Welcome to Whistleberry Forest, a musical land of curiosity, creativity, and wonder!

Whistleberry Tunes has been designed by Dr. Thomas Johnston, an Irish traditional musician, educator, and researcher, with over 18 years experience teaching the tin whistle in Ireland and internationally.  

Whistleberry Tunes draws on Thomas' experience as a traditional musician, but also as an educator and a researcher in the areas of Irish traditional music, music education, and theatre for young audiences.  In designing Whistleberry Tunes, Thomas set out to create a series of music lessons that would be fun, meaningful, and engaging for children (and their adults) at home and at school. 

The course is suitable for beginner whistle players of all ages, but in particular, it is geared towards children aged between 7 and 77.  

How you will learn in Whistleberry Tunes is very similar to how you would learn in a traditional teaching and learning context.  As Thomas guides you through each lesson, you will: 

• begin by learning whistle basics such as (i) how to hold the whistle, (ii) the importance of warming up, and (iii) scales of D major and G major (i.e., the building blocks of all the tunes you will learn)
• progressively develop your aural learning skills 
• develop technical musical abilities 
• learn lots of old traditional tunes such as Dawning of the Day, Song of the Chanter, and Maggie in the Woods 
• learn some new tunes composed especially for this course such as Tradoodle Do! and Faolán's frolics 
• discover ways that you can decorate the tune with a range of ornaments such as cuts, taps, and bounces