Monday, February 11, 2008

Micho Russell Video

6 comments:

farro said...

Hello,
sorry for asking this here but I didn't find a better way to contact you.

I started whistling some month ago, mostly by using an online tutorial and the youtube lessons of Ryan Duns.

I'm starting to have the feel that his a-step-per-week approach is a bit too fast for me; and I've read in your earlier posts about two books you bought.

I wonder if you can give me some advice about which one is the best (or both, or none, or others you "tried"). I have one sold on the clarke tinwhistle site, named "Tin Whistle Book Number One, learning to play like a whistler" but I'm not getting far with it. There is no mention to ornamentations at all, to say one.

I'd expecially like to know your opinion about the Grey Larsen ones, if you got the chance to read them.

Thank you so much, and best regards from Italy.

Craig said...

Briscolo, that's a kind of involved question. I should probably post about it, but in general:

Listening is more important to reading, and I'm not really a fan of Grey Larsen's recordings.

The best book I've ever seen on ornamentation is June McCormack's Fliúit. It's written for the flute, but works fine for the whistle. Be advised, though, that it doesn't have much text and doesn't talk about much but ornamentation. It's mostly tunes and CD recordings with annotations of how you might ornament them, played slow enough to follow.

There are probably other good books I haven't seen.

"Brother Steve's" web site is great, in my humble opinion, and is free. He does a good job with ornamentation, although I like June's book more.

farro said...

Thank you for replying.

Apart from the Grey Larsen's music, have you perhaps got the chance to read the book?

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=5tUZwCtYSp0C&dq=grey+larsen+whistle&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=hgNk5-aCIj&sig=qPrcCt6T7EP1bD7L4gMT2__Bo34

I got a look at that preview and I liked the fact that it talks about scales and music in general. But I'm careful about buying :-)

About listening irish music, I discovered this:
http://www.last.fm/tag/irish

Free. :-D

Ciao!

Linda said...

Couldn't find Briscolo's email address, so perhaps he will see this comment or perhaps Craig will forward it to him.

The best concise whistle guide I can recommend is Bill Och's little booklet, The Clarke Tinwhistle. Here is the link to the book, which is part of Bill's website.

http://www.pennywhistle.com/clarkepage.html

Bill's website doesn't mention it yet, but just this year Bill started giving private lessons via Skype - a really cool idea!

I have been to many of his classes, and he is really good at explaining things and at choosing tunes that help you work on the particular technical element you want to focus on. He is also good with stylistic elements. He explains things well, lets you take your own pace, etc.

You can contact him via the email on his website: mail@pennywhistle.com

By the way, Bill did a video on Micho Russell too. If you're ordering, get that as well!!!

http://www.pennywhistle.com/micho.html

Good luck and keep on whistlin'!

Linda

farro said...

What a funny thing Linda, some days ago I received the book you suggest me, and I was returning here to check for new comments, but also to reccommend that book myself.

It's approach is very clean, gradual, nice and involving. I'm starting to learn from the beginning with it, focusing more on rhythm and on the suggestions of the author to use the bottom finger on the bottom hole even while playing "A" and "B", not only "C#".
This needs to re-learn and it will take some time. I'm already seeing the benefits of having that finger down!

Highly recommended book, the CD is great, too.

farro said...

I would like to say that I've ALSO bought the Grey Larsen book, and it's just excellent!
It teaches about posture, breathing, listening, care of the body, and a lot of tiny details in a very pleasant manner. Highly recommended!