Customer Reviews

Mel Bays Complete Irish Tin Whistle Book

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is a good break down on how to play the whistle, but for those that do not know how to read sheet music. It may be a little hard to understand.

Background: I have a lot of musical training, vocal as well as many of the woodwinds, mainly clarinet.

While picking up and playing a tin whistle may seem "easy" for a musician, playing it correctly and authentically is another story, and this book provides just that, especially in that it explains the ornamentation techniques that give the music played on the Tin Whistle its unique character, with the slides, cuts, etc.

In addition, the authors do a great job explaining various types of Irish Music (jigs, reels, hornpipes, etc.), and the book has a great selection of songs. The fingering charts are very helpful for learning the notes and the ornaments.

I'd give the book 5 stars, but I am disappointed that the publisher enclosed the wrong CD: it has guitar music instead of the Tin Whistle contents listed in the book. The label on the CD seems correct, but I listened to it and it's all guitar, and the track info detected by iTunes shows it's definitely the wrong music. Hopefully Mel Bay will send me the right CD.

PROS: good selection and variety of songs; music theory (as needed for such a book), types of whistles, ornamentation, styles all explained well, nice epilogue

CONS: wrong CD enclosed