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Do any of you ne'er-do-wells still whistle? (feddit.uk)
submitted 2 days ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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I'm a regular whistler and pop out a tune to myself when I'm out gallivanting. It's a dying art. Any other whistlers in the house?

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[–] 9 points 2 days ago* (4 children)

Think of it as using the back of your mouth and your tongue to shoot a round jet of air through your lips. Usually takes a lot of fiddling around and trying slightly new positions before you can get a shadow of a note, but then you have something to hone into. Whistling different notes requires you to change how big the inside of your mouth is and how large the hole at the front is. The larger your mouth, the lower the resonant note, and the smaller your mouth the higher the note will resonate. Lower notes are easier to hit, but you can only go so low. There is no real limit to how high you can learn to go.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    No joke, I’ve never heard about the back of mouth / tongue portion before and just from a couple minutes of testing low notes with that I got a single time I’d almost charitably consider a whistle. Seriously thank you for the detailed information on what’s happening inside too!

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    Since you helped the other guy, I wonder if you can help me with a different but related inability? I can whistle terrifically, but I’ve never been able to do the really loud one that some people use their fingers to do. My dad can do a killer finger whistle and I’ve always wanted to be able to do it, but alas, no amount of trying or YouTube video promises have made it possible for me.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

    There are two ways to do that whistle and they both involve having the tip of your tongue bent nearly vertical in your mouth and shooting the air through a small hole between the tip of your tongue and top lip down right past your bottom lip. The hard thing is that you have to push a lot of air for it to work like that, which is why some people use their fingers to push up and hold their tongue. Ive been whistling my whole life and only learned that one in my 20s.

    Ive just tried both ways, with your fingers make sure they form a good triangle and you will push your tongue back past your top lip and you actually use the fingers to make the hole with your top lip and your tongue keeps the air from going under. With no fingers your tongue will be resting just behind your top lip, sealing it off with the underside of your tongue and leaving a small hole to squeek the air through. Its counter intuitive to regular whistling in that the air jet shoots down out of your mouth.

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