The Resources section contains material that supports the FluteFling traditional flute and whistle classes and workshops.
This also serves as an archive of material that I have taught over the years in various settings, including Scots Music Group whistle and Portobello Music School traditional whistle classes.
The resources have for many years lived over on The Flow, my website about traditional Irish flute playing. That site no longer exists but a new home for updated articles and reference material is being prepared. Meanwhile my resources for teaching traditional flute and whistle are in the process of being moved to this site.
The history of flute playing in Scotland
If you’re at all interested in the story of the flute in Scotland, look no further than FluteFling supporter Elizabeth Ford’s research. Her thesis The flute in musical life in eighteenth-century Scotland is available as a PDF and for a more complete picture, her book The Flute in Scotland from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century is highly recommended and essential reading.
Publications and websites
This is a brief introduction to some of the available recommended books and websites following Claire Mann’s workshop series in December 2020.
- Claire had two tunes from The Gunn Collection. You can buy that here:
- thebagpipeshop.co.uk/products/william-gunn-collection
- Or access a free online facsimile here: ceolsean.net/content/Gunn/Gunn_TOC.html
- The Ho-ro-Gheallaidh series (Books 1-4) is very good for Scottish sessions:
- Cruinn Còmhla is a good companion collection:
- Old collections as eBooks:
https://www.scotlandsmusic.com/Category/Fiddle/eBooks/OldCollections - Shetland tunebooks (Start with Ringing Strings):
- https://shop.shetlandtimes.co.uk/collections/music-1
- Hand Me Down Da Fiddle is only available as a PDF facsimile: https://www.scribd.com/document/257331917/hand-me-down-the-fiddle
- A recording of the cassette that accompanies it is here: https://youtu.be/0D7W1tvmKrg
- Nigel Gatherer has produced a number of excellent small collections that support learners in Glasgow and Edinburgh in particular:
- Old collections to look out for include:
- Kerr’s Merry Melodies for the Violin (4 volumes) These are often to be found in second hand bookshops or through online booksellers.
- The Athole Collection
- The Glen Collection
- The Simon Fraser Collection
- The Skye Collection
- A number of notable free PDF facsimiles
- A number of originals are available free on various archive websites, including the National Library of Scotland
- John Crawford recommends Traditional Scottish Fiddling by Christine Martin for an introduction to the different fiddle styles of Scotland that flute and whistle players have to play alongside. https://www.scotlandsmusic.com/Product/SM-9O8H1D/traditional-scottish-fiddling-with-cd
- Many of these links go to scotlandsmusic.com, which is the website for Taigh na Teud music publishers on the Isle of Skye, the biggest in the country. Many of their other publications are worth considering, particularly the Ceol na Fidhle – Highland Tunes for Fiddle series.
- You may wish to explore Tobar an Dualchais/ Kist o’ Riches website, which is a comprehensive archive of music and song field recordings from The University of Edinburgh, BBC Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland: http://tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/
- Elizabeth Ford has written the only account of the history of the flute in Scotland, which was published in 2020. It is highly recommended and is available in full book form here: https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/69223 or as an academic PhD thesis PDF here: http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7351/
- Lauren Barbara Swinden has also written a PhD thesis on 18th Century Scottish flute playing, with a focus on style. Sophisticated Laddie: Scottish Flute Music 1720-80 on a Stylistic Continuum is available as a PDF that looks at some of the differences between folk and classical elements.
Photo by Gordon Turnbull