Ok, I am a newbie but I have done the prerequisite search on the topic and found no matches so…
Does anyone have any directions/instructions on the proper method for whistle twirling?
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Bill B.
Welllllllll…
You have to be able to count to 8 and smiling is very important and you must have eye contact with the judge and keep in step. You can do figure 8’s and reverse figure 8’s and… Oh… you didn’t say baton… 
Sorry, I guess I am not help at all. :roll:
Can you be a little more specific? Are you talking whistle making or just having fun with us?
Cheers,
Kathy (Majorette in a past life) 
Oh yeah, WELCOME
Edited for punctuation mixup
Thanks Kathy,
My post was only partially tongue-in-cheek.
I have noticed that when I am holding a whistle and not playing it (like when I am watching TV with the family) I have this urge to twirl it.
Is this normal? Do others get the urge? Can anyone really twirl a whistle between their fingers?
I have noticed that I can come closer to twirling my brass red-top Clare than say a Sweetone or Walton LBW. I am still trying to find “that perfect whistle”.
BillBo
Ha Ha Bill,
I would say if you had as much experience in twirling things as I have, you could do it. I sometimes twirl only my cheaper whistles because I don’t want to damage the mouth piece on my more expensive whistles. If your really good you can twirl them between your fingers and then just toss them in the air and turn around and catch them. One warning though is… don’t try to juggle 3 of them at once, it can knock out your teeth especially if you remember the always smile rule. I am talking from experience 
Have fun twirling or playing your whistles!
Cheers,
Kathy 
Well, hey. I happen to be an accomplished jugglers, so I do all sorts of strange things withwhistles (not too strange. . .). I juggle them, spin them, balance them on my nose or chin or forehead. . .and yes, twirl them.
I twirl small-to-medium whistles in a sort of whistle equivalent of the “drummer’s flourish”, and large low whistles I toss about and twirl with a “club fourish”, as in juggling. A Google search on those subjects would bring up descriptions on how to do them. Seriously.
But careful you don’t get as enamored with juggling as I have. I toss the knives around, juggle my baby cousins, do tricks withthe dinner plates. . . It’s driving my wife to the edge, watching inhorror as her pricey china spins through the air and lands safely back in my hands.
Twirl with care, Baggins.
–Aaron
just as long as they’re not chain saws your wife should be happy.
you might want to look up drumstick visuals. i don’t see how it would be much different
My low D Overton is particularly suited for twirling (sorry Colin 
). Makes me feel like a ninja. Then I pretend that I’m shooting darts from it in the jungles of South America. Then there’s the Babe Ruth (only skinnier) fantasy. And…
Named after Indiana Jones, I have WIPS - Whistle Imaginative Performance Syndrome.
Erik
I play badminton, so naturally I have concocted many ways of spinning and twirling the raquet. I find that some of these techniques carry over to whistle, such as the twirling between the fingers (it is hard to describe the exact motion). Just don’t try spinning the whistle with your palm. Trust me.
You strange people! I can only surmise that you were exposed to too many Westerns during your formative years.
Hey Herbivore-- you need a Tabor pipe! You can play tunes with one hand and juggle 2 ( or 3 if you’re able) with the other!
I’m a fair amateur juggler too-- I can do quite a few 3 ball tricks, little Devil Stick, little Cigar Box, etc. Never did much with clubs past a basic cascade. Terrific hobby-- highly recommended for anyone.
I’ve always twirled my whistle like a baton. I thought it was particularly eccentric of me. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one.
Good idea! I do have an overtone flute I can try this with. . . hmmmm…
I get some mileage ouy of balancing a didgeridoo vertically on my lips while playing it. Several of my friends are professional jugglers, so parties at our house can be . . . interesting.
I’m a fair amateur juggler too-- I can do quite a few 3 ball tricks, little Devil Stick, little Cigar Box, etc. Never did much with clubs past a basic cascade. Terrific hobby-- highly recommended for anyone.
Whistling juglers unite! I’m sort of obsessive with my few hobbies (music, juggling, bonsai, kites, literature), so I like to find ways to incorporate them with each other, when possible.
(I have a shaky 7-ball cascade, decent six fountain, strong enough five cascade to do some tricks and keep them in the air until I get tired, and even have one three-ball trick named after me, though it’s not as popular as the Mills Mess or anything. And like you, I mess with other stuff, like devil stick, diabolo, boxes, rings, shaker cups, spinning plates, etc. Love passing clubs, though, so if you have other jugglers around, it’s great fun.)
Links for the juggling-inclined:
www.juggle.org - The International Jugglers’ Association
www.jugglingdb.com - The Internet Juggling Database
www.seriousjuggling.com - The finest web-based juggling store
It’s fun; ike Paul, I think everyone should try it.
–Aaron
Thanks Everyone!
At least now I know I am not alone.
I did do a search on “Drummers Flourish” and “Drumstick Visuals” and other than some fried chicken recipes, I found nothing on the internet.
Herbi, could you please describe what your fingers are doing in relation to the whistle when you are doing a flourish?
Thanks,
Bill Bowen
I juggle too, though I haven’t practiced it for years and was never very good. I rode a unicycle as a kid, and decided that I really ought to learn how to juggle, just because they seemed to go together. I discovered that I have good balance but poor coordination – juggling was much harder for me to learn than unicycling. Of course, I started trying to learn while riding my unicycle up and down the hallway of my dorm freshman year at college, using oranges I smuggled up from the dining hall. Our hallway had a lovely scent of oranges for weeks. Then my dorm-neighbors got tired of the wanton waste of oranges and gave me some raquetballs. I finally learned to juggle when I got off the unicycle and used bean bags – they don’t run away when you drop them like round objects do.
Sarah
You’re asking this group to comment on what’s normal?
Personally, I gave up on normality years ago.
About drumsticks: I was a drummer in a former life and was known to twirl a drum stick now and again. The grip traditionally used for the left drumstick lends itself to twirling, it seems to me. I wouldn’t know how to twirl a whistle, and wouldn’t have the nerve if it was a whistle I cared about.
This type of disease is usualy confined to Drummers and Majorettes but can be atributed to the proverbial “Blonde”.
The Drummers and Majorettes feel this compulsive behavior when they have something long and hard within thier grasp :roll: but the Blonde usualy does this to a lock of her hair when asked difficult questions like,“What did you have for dinner last night? " or " Who’s your boyfriend this week?”(not to be confused with the Brunette who will pensively chew her nails in silence at these posers)
I mean this only in fun 
and I hope none are offended.
I know you were kidding but…There is an article in a recent Modern Drummer magazine (why is there no Modern Whistler magazine?) that described a number of twirling techiques. Or, you could always have a drummer show you a couple of ways. There are at least two common ones that most of them know.
I don’t think I’d any of them if I was playing a Copeland.
The one small detail you might run into trying to spin it is the simple fact that drumsticks and juggling pins are balanced, while whistles generally are not (of course, I’ve never played a copeland) practice near your couch or some pillows so when you drop it, nothing will be hurt
‘Twirling whistles’ made me think of ‘Dueling Banjos’,but that’s probably cos I watched the film ‘Deliverence’ on DVD the other day! 
Drumsticks are all different with slightly different centers of gravity, so it’s not that different learning to twirl. The drummer would have to adjust the stick in his fingers to find the balance pont before beginning, and so would a whistle twirler.
I just tried it. The balance point isn’t the problem. It’s the fact that they’re slippery. I was havng little luck.