Finger Chart for tin whistle

[Burly Brute]

Anybody know where I could get a finger chart for dirty old town on the tin whistle?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en3JkC2ZLC4

I can't follow it along.

[KiltShot]

Would this help? Do you intend to play by ear or sheet music?
Dirty Old Town

[Burly Brute]

Neither haha. I am trying to just look for the finger charts for a tin whistle, to see which holes to plug.

[Chirs]

There are 6 holes on the whistle; the number is how many are closed. A + means upper octave. An _ means 1/8 notes, everything else is 1/4 notes. The note before the , is usually held long. I am assuming you know the song well.

6 5 3 1, 3 2 1 3 6, 1 +6 +5, +6 1 2 2 1, +6 +5 +6 1, 3 2 1 3 6, 6 3 1 2, 2 3 5 5

This is just off the top of my head so, if anyone knows a better sounding way, let's have it.

[madmacs]

This maybe...?

http://unitedireland.tripod.com/id584.html

[OC Richard]

In my opinion you are really harming your progress by limiting yourself to tablature.

Developing your ear so that you can pick up tunes by listening to them is the traditional Irish way and I highly recommend it. (For that to work, though, you'll need whistles in several keys so as to be able to play along with various recordings.)

Though not traditional, learning to read standard music notation (staff notation) will open you to a vast amount of material.

Modern traditional Irish musicians favour what's called ABC notation. You can go to thesession.org to see how ABC works. They have many thousands of Irish tunes available online both in ABC notation and standard staff notation.

[English Bloke]

I'm inclined to agree... Master the dots. It's easier in the long run.

This might help as a starting point.

[KiltShot]

Developing your ear so that you can pick up tunes by listening to them is the traditional Irish way and I highly recommend it. (For that to work, though, you'll need whistles in several keys so as to be able to play along with various recordings.)

I agree with the playing by ear part. It seems to speed up the learning of an instrument that should be easy anyway. After playing a Sweetone for three months I am finding out how useful whistles in other keys will be (once I buy them). I am still transposing the melodies in my brain, so I can't play along. Most of the things I want to play are not in "D".
I have been thinking about buying a set of better whistles in Eb, D, C, Bb and low G. Any suggestions?

[OC Richard]

For a beginner who doesn't yet have his ear developed to the point where he can learn tunes by playing along with recordings, it would be helpful to either learn ABC notation or staff notation, or both.

ABC notation is favoured by traditional Irish musicians, many of whom feel that ABC is superior to staff notation. The great thing about ABC is the vast corpus of tens of thousands of Irish tunes available in it, on sites such as thesession.org. And, you can simply type ABC notation on an ordinary keyboard.

I myself have always been able to read ordinary staff notation and I feel that it's the best. I have a hard time reading ABC. But the majority of traditional Irish players disagree!

About whistle keys, if you do enough playing you'll end up requiring whistles in every key. Here's what I take to a gig:



It has in it every chromatic key from Low D to high Eb. Mostly Burkes for the low keys and modified Generations for the high keys. But an MK low D, a Feadog high D, Susatos for the odd keys of F#/Gb and G#/Ab, and a Bernard Overton Low E.

[Ruaraidh]

For the most part, I am in the learn by ear camp. Learning music notation is best for accurately reproducing music. But it is a bit like learning another language. I am working on the Guitar and I use tablature to get a reference point on the strings and frets. Then find your way by ear. You didn’t learn to talk by reading a book. You learned by listening and copying. Scales man! Work your scales!
I haven’t gotten too far with the tin whistle. It’s kinda painful for everyone else around here, especially the dog. Don’t worry that you don’t think you are any good. Learning to make music is for yourself and makes you appreciate others that have a gift for it. Lastly one of the mottos that I live by: “If it (learning the tin whistle) was easy anyone could do it” !
Play On!