Do people everywhere whistle tunes?

Subject: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Allan C.
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 02:11 PM

I feel fairly sure that folks in virtually every land whistle for some reason or other. I was just wondering if there are places where whistling is never used for musical purposes. In other words, does a Laplander, for instance, only use whistling as a means to herd livestock or would he also whistle tunes? Any thoughts?

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: greg stephens
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 02:40 PM

Sailors were very unkeen on people whistling on board, except in special circumstances.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Mooh
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 02:56 PM

Wasn't there something about this in "Death Of A Salesman"?

Yeah, and what's weird is when a complete stranger walking by recognizes that you're whistling the bass line to the Gloria Sei Dir Gesungen choral.

Whistled "If I Only Had A Brain" once getting on an elevator with guys in robes at a courthouse. What fun watching their expressions!

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 02:58 PM

But fewer people are whistling in UK these days - Could the incredible lack of melody in most pop songs have any thing to do with this ??

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Cluin
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 02:59 PM

Whenever I was afraid, I used to whistle a happy tune.

Until I figured out it would make it easier for the Boogeyman to find me.

When I was little, I thought the Boogeyman was made of snot... made him very terrifying.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 03:09 PM

I'm no Roj-a-ker Whitaker but I whisle everywhere I walk.

Don

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 03:32 PM

Surely whistling is a dying art. When I was a lad ( now, there's phrase!), there were people making a living whistling - Ronnie Ronnald(?), and , of course, many of the pre-rock singers - Bing Crosby, Al Jolson etc all included whistling somewhere in their acts

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Allan C.
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 03:56 PM

I'm especially wondering if whistling is common among cultures in which non-chromatic music is more common. It seems to me that some of the music common to those areas would be quite difficult to whistle. I've not spent any time at all in such places and so have no idea if those folks whistle tunes.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 05:07 PM

non-chromatic tunes? If anything they should be easier to whistle, since non-chromatic scales don't contain so many notes.

Music that includes the notes that are missed out in a chromatic scale, quarter tones and so forth, that might be harder, but I doubt very much if people growing up in a setting where they'd been hearing music like that all their lives would find any particular difficulty in whistling the tunes. God knows how we get the notes in any case - our bodies are much cleverer than our minds in ways like that.

They say that whistling is a lot less common these days in England. It may be true. Generally speaking most times I overhear someone whistling, it turns out to be me. Perhaps what we need are a few laws against it, defining it as anti-social behaviour - I'm sure that would rapidly get more young people whistling.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Cluin
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 05:17 PM

It's not easy to incorporate whistling into a song while performing. Whenever I try to whistle a break, my lips are too dry to get a clear tone.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Allan C.
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 05:19 PM

Yes, McG, that's what I had intended when I mislabled the sort of music that you mentioned.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 06:38 PM

I too whistle all the time and only yesterday a woman complimented me on it in a supermarket. A lost art, and yes, I think modern music is akin to atonal classical, unwhistleable!

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Kaleea
Date: 01 Nov 05 - 09:58 PM

God bless Mrs. Miller, wherever she is. My daddy has always been the finest whistler I ever heard, he can still whistle with most of his teeth missing. I, of course, whistle tunes frequently on my pennywhistles (which cost much more than a penny) inasmuchas I suffer from WhOA!

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: number 6
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 12:06 AM

"You know you don't have to act with me, Steve. You don't have to say anything and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and ... blow."

... that's how you do it according to Lauren Bacall

sIx

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Sorcha
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 12:12 AM

I don't think I've ever heard an Asian person whistle, but that doesn't mean they don't.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 03:50 AM

Some Muslim societies forbid whistling, but nobody seems to know why (apparently there's nothing in the Koran about it). This rather lovely blog gives some detail (about halfway down):The Religious Policeman

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Ross
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 04:17 AM

There are still plenty of whistlers about in Bedfordshire

Are they being PC'd out though

I must admit it can feel a controlling thing in some circumstances - down the gym it's quite irritating sometimes

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Kitty
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 08:57 AM

I have been living here in Bolivia for about a month and was here before for about 6 mo. I love the music, and I love to whistle, though I am not esp good at it.

The music here is heavy in pan pipes and flutes and guitars and drums. I have yet to hear anyone whistle while performing. Nor have I heard anyone whistle walking on the street.

However, when I sing along with the music, a whistle comes in handy since I dont play the flutes or panpipes....

K

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Allan C.
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 09:15 AM

Wow! A 'Catter in Bolivia! Thanks, Kitty, that's the kind of information I was hoping to get. I sorta hope Shanghaiceltic checks in on this thread.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: GUEST,Dazbo
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 11:52 AM

Perhaps the lack of whistling in England owes much to walkmans and ipods. Why whistle when you can take the 'real' music where-ever you go?

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Innocent Bystander
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 01:50 PM

I think Don M. puts his finger on it - people whistle when they walk. You get into a rhythm, and then the music comes. Whistling on board ship is bad luck for one reason - commands were relayed using the Bo'sun's whistle. Someone might accidentally whistle a dangerous command - and then there's the matter of insubordination. I've seen allegations of a similar reason for whistling on stage to be unlucky.
"Popular" music (i.e. the heavily marketed commercial kind) is currently un-whistlable. It's only folkies and trad enthusiasts who still know tunes you can whistle. When I'm learning a new tune, whistling is an important stage in getting it right in my head.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Fliss
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 03:15 PM

I whistle, not very well, my Great Uncle Jack taught me when I was about 8. My mum said it was unladylike to whistle!

I whistle tunes I am learning thru, or hum or lilt them. It fixes them in my mind.

My dad had a very distinctive whistle which meant "Im over here" or "come here". And we knew where he was in a crowd, or that we had to go in for tea. Ive never quite been able to master it... perhaps because its not ladylike to whistle!

fliss

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: David Ingerson
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 04:13 PM

I used to whistle all the time--even considered trying out for the (US) national championship once, but didn't. Probably wouldn't have gotten very far, anyway. But now my wife doesn't like to hear whistling, so it's "Yes, Dear."... and not much whistling.

I remember several times as a kid when I started whistling in a group situation and soon everyone was whistling, as if it were contageous. But then the shop teacher or scoutmaster made some derogatory comment and we all went silent.

I've tried the opposite of Mooh's experience several times. Once when I saw someone carrying a French horn case I started whistling one of the Mozart horn concertos and to a cellist walking down the street I whistled part of the Brahm's double concerto, but neither reacted.

But I guess that was thread creep. I don't really know anything about other cultures and whistling.

But what a great instrument the human whistle is!

David

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Joybell
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 04:13 PM

Whistling in the theatre is supposed to be bad luck too, but of course it was part of the routines of many performers in the past. And then there's bird imitations which include it. Joy

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: MARINER
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 05:33 PM

I whistle all the time, especially when out walking.However it is not encouraged on ships.I once had a telling off from the old man for whistling onboard a ship. He said I was whistling up the wind.
Whistling competitions are also part of some traditionalIrish music gatherings.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Allan C.
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 07:20 PM

Addendum to MARINER's remark:

from this website --
ALDER
This tree was sacred to the Druids. The pith is easily pushed out of green shoots to make whistles. Several shoots bound together by cordage, can be trimmed to the desired length for producing the note you want and used to entice Air elementals. The old superstition of "whistling up the wind" began with this custom.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Ron Davies
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 07:45 AM

Whistling can be handy. At the Getaway when I did "Will There Be Any Freight Trains In Heaven?" (Hobo's Meditation), I can't yodel so I whistled the ending yodel.

And I had a grand time teaching a parrot (we used to have) the cat theme from Peter and the Wolf (as well as "Goodness me, why what was that? / Silent be, it was the cat")---we had 2 cats also-----and the opening of the Ride of the Valkyries.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Jon W.
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 11:35 AM

I once read somewhere that the natives of the Azores have a way of whistling in Spanish that can be heard over great distances (I hope my memory hasn't jumbled this up too badly). But, as has been mentioned, much current popular music is unwhistleable and that, combined with the glut of music everywhere from iPods to store sound systems, is conspiring to drive whislting out of modern culture. We must fight this by every legal means possible!

Sorry I can't shed more light on the original question.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 03:05 PM

The people of the Canary(sp?) Isalnds use whistles as communication over long distances. A language in itself I'm told.

I whistle all the time but then again I've got a parrot that whistles back (or sometimes initiates the conversation)(the other day he yelled "Damnit damnit damnit!" I don't know where he got that). The decline may be something genetic as I know people who couldn't whistle to save their lives.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: open mike
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 03:27 PM

ah the emergence of a new word
"unwhistleable"
and speaking of emergence, this thread
seems to have drawn a lot of new catters..
welcome all...

i love to whistle,,,and often do so
when in a group jam...i usually get
approving nods or eye brow raisings
(what is the word for that?!)
does that mean i am high brow now?

any way i have figured out how to
whistle with both in breath and out
so as to sustain a tune with out
having to stop to take a breath..

not quite the circular breathing
you must learn to accomplish
didgeridoo playing.

i remember meeting a german girl
once who explained that it waas
common to have a family whistle..
a tune which identified people
so if they were hiking for instance
they could locate each other.

i often think that the tune from
"close encounters of the third kind"
would make a good signal of this sort
when i had cockatiels and parrots i
would try to teach it to them..

in the movie it was the sound that
a UFO used to connect with the mother ship!

(maybe i had better NOT use it!)

mostly, though. i use it for calling my dog home.

i am always amazed at people who can whistle with
their hands cupped or with their tongue and teeth
which can create a sound whith great volume and
projection.

i can just hear how cowboys might whistle when
hearding cows,,,,they have to do it even ouder these
days to be heard over the motorcycles and 3-and-4
wheelers that have often replaced the horse.

it seems to be a means of communication often used
by herders.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Jon W.
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 04:17 PM

Yes - the Canary Islands. The inhabitants of the Azores would whistle in Portuguese, not Spanish.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 05:11 PM

Quarter notes. In fact I think most people whistling will tend to slide from note to note, where possible, rather than jumping cleanly from one note to the other, which means they are in fact whistling quarter notes and such. I suppose people who play musical instruments may be more likely to tend to do it the other way, jumping from note to note.

It's the same difference you get between formally trained singers and many traditional singers, which has often been put down as faulty technique, whereas it is just a different and and often highly effectuve, technique.
......................................

It hadn't occurred to me until we had a thread here about whstling that there are peopel who don't whistle in both directions, on the in breath and the out breath. It must nbe difficult if you only whistle in one direction.

I wonder if there are some people who whistle Anglo Concertina style, with different notes in the different directions, and others who do it the English Concertina style, same notes both ways?

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Joybell
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 05:22 PM

Our cockatoo whistles too. How do they do it without lips I wonder? Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: David Ingerson
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 06:08 PM

With their highly adaptable vocal cords (chords? ha, ha). So technically they are not whistling at all--just sounds like it. Sorta like train "whistles" these days. Real train whistles disappeared with the steam engines. Today we hear train horns, not whistles. Train horns--sure doesn't sound very romantic.

Cheers,

David

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: GUEST,Betsy
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 07:49 PM

Allan, I've just come back from working in Azerbaijan ( former part of Soviet Union) .Whistling (and I was told-off many times for doing it) in the office, lift etc - was bad luck.
I think it applied or applies to secret or contolled societies - I would have none of it - professing to be a happy and free soul who liked to make music.

Cheers Betsy

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Nov 05 - 08:06 PM

Train horns? I'd say horns is a word that is far more evocative than whistles. All kinds of heroic overtones - Robin Hood in the greenwood, Roland at Roncevalles, or Gabriel on the day of Judgement. Or Boromir making his last stand in the Lord of the Rings (a direct borrowing from Roland, of course.).

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Shields Folk
Date: 04 Nov 05 - 06:27 AM

I whistle all of time and work and I usually get one of two responses from folk. It's either "someone is happy in their work" or "will you just shut up"

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: GUEST,mick
Date: 04 Nov 05 - 06:27 AM

Country people used to imitate birds whistling.I found out that my father was something of an expert at it ,but only after he had moved back to Ireland after raising our family in London .I wonder if there's a connection to the demise of the London sparrow and the decline in whistling.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Nov 05 - 07:47 AM

Sparrows have never been great singers - when you whistle like a bird I think it's most likely to be a blackbird you're instinctively copying.

I think sparrows may be on the way back - several times this year I've seen a bunch of them. A long way from being common, the way they were, but it's a start. Noone has come up with an agreed reason for why they almost vanished.
...........................................

Perhaps whistling in the street has fallen victim to a sort of pincer movement between those who think life should be business like, and those who think that life should be approached with a cynical sneer. Whistling your way through life doesn't fit in with either attitude. Whistling as a kind of resistance movement...

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Nov 05 - 01:32 PM

The people who can't whistle or are too down-hearted to whistle have thought of so many ways to put whistling down.

It's unlucky. It's irreligious. It's not feminine.

Jealous, that's all they are. I'd feel sorry for them if they weren't so irritating.

When my husband and I get separated in a large place, we whistle to find each other. There's a certain bourree by Leopold Mozart which works particularly well for this.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Nov 05 - 06:53 PM

When I was a youngster, nearly all the boys learned to whistle, but there was a distinct "cultural" difference. Those of us who spent a fair amount of solitary time, shovelling out the horse stalls, repairing the chicken coop, etc., generally had time to practice and learn to whistle tunes.

The "city kids" who hung out in gangs on the street corners looking for mischief mostly learned one note - but very loud.

Obviously for us poor overworked ones, it was a musical relief. For the city riff-raff it was more of a signalling device.

With the girls, it was rare to find one who could whistle at all, and I've always suspected that they just never had the solitary time to practice. Learning how is best done in private, since control of the tone at first is a bit easier when it's moderately loud. At the very least, it's best done outdoors, unless parents and siblings are unusually tolerant.

Once a certain level of performance has been learned, it's more permissible to whistle when others are around; but now it might interfere with the people babbling on their cell phones in most public places - which of course would be unacceptable.

John

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Artful Codger
Date: 05 Nov 05 - 03:19 AM

Depends on the type of sparrow. House sparrows are uninspired, but song sparrows...well, the name says it all.

I can whistle on the in-breath, but not on the higher notes. Are others similarly handicapped? The quality is also weaker, so I only whistle inward in brief snatches, on unaccented notes. It really comes in handy, particularly as I like to fill in melody line breaks with harmony riffs or counterpoint.

There are a few songs I whistle in the middle of (like "Bobwhite, What You Gonna Swing Tonight" and Flander & Swann's "The Sloth"), but more often I fill with mouth-music. In private, I whistle a lot, but then, I listen to the kinds of music that have great melodic lines.

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 05 Nov 05 - 05:16 AM

I find the same limitations as Artful Codger in whistling on the in-breath. I can do it but don't use it much – mainly as a way of grabbing a convenient extra bit of oxygen.

A better analogy for in-out whistling would be the up-down bowing of the fiddle, rather than the Anglo Concertina. On the concertina, you are forced to go in or out, depending on the note you want to produce. On the fiddle, you have a choice of slurring note together or using a strong down-bow for emphasis and a weaker up-bow on unaccented notes.

Perhaps there is less whistling on the streets nowadays because most people go everywhere by car rather than walking down the street.


DC

Subject: RE: Do people everywhere whistle tunes?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 05 Nov 05 - 08:17 AM

The person who implied that to-days boom-boom music[reminds me of the old Ships engines] is almost impossible to whistle, had it right.
I remember the men in the streets whistling the latest Bing Crosby number or an Irish tune, that i`m afraid is all gone, I still have a go at whistling, but with the traffic noise and the fumes there is more than a chance that you might never get to the final verse.