I was whistling to myself the other day and suddenly thought..“how is the sound produced?”
At first I tried to explain it in terms of a penny whistle or flute, but none of the structures used by those instruments are present in a human mouth.
Any ideas?
Yes, I know it’s April 1st!
What I want to know is:how do you do the ‘Blue Tack’ tweek on your gob?
Whistle whilst chewing gum? 
I can’t whistle. For years this puzzled me until I discovered that people who can are aliens. Real humans can’t whistle it’s the only sure way of telling them apart.
best i could find with google:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistling
interesting that mouth whistling produces near perfect sinus tones without overtones.
Shouldn’t that be ‘overtonsils’ ?
Are you sure you want to know?
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/courses/spsci/b214/week2-4.pdf
I’ve just spent the day pulling faces and making stupid noises.
…
I actually wonder how far whistling can be taken as a serious
musical instrument (mouth whistling, that is). If I had spent
a fraction of the time on it as I had on flute,
I suppose I could whistle pretty well.
I wonder if there are ways to ornament;
also potential range.
Mostly one hears it on records as something
rare and exotic.
I’ve seen at least two major hit-songs use mouth-whistleing in the last few years. I’m sure there are others as well. Robbie Williams (mega-star in Europe, probably not as much in the US) used it in Mr. Bojangles. And the swedish group Kent (that I’m pretty sure are quite well known in other parts of Europe besides Sweden) used it in a song a few years ago as well.
John Hyatt.
Denny
Also Billy Joel: The Stranger.
A note on virtuosic whistling:
I’m a fairly decent whistler (I can do it on the in- and exhale, so there’s no need to breathe).
One thing I’ve noticed is that after a fair bit of whistling, my embouchure is so tired that I can’t flute for a while.
Conclusion: If you have to play your flute, wait at least a half hour after whistling, or you’ll cramp up and drown.
Thanks! I didn’t know that Billy did his own whistling.
Denny
Actually, I don’t know that he does do his own whistling. I was merely adding a tune to the list of mainstream/pop tunes which feature whistling.
I would guess BJ does whistle, based on his overall musicality, but perhaps it’s a ringer. Some internet research in now in order. Stay tuned …
How about whistling ITM?
There’s apparently some precedent… From an ABC file regarding Ed Reavy’s “Whistler of Rosslea”:
Ed was to a fair once in Rosslea and heard this whistler. He had a
whistling range that could easily match the register
of a fiddle or flute. And he had all the embellishments of a great
traditional player, too. He sold fish in the market places and charmed
his customers with choice tunes-many of his own making.
To make a long story short…
It works (whistling) in the same way as a tea kettle. As the air streams out of the small hole at high velocity, it curls back on itself in a sort of “mushroom cloud” shape( the inert outside air resists the airstream). as the edges of the mushroom curl back and reach the airstream at the hole/exit, it “interupts” the flow momentarily and a backpressure soundwave is sent into the mouth/nasal cavity and then repeats at frequency. this cavity then acts like an Ocarina with the tongue as a controller of cubic volume/size/pitch.
Experiment: blow an airstream out of your mouth into cold air and you will see this “mushroom/smoke-ring” effect
{note of interest(?): There was once a rare ancient instrument called a “Chiriqui Whistle” (after the Chiriqui Indians of Panama) that used several “tea kettle” voicings as toneholes in a clay flute/mouth organ.}
I know this is a simplified answer and, in truth, much more complex, but does this help?
Wow! Isn’t that interesting . . . F5 to C7. Just over 2 octaves, beginning at F on a D whistle. Fully chromatic, too! 
Although, I have to admit, the F was a challenge. G is easy, but I had to work on the F.
Thanks for that.
Next week we’ll do yodelling, not how ,but why.
What was that for? He asked what our ranges were . . . I thought. So, I got out the tuner and measured it.
What’s the big problem with that?
I think I need to go take some time off . . .