FORE HRD

In offering this book to the public I make no apologies, nor do I Labor

under any delusions of omniscience in the realm of Irish music. This book is
the result of being continually asked by persons who have just purchased a
tinwhistle, “Where can I learn to play?" Aside from a handful of Irish music
schools in a few major American cities, there is no formal source of
instruction for the tinwhistle. Yet, Irish music is difficult to pick up
without any assistance, and it is an established fact that many new enthusiasts
live impossibly far from Irish tinwhistle players or from any Irish musicians
at all. While there are increasing numbers of actual and forthcoming tutors on
the market, their availibility is often limited, and, indeed, the scope and
content of these tutors is also not infrequently limited in various ways.
There remains a definite need for a complete, systematic, accessible work on
the tinwhistle in which the full potential of the instrument is thoroughly
explored and comprehensibly explained. That, in a paragraph, is why this book
has been written.
This book assumes a basic reading knowledge of standard Wester music
notation in the treble clef, and a few introductory remarks about Irish music
have been included for those coming to the music anew. Readers .mfamiliar with
musical notation should not feel that they are irremediably beyond hope. It's
not hard to leam, and it's a proven method of musical shorthand that helps
the leaming process to a high degree. Contrary to popular misconception, most
Irish musicians know how to read and write music, and they aren't any the less
traditional or authentic because of it.
By the end of the first instructional section, you should be able to dig into
the tunes that follow. Over the past four years since the tutor was first issued,
I have received many comments that the tunes in the back of the book were too
difficult. Sorry, Jim, but all you have to do is keep looking through until you
find an easy one. The tumes are still arranged according to the type of tume,
simply because that's the way editors of Irish music collections have been
organizing their work for three centuries; it's a sensible method, too. So when
you're ready to start playing the tunes in the back, you could start with an
air, or one of the harp tunes, or perhaps a polka or slide. As you feel more
comfortable with the music, then attempt tunes that are more ornamented and
challenging. These tunes represent a cross-section of Irish music and are
presented in versions especially suited to the tinwhistle. Since this book was
first published, many of these tunes have been recorded, and so you will be able
to locate variant settings to add to the ones given here.
The revisions in this edition consist of a few clarifications and elabor-
ations of some points in the instructional section that should be of help to
readers unacquainted with wind instruments or who have had an abbreviated
musical background. More tablatures (a very useful system pioneered with this
book and now imitated by other tinwhistle tutors), some drawings, two new tunes,
an expanded and updated discography, some new information in the historical
chapter and tune notes make up the rest of the additions—most of them inserted
simply to satisfy the author's vain, umexpungeable desire for perfection rather
than out of any dire necessity. The bulk of the book has remained unchanged
because, judging from readers’ responses since 1976, the tutor appears to be
successfully serving its original surpose of commmicating the fundamentals of
Irish music performance on the tinvhistle. Hopefully, we've all had a good
time doing it, too.