Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Radio & Music >

The limits of whistling

No star here laces

10:47 / 16.08.01

You're stepping out of work early on a friday, the weekend ahead of you. You're walking over to the comic shop and you know that there's a New Xmen waiting for you. You've been listening to great music all week and there's only one thing to do:

Stride down the street, hands in pockets, head back, whistling really loudly.

Only the song you're trying to whistle comes out as a tuneless, repetitive sequence of about 6 notes.

What've you been trying to whistle lately that just isn't whistlable? For me it's Beatnuts - "No escapin this" which has a really catchy looped vocal snippet which alternates with an equally catchy piano sample. You've probably heard the tune - it's pretty big, or at least was a couple of months ago. But sounds moronic if you whistle it...

Fengs for the Memory

10:55 / 16.08.01

Whistling, just say no. You just sound like an asthmatic with a lung full of helium.

12:36 / 16.08.01

God but I love whistling! It is my one talent. I can even do that warbly old man's whistle where the pitch of each note is modulated, Tom Good stylee. Most people hate it, which saddens me greatly, but what can you do, eh? What can you do? Nothing! That's what! I honestly believe that morale would be improved a hundred million percent simply by upping the numbers of whistling milkmen and delivery types. Nothing reassures like the clink of bottles and a familiar tune well whistled.

The tunes that give me greatest whistling pleasure are 'Strangers in the Night', 'Anything Goes', 'If Paradise is Half as Nice,' 'Close to You' and 'Misty' ("Look at meeeeeeee, I'm as helpless as a kitten in a treeeeeeee..")

The most BASTARD tune to whistle (or sing) is the Beach Boys' 'God only Knows', whose full title should be 'God Only Knows What the F***ing Tune Is'. Try it, go on!

No star here laces

12:48 / 16.08.01

Sav, my appreciation for you just grows and grows. Soon I may mess my pants. How do old men do that? Old men are incredible whistlers. We should organise a whistling festival for old men, possibly with separate milkman and postman arenas. There could be virtuoso solo displays, whistle-off battles and massed choral whistling.

13:15 / 16.08.01

I've noticed my whistling has been suffering lately -- either my lips are dry or I've lost the last remnants of embochure from playing trumpet in the junior high band.

Sometimes I can warble. I can get the chorus to "God only knows," but not the high harmony part. I think Brian Wilson had trouble sticking with a single tonic, so it's hard to conceptualize the melody.

There's a band called the Happies that will *make* you whistle. http://www.mp3.com/thehappies

I actually like whistling Toccata and Fugue (the fast part after the all-too-familiar opening) but it's pretty impossible. Can I join the band? Can I judge the old men?

13:16 / 16.08.01

Tyrone:
"How do old men do that?"

It's all in the tongue action, baby. Try whistling a steady note as you would normally - now, keeping your tongue lightly pressed into the back of your bottom teeth, waggle the mid section up and down. Got it? It should feel as if your tongue is acting like a wave machine pumping out alternately larger and smaller packets of air.

"Old men are incredible whistlers. We should organise a whistling festival for old men, possibly with separate milkman and postman arenas. There could be virtuoso solo displays, whistle-off battles and massed choral whistling.

That would be fantastic! I'd pay good money to see that. And I like the idea of giving the old folks a chance to show off in a dignified manner.

Funny enough I was thinking just the other day that getting old men to whistle the latest tunes would be an eco-friendly alternative to recorded music. I'm not quite sure how it would work exactly, but basically, instead of buying a single you'd pay an old fella to whistle it to you. Instead of making a compilation tape, you'd get your grandad to memorise a load of tunes and whistle them in a specific order on request. That reminds me, I owe Kooky a grandad...

13:23 / 16.08.01

I've found that Bonzo Dogs tunes work well for a whistler. 'Canyons of your mind' is a goodie, but Saveloy is right about 'strangers in the night'.
Problem is, I get as far as the 'da da da dada, dada da dada' bit, then can't remember where I am or what comes next. Hence, I'm definitely up for virtuoso whistling classes if someone's willing to lash out on a '101 great whistlin melodies' songbook.
By the way, ignore Ray Feng. He's only upset as they don't let him whistle in his iron lung.

gentleman loser

15:14 / 17.08.01

It's funny because I was just thinking about this subject yesterday. The problem seem to be that you only have about a two octave limit at best.

It's kind of like using one of those mid 80's Casio keyboards that only has fifteen keys and coming up with a workable tune. It's trickier than you would think.

18:56 / 17.08.01

i still maintain that roger whittaker needs to record an aalbum of pulp songs. dunno if the plumsbitch still feels the same...

Our Lady of The Two Towers

13:26 / 18.08.01

Orbital tunes are normally good for whistling, I'm currently whistling to P.E.T.R.O.L. and doing a fine job if I say so myself.

22:20 / 18.08.01

Lately, I find myself whistling "Minsterel Boy". Joe Strummer's new CD has a dreamlike 17 minute (!) long version of "Minsterel Boy" & I find it seeps into my subconcious.

13:53 / 22.08.01

"Just put your lips together and blow..."

Wow, check out this lot!

Whistling festival! With workshops and jam sessions!

gentleman loser:

"The problem seem to be that you only have about a two octave limit at best."

Yep (though according to that site, ranges of 3.5 are not unknown). My solution is to transpose up or down an octave during the tricky bits. Sounds 'interesting' if done mid-phrase. For a mighty, two-fisted challenge try "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" (Gene Pitney, covered in recent years by Nick Cave, Marc Almond etc). That bastard must span 7 octaves at least!

Alternatively, try whistling the theme to "Some Mothers Do 'ave 'em" with a pal who starts harmonising halfway through, without laughing. Makes me think someone should do a massive, overblown orchestral version of it with loads of 1812 Overture-type stylings.

10:29 / 05.08.03

Whistlecore.

Whistle. Core.

WHISTLECORE!

A

12:40 / 05.08.03

I always find myself whistling that Ladybug's Picnic song off Sesame Street.

Brigade du jour

21:35 / 09.04.04

Saveloy, I thought God Only Knows was fairly easy to whistle, it's a really very simple melody. If this were a real room with real people in it I could demonstrate. Or do you just mean the middle eight with fourteen separate harmony parts all going at once? Cos that is a fucking bitch.

Led Zep are pretty hard to whistle. Maybe that's some kind of statement about the essences of different types of music, as in Beach Boys are essentially melodic, and Led Zep essentially rhythmic.

15:47 / 15.04.04

Felicia>

The bit I find tricky is in the second line:

Line 1: Doo-doo-doo-dooo-do-doo-doooo,
Line 2: Doo-doo-doo-doo?-doo?-do?-do-doo?-doo???!

(Italics denote the point where the steering wheel starts to wobble and I look like going off the cliff)

I just cannot get it, even after listening to the song. Frustrating as Hell.

Brigade du jour

22:00 / 21.04.04

I suppose the harmonies are always going to fuck you up as well. Fair point.

08:00 / 27.04.04

My perennial favorites to whistle are the Super Mario Brothers Theme song and the Bosom Buddies theme song.

20:09 / 03.10.06

Whistling Tunes

20:31 / 03.10.06

I love whistling along with music, improvising harmonies and runs. Luckily for my co-workers I have a private, and sound-proof, office. I can't really bring my bass to work so I have to have some outlet.

12:20 / 04.10.06

Saveloy, when I saw this thread bump, I came in specifically to post that link. Good call.

12:40 / 04.10.06

Anyone heard the Peter, Bjorn and John (young folks) single that's been doing the rounds recently? Whistle-tastic, it is.

I love whistling the various Super mario themes too. I like to beatbox to the Yoshi theme, but I whistle the tune for the Gameboy super mario land all the time, classc choons.

10:27 / 15.10.06

I am obsessed with trying to whistle Kanye West's Jesus Walks.

It's not pretty.

Hydra vs Leviathan

10:37 / 15.10.06

Oddly enough, one of the other message boards i check frequently had this thread recently...

The Star Wars Imperial March and the intro to Yabby You's "King Pharoah's Plague" are tunes i always find myself whistling...