A Jesuit's Introduction to the Irish Tin Whistle

Tin Whistle: Star of Munster

2013-02-11T11:04:00.001-08:00

Three Jigs: Rambling Pitchfork, Boys of the Town, Tripping up the Stairs

2013-01-12T13:48:00.001-08:00

Three Sea Captains...speed, God only Knows

2012-12-26T12:30:00.007-08:00

Three Sea Captains...speed, God only Knows

2012-12-26T12:30:00.005-08:00

Three Sea Captains...speed, God only Knows

2012-12-26T12:30:00.003-08:00

Three Sea Captains...speed, God only Knows

2012-12-26T12:30:00.001-08:00

Reel: Christmas Eve

2012-12-26T11:21:00.001-08:00

Tin Whistle: Home Ruler Hornpipe and Noel Hill's Reel

2012-12-26T09:58:00.001-08:00

Tin Whistle Lesson: The Sailor's Hornpipe

2012-12-10T09:50:00.001-08:00

Tin Whistle Lesson: Drowsy Maggie

2012-12-10T09:49:00.001-08:00

Tin Whistle Lesson: The North Wind

2012-12-09T17:21:00.001-08:00

New Site

2012-12-09T17:06:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to re-start some of the lessons over at a new site: Beginner Tin Whistle Lessons. Feel free to stop over there to get a feel for what I'm now teaching!

Tin Whistle Lesson: The Man of the House (reel)

2012-12-09T10:55:00.001-08:00

Two Lords?

2012-12-09T05:43:00.001-08:00

December 9th, 2012 - 2nd Sunday of Advent (Luke 3:1-6)

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,

when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,

and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,

and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region

of Ituraea and Trachonitis,

and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,

during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,

the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.

John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,

proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,

as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

I want only to make a single observation about today's reading. The second-half of the passage is familiar to us: John begins to prophesy the advent of the Messiah. That's nice, of course, but why the historical bits up above? Why the reference to Pilate and Tiberius, Herod and Caiaphas?

First, Luke situates Jesus' life and work in history. It's not uncommon to encounter people who deny that Jesus ever existed (despite his being referenced by several pagan authors). Luke, however, understood the importance of Jesus to history: in announcing the Kingdom of God, in making it present through word and deed, Jesus shows us here-and-now what God desires for humanity.

Of course, we kill Jesus for telling us the truth about God and exposing the lies we tell to and about ourselves, but we'll get to that when Lent rolls around.

Second, and more importantly, notice that the first figure above is the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Look, too, at the beginning of John's prophecy: "Prepare the way of the Lord." In the space of a few lines, we encounter two 'lords' - one is the ruler of all the lands, the other is professed as the true lord, the lord of history.

In these days leading up to Christmas, it may serve us all well to reflect on the choice our Gospel presents us with: who is the true Lord in my life? In whose court do I wish to dwell - the court of the current leader whose favor I must curry and ego I must stroke or the one who has come to show us what God wants for us, a life lived not in conflict but in peace centered around and governed by his Lordship?

New Lesson: Father Kelly's Reel

2012-07-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

Two New Lessons

2012-07-24T06:58:00.003-07:00

All music can be found at www.thesession.org

My Darling Asleep Tutorial

2012-07-15T09:45:00.001-07:00

A few new videos

2012-04-01T12:12:00.001-07:00

Three More Tunes

2012-03-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Jesuit's Guide to the Tin Whistle: The Butterfly

2011-10-29T15:20:00.000-07:00

Sheet Music and ABC Format can be found by CLICKING HERE.

A newish video to share

2011-08-02T16:30:00.001-07:00

A Jesuit's Introduction to the Tin Whistle: The Templehouse Reel

2010-04-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

A Jesuit's Introduction to the Tin Whistle: The Wild Rover

2010-04-08T11:54:00.000-07:00

As promised, I'm uploading my first new teaching video. Below I've typed out the letters. Please be aware: Bold Face Notes mean that you blow harder. Also, I'll indicate at the beginning whether the C is played with two fingers (0xx000 or C-natural) or if it is played with all fingers off (000 000 or C-sharp). All of the F notes, unless otherwise indicated, are F-Sharp.

The Wild Rover (C's in this tune are C-natural, so 0xx 000)

G-G-A-G-E-D

B-B-A-B-C

BCD B-D-C-A-F-D-B-A-G

G-G-A-G-E-D

B-B-A-B-C

B-C-D-B-D-C-A-F-D-B-A-G

Chorus

F-G-A A F-D

B-B-B-A-B-C

BCD B-G-F-E

E-D-B-A-G

Taking Requests

2010-04-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

I do apologize for not being more attentive to this website. It's hard to manage more than one blog and since I'm not actively teaching the whistle right now, my focus has not been on maintaining this site. (Ironically, I reckon I am passively teaching the whistle, given the number of emails I get each day about the online lessons)

I have a few days to myself so I thought that I would make this offer, sort of a "mea culpa" for being lax on this site. So here's my offer:

If there is a tune you want me to teach, write it into the comments and I will do my best to make a quick lesson out of it. These won't be of the quality of the Fordham lessons, given that I'll do them at my computer. Nevertheless, I'll do my best to make it clear and concise.
If there is a tune you want played, put that below and I'll do my best to get it recorded.

In either case, I ask for one thing: if you know where the sheet music to the tune is, could you put a link to it? If I don't know it already, I'll have to learn it to teach it (teaching in a high school has made me adept at this!). I'm glad to do so but, if you have the notes handy, it'll make my life a lot easier.

I can't promise to get to all of them but, if I know what's desired, I'll do my level best to be of assistance.

Happy Easter!

A few more tunes

2009-09-07T07:37:00.000-07:00