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How do you whistle?

an illustration of three bluebirds sitting on a branch whistling
jamessleel
/
istock

How do people whistle? How does whistling make a sound? Why does your tongue change a whistle higher or lower? Can you get a trophy for whistling? Can people with laryngitis whistle? Get ready, we learn all about whistling with musician and champion whistler Emily Eagen and musician Yuki Takeda. And who whistles our theme song? We'll hear from musician Luke Reynolds, and a kid whistling chorus from our listeners!

Download our learning guides: PDF | Google Slide | Transcript

There are a few steps to getting a good whistle.

  • Lick your lips or use lip balm. If your lips are dry when the air passes, it’s less comfortable to whistle
  • Then you'll make your lips kind of into a pucker, circle your lips tightly.
  • Next, stick your tongue touching your bottom teeth.  
  • Then you make kind of a yuh, yuh, yuh sound, but instead of saying the words, make it with a little stream of air. You want to let air pass over the top of your tongue and out your lips. You're making a tiny little instrument by curling your tongue
  • Emily says it helps to make little sounds when you practice.  "Pretend you’re sipping tea with that little tiny space there. You don't want to push too much. If you blow too much air it won't work. You have to be really gentle."
  • Once you find your first whistle, it's all about practice and playing around to see what sounds you can make. If you move your tongue forward, the notes go up, and if you move your tongue down, the notes go down. If you can make a variety of notes, then you can start putting them together to make music!
Jane Lindholm is the host, executive producer and creator of But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids. In addition to her work on our international kids show, she produces special projects for Vermont Public. Until March 2021, she was host and editor of the award-winning Vermont Public program Vermont Edition.
Melody is the Contributing Editor for But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids and the co-author of two But Why books with Jane Lindholm.


But Why is a project of Vermont Public.

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