Grey Larsen
The Essential Guide to Irish
Flute and Tin Whistle
Mel Bay Publications; paperback; 479 pages
plus 2 CDs; 2003
Two of Irish
traditional music’s essential dicta are that the best way to learn an instrument
is from another musician and then hone your skills in the company of others at
a session. However, this, of course, is not always possible, so the wannabe
piper or fiddler might be forced to investigate other possibilities. Recent tutorial developments, such as
the series of interactive CD-Roms produced by Mad for Trad and Scoiltrad (the
latter even offers a disc for budding spoons players!), have begged the
question whether there is still a place for the old-fashioned instrumental
tutorial book. 
On the one
hand, the CDs bring you as close as you can get to renowned musicians such as
Cathal Hayden, Conal Ó Gráda and Seamus Egan, but, on the other, there is still
something intimate and challenging about working your way laboriously through a
written tutorial.
Then again,
Grey Larsen’s gargantuan manual (some 480 pages and two accompanying aural CDs)
is far more than your typical “here’s the tune transcription and fingering, now
go ahead and play the damned thing” publication. To be blunt and, for once, use
the cliché accurately, it is a sheer labour of love and about as intimate as
such a publication can be.
Larsen is
absolutely exhaustive in his approach, covering everything from the most
efficient way to hold and blow either a flute or whistle to the delicacies of
ornamentation and phrasing. Added to this are many excellent and informative
photographs and illustrations together with transcriptions of numerous tunes
with accounts of musicians who have played and recorded them, with telling
details on their individual styles and approaches. So the reader can learn
everything from the extremely intricate (e.g. triple-tonguing in jigs) to why
Matt Molloy chose to play an E flat or spend time ensuring the correctness of
their embouchure while reading about the best recorded performances of flute or
whistle music.
Larsen’s website – www.greylarsen.com – has even more tunes and transcriptions
while Mad for Trad and Scoiltrad can be found at www.madfortrad.com and www.scoiltrad.com respectively.
This review by Geoff Wallis originally appeared in Songlines magazine.