Hack your anatomy: How To Whistle Loudly

http://www.natwilson.com/stuff/whistle.html

by eru • 18 years ago

49 33 18 years ago

natwilson.com

eru• 18 years ago

As with everything the trick is to practice and practice and practice. (Whistling is easier than unicycling, though.)

muriithi• 18 years ago

Wish he could include some diagrams or pics!

wallflower2• 18 years ago

Now, if someone could teach me how to roll my Spanish R's - I've heard that if you don't learn by age 3 you can't but I want to disagree.

hhm2• 18 years ago

Really? I speak Spanish so I have the inverse problem; my English pronunciation is funny.

adnam• 18 years ago

But you can spell "pronunciation", which many english speakers have difficulty doing :)

ComputerGuru• 18 years ago

I was taught Spanish in second grade (Sacramento district public school system) and can roll the R's just fine - I believe I was 6 or 7 at the time.

msb• 18 years ago

I took Spanish all through High School and never managed to get the roll down. Then in my early thirties I was challenged by a friend and in about a week it finally clicked. The problem is, I find it very hard to keep up without practice and it is never flows out naturally.

gruseom2• 18 years ago

I've heard that if you don't learn by age 3 you can't

Nonsense. I learned to do it long after I was 3.

This might help: put your tongue (but not the tip) just above your teeth, let it relax, then blow air out so your tongue flutters.

wallflower2• 18 years ago

I've heard someone explain to me that it's kind of like a flag fluttering in the wind. Except that your tongue is the flag. He recommended that I try to stick the tip of my tongue to the roof of my mouth and blow out hard - and resist the outward pressure (and the tongue will flutter back rapidly like a flag - the Spanish R vibration) - and once I got that, with time, the amount of pressure needed would relax.

ars• 18 years ago

You flutter your tongue? I've always used the soft part of my mouth, in the back. Maybe I'm making a different sound though.

icey• 18 years ago

Most people who have a hard time rolling their Rs are trying too hard; and it makes their tongue too stiff. Try relaxing your tongue (in other words, make it loose and lazy) and then try to roll your Rs.

tharris• 18 years ago

Maybe I could do it when I was three, but I definitely learned when I was in my teens.

ced• 18 years ago

I learned it accidentally when I was 21. I was making fun of a children cartoon commercial, by repeating it in an Italian mafia boss voice. Lo and behold, the Spanish r came out of nowhere.

angstrom• 18 years ago

I learned the hands free approach as a kid (no assistance, just experimentation). Now I can reach ear piercing levels that temporarily damage the hearing of those within 5-10 feet using either a 3-5 second burst or 10-15 second sustained whistle. I've found it makes for a very effective training mechanism with dogs.

sofal• 18 years ago

I had a friend try to teach me how to do it, and it still didn't work. I examined how he positioned his tongue, lips, and everything. I tried to do the same thing and nothing worked.

I then spent a matter of weeks experimenting with different mouth arrangements and almost making myself faint with the amount of blowing. Sometimes I could almost feel the whistle beginning, but it never quite got there. In the end I finally found the right configuration and I have now mastered this hack. I like to use it to imitate the squeaking noises that basketball players make on a court.

Other hacks I've mastered:

Talking like Donald Duck

Beat boxing

Raising my right eyebrow (for the life of me I cannot do it with my left)

PieSquared2• 18 years ago

Hah. I can raise my left, but not my right. Are you a leftie? (I'm not, so I'm wondering if that extends somehow to your... eyebrow-raising-skill).

seren6ipity• 18 years ago

I'm right handed and can raise only left eyebrow.

tordek3• 18 years ago

I'm righty and can only raise my right one. But I can also jiggle my left ear...

PieSquared2• 18 years ago

Wow. I read the second method, tried it, and it just worked. I don't know how that explanation helped me, but something just clicked. Now I can whistle! (Though not loudly yet...)

mattmaroon• 18 years ago

I don't know how many words that is, but it's all worth substantially less than 1 good picture would be.

Hack your anatomy: How To Whistle Loudly

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