I read some of the whistle discrimination responses and find that my own reasons for playing my whistle daily are very possibly the reasons some people look down on the whistle. Funny. not that I care much for musical competition, but if it isn’t still, walking used to be an olympic event. Can’t get much simpler than that, for most. But I digress. I am curious about a much more wide spread and severe form of discrimination. Why isn’t whistling more mainstream? You know, where you put your two lips together and blow? Have you ever noticed that you can just whistle a few notes and then soon someone else in hearing will soon be whistling as well? Why then, I ask, does whistling (with you lips) seem to get so little attention?
No, I think it’s studiously ignored, for two reasons.
One is that popular commercial music doesn’t seem to have whistleable tunes. So the only people whistling tunes are old geezers (like me) who used to listen to people like Hoagy Carmichael and Ella Fitzgerald.
Two is that most casual whistlers whistle flat. They don’t have the range, and don’t bother with precision. As I march off to work in the morning, I whistle the tune that I’m practising on the pennywhistle. I’ve noticed that this makes me pay more attention to the tune, and that I whistle more accurately than if I was just whistling idly as I was cooking in the kitchen, say. Some notes still come out flat. Not sure what I can do about that - I’m a bit long in the tooth to revise my whistling technique now.
I’ve had neighbours comment that I “seem to be happy” in the mornings.
The whistling makes me happier than I otherwise would be, but I’m not generally in an especially happy mood when I trot off to work.
Another few reasons for the lack of whistling is that milk deliveries are reducing. Mostly because people tend to get their morning milk from supermarkets. Milkmen aren’t so happy. They don’t whistle. Postmen go by car and bicycle in our area. They don’t whistle. And people don’t walk so much. If you whistle in your car, who hears you? If you walk along the street whistling, who do you pass? There are fewer pedestrians. Fewer to whistle, and fewer still to hear it.
Wasn’t mouth whistling used a lot in music early in this century? I seem to remember a number of old recodings that featured whistling as a musical form.
I too find that whistling or humming a tune I’m learning is an important part of internalizing the tune. If I can’t hum, whistle, or sing it, I have a harder time playing it. I have a whistling range of a 13th, so that helps.
I think, as with the penny whistle (i only use this term here to avoid confusion with whistling with the lips), it’s also the simple and accessible nature of the instrument that means it is often given little regard as a serious instrument - everyone has a pair of lips (although having said that I have never been able to whistle).
But as with the penny whistle, when mastered, whistling is comparable with other more highly regarded instruments. CF. Toots Thielemans et al.
Roger Whittaker comes to mind. But he was last century. It’s still “early this century”, isn’t it? ..I hope…
Probably because few do it well, it has a habit of “vanishing” if you try to do it to order in performance, and generally people seem to find it annoying even if done well. I once drove an archaeological site I was working on potty when, aged 17, I taught myself to flutter tongue while mouth whistling. Remember “Trimphones”, oh ye Brits? FWIW, I have a usable whistling range of two 8ves and a tone from a low E up to a high F# (today at any rate). Not claiming I can whistle particularly tunefully though! Like anything else, that takes practice. I have never mastered the shrill/loud whistle with fingers stuck in mouth, though, despite some prolonged efforts. Off topic somewhat, I can play a tune using the “owl call” hands ocarina (with inverted flute type sound generation)!
I think it’s what InnocentBystander says. I’ve read interviews with many songwriters recently and quite a few are saying that Melody is dead, no one writes melody anymore … thus few whistleable tunes. 
I do run across someone “whistling while they work” every once in a while, used to hear it a lot more often.
Maybe we should start a Movement.
KAC
My husband whistles all the time. He can whistle just about anything, and it sounds great. I, on the other hand, can’t whistle at all. I think it’s an awesome talent, and admire those of you who can whistle a happy tune and whistle while you work.
I tend to whistle alot, and usually dont notice i’m doing so, sometimes its a song i’m practising on my penny whistle, or a song i have in my head, or my own songs, but if I dont have music with me, then usually I need to create some
I try to.
I whistle all the time - probably tunelessly, but no one has told me so yet! If I can “mouth whistle” a tune then I can also play it, on whatever instrument I happen to be using at the time. It’s useful from that point of view.
I often whistle dance music, especially at work: I’d obviously rather be dancing!
Is that the famous Seven Dwarves Ceili Band rehearsing before the big dance? I think I hear Bashful diddling his concertina in the background. 
Fans of the Allmusic.com online database know that their recording credits distinguish between “Whistle (Human)” and “Whistle (Instrument)”. But they get it wrong all the time. So the impression is that people like Mary Bergin and Joanie Madden are expert pucker players.
Al Jolson supported himself for a while in his teens as the whistling part of a two person vaudeville act.
Is that Paddy Moloney’s other band?
whistling, uhh, discrimination?
Discrimination has become a perjorative (which in itself is a form a discrimination). However, even in the perjorative sense of the word, discrimination is not necessarily a bad thing.
Do not confuse discrimination with personal preference. Whistling with the lips sounds nerdy. So does whistling with a whistle. Am I being prejudicial, objective, fickle, or advocating affirmative action?
There.
Is that the famous Seven Dwarves Ceili Band rehearsing before the big dance
They’re actually two very famous East Clare fiddlers if I remember correctly
Anyhow, a while ago at Dympna O Sullivan’s CD launch there was a man from Mayo who was a beautiful whistlers, slow airs or dance music, it was all really superb.
Intriguing, Peter …
My dad was a wonderful mouth whistler, with both range and pitch, and an extraordinary inventory of ornaments. His preferred repertoire was light opera, so I don’t know if his skill was a carry-over from a Monaghan tradition in his youth, and I never thought to ask while he was still with us.
I’ve had a few days whistling where I know I sounded good. And does it really sound nerdy? Hmmm…? I think people like it. I don’t know why they would start whistling so soon after 've done it, whether they are good or not. I should say that I’ve deliberately started whistling just to see if, or who, would start next. I was surprised at how many and just who ended up whistling. What I’m really wondering is why singing is so vastly popular to whistling. The obvious of course is so much more can be commucicated when music is combined with words. I understand there are some cultures that use whistling to communicate over long distances. One place I think I remember is some place in the Alps?
Aside from this serious curiousity of mine, wouldn’t American Whistler reality show be a huge hit?
Well, if discrimination were not bad enough, no whistling is DEAD:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/27/earle.hagen.ap/index.html
KAC