A Complete Guide to Playing the Irish Flute is the most comprehensive tutor yet for keyed and unkeyed ‘Irish’ wooden flutes. Originally published in 1986 under the title Timber, Fintan Vallely’s tutor was the first-ever guide to learning the wooden flute and has become the source for countless students of the instrument in Irish music.

This new, revised, expanded and beautifully illustrated edition is designed for all levels, from the absolute beginner to advanced player. With his comprehensive, step-by-step guidance and entertaining and highly informative text, Vallely takes the learner through every aspect of flute playing – from holding, blowing and fingering to ornamentation, breathing, articulation and practice. Photographs illustrate the instructions throughout, and a 2–CD set of recordings with 180 tracks not only demonstrates everything from how to read music to all of the techniques discussed, but also includes recordings of each of the 100 tunes in the book.

Learning is simplified by presenting the various aspects of playing in neat, achievable modules, which help break down many of the difficulties encountered in first-time playing and carry the student through to exploring more advanced techniques. This makes the book ideal not only as a beginner’s guide, but also as a manual for all stages of playing, a resource that can be used productively for many years. Written with both the essential traditional elements and modern-day usage of the flute in mind – including rhythm, articulation, harmonics and pitch change – these techniques, rarely discussed in the past outside of jazz and orchestral flute playing, not only offer huge potential to the budding virtuoso, but can be of immeasurable value in tone production for all players. The tutor can be also used for learning to play any kind of flute – long or short, in any key – and is suitable too for learning the tin whistle, for those who wish to begin on it with a view to later moving on to the flute.

Finally, helpful appendixes include recommended further music to play or listen to; information on flute makers, suppliers and repairers in Ireland; an invaluable guide to summer schools; and web resources for flute recordings.

The aim of this tutor is to help new generations of flute players to master this wonderful instrument. The author hopes that it will contribute not only to raising standards in flute playing but also to the development of Irish traditional music in all its forms, from instrument making to performing.

THE AUTHOR
Fintan Vallely has been playing the flute for half a century. He has performed in Europe, Scotland and England, Australia and the United States and has recorded two albums. He has also taught flute at the prestigious Willie Clancy summer school in Co. Clare since the 1980’s and has hosted many workshops on the instrument in Ireland and abroad.

A renowned scholar of Irish traditional music, Vallely has edited several major books on the subject, notably two editions of the authoritative A–Z Companion to Irish Traditional Music (1999 and 2011) and Together in Time (2001), an ethnography of Antrim flute player John Kennedy. He has researched and lectured on Irish traditional music and its history and performance in several colleges and universities and is presently developing his 2005 doctoral flute research as a history of the flute in Irish music.