This comprehensive guide is designed for Irish flute and tin whistle players of all levels, from beginners to advanced, including those using the Boehm system. It introduces a revolutionary, straightforward approach to understanding and notating ornamentation—incorporating cuts and strikes—that covers techniques never published.

Also includes adaptations for Boehm-system flute players, guidance on breathing and phrasing, 49 ornamentation exercises, history and theory of traditional Irish flute and whistle music, and 27 meticulous transcriptions of recordings by these important Irish flute and tin whistle players: John McKenna, Tom Morrison, William Cummins, Seamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, Paddy Taylor, Paddy Carty, Grey Larsen, Josie McDermott, Matt Molloy, Cathal McConnell, Mary Bergin, Donncha Briain (Denis O'Brien), Desi Wilkinson, Breda Smyth, Sean Ryan, Conal O Greda, Micho Russel, Joanie Madden, Kevin Crawford, Catherine McEvoy, and Seamus Egan.

Online audio recordings of nearly all the exercises, examples, and tunes are provided to support learning, especially for those unfamiliar with music notation. "Grey has, through his research, patience, and diligence, completed a work on Irish flute and tin whistle that I feel is essential reading for anybody interested in getting it right." - Matt Molloy, Irish Flute player with the Chieftains." 

SECTION 1: First Matters
Orientation to Traditional Irish Music on the Flute and Tin Whistle
The Language Analogy
SECTION 2: The Instruments
The Irish or Simple System-Flute and the Modern Flute
The Tin Whistle
Holding and Blowing the Tin Whistle
Holding and Blowing the Flute
SECTION 3: Ornamentation
Introduction to Ornamentation
Preface to Single-Note Ornaments
Cuts
Strikes
Slides
Preface to Multi-Note Ornaments
Long Rolls
Short Rolls
Condensed Long Rolls
Condensed Short Rolls
Rolls in Tunes with Overly Uneven Subdivisions of the Beat
Double-Cut Rolls
Cranns
Charts of the Rolls and Cranns and their Symbols
Other Mulit-Note Ornaments
Ornamentation through Melodic Variation
SECTION 4: Phrasing, Articulation, and Use of the Breath
Tonguing, Multiple Tonguing, and Throating
Musical Breathing
SECTION 5: Final Matters
On Playing Slow Airs
The Language Analogy Revisited
On Practice and "Muscle Memory"
SECTION 6: Forty-Nine Studies for Ornamentation Practice
SECTION 7: Complete Versions of Excerpted Tunes
SECTION 8: Great Performances Transcribed (Transcriptions of Commercial Recordings from Twenty-Two Important Flute and Tin Whistle Players, 1925-2001)
Appendix A: Audio Contents 
Appendix B: Adaptations for the Boehm-System Flute
Appendix C: Fingering Charts
Appendix D: Key to the Front Cover Photograph

Index of Tune Titles: 
 DOUBLE JIGS

The Battering Ram 

The Blarney Pilgrim

The Cliffs of Moher  

Tom Billy’s Jig  

The Frost Is All Over  

The Humours of Ballyloughlin  

Jimmy Ward’s Jig  

The Monaghan Jig 

Old Joe’s Jig  

The Rose in the Heather  

Scotsman Over the Border  

Tripping Up the Stairs 

Whelan’s Jig  

Willie Coleman’s Jig  

SINGLE JIG or SLIDE

The Star Above the Garter  

SLIP JIGS

A Fig for a Kiss  

Hardiman the Fiddler  

The Whinny Hills of Leitrim  

REELS

Christmas Eve  

The Banshee 

The Boys of Ballisodare  

Roaring Mary 

The Drunken Landlady  

The Glen Allen Reel 

The Gravel Walk  

John Stenson’s Reel 

Lad O’Beirne’s Reel  

Lady on the Island  

The Mountain Road 

The Shaskeen  

Tuttle’s Reel, in E Dorian (as it would be fingered on a C whistle)  

Tuttle’s Reel, in D Dorian (as it would sound when played on a C whistle)  p 355

HORNPIPES

The Home Ruler  

The Rights of Man 

OTHER

Maids of Ardagh (polka)  

Lord Mayo (march) 

Tabhair dom do Lámh (Give Me Your Hand) (harp piece)