11th 2006 by llamanator