Trying to learn no hands whistling, like doctor Cox.
That got me thinking about the concept, even with a normal coach whistle, is it the air escaping through certain shape that causes the sound, Or the air blowing in?
In: Physics
This is actually a very complicated question. Right now we are not entirely certain of exactly what the mechanism that makes the noise in human whistling is. But the leading theory is that the mouth serves as a resonating chamber which causes the air to vibrate in the mouth, and then all of these vibrations get compounded together into a single high-pitched sound as that air is leaving the mouth. This style of resonating is called a Helmholtz resonator
I’ve taught myself to whistle five different ways, and each time I used the same basic process. It’s never taken me more than a couple hours to get a decent consistent whistle going with each method.
Basically, I watch someone doing the whistle method I’m trying to learn (if you look online, use an amateur YouTube video, not a Hollywood movie or show that’s probably just dubbed and not real). Then I mimic the hand/finger/mouth/lip shape they used, and I start blowing air out, slow and steady.
While I’m blowing out, I very slowly & minutely adjust my lip, tongue, hand, finger positioning until I start to hear or feel a little bit of a whistle sound. It might take an hour or so before you get juuuuuuust the right shape/positioning. But once you finally create the smallest amount of whistle noise, you’re pretty much golden. From there, you just stick with that setup and make smaller adjustments until you can make the sound stronger, louder, more consistent.
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