Why do I know how to whistle (when others can't)?

My grandmother liked to whistle, and I remember her teaching me when I was very young. I can whistle, both by pressing my tongue against the roof of my mouth, and also the more traditional lips-pursed way.
I know that some people can’t whistle, but I remember that it came very easily to me. Maybe it also came very easily to you, and you just picked it up naturally.

I learned when I was a little kid because I wanted to as I thought it was cool.

Whistling like riding a bike is to keep trying until you get it and then keep at it until you master 2–3 different ways to whistle and then use it often.

Perhaps we learn how to whistle the same way that we learn how to talk. And like talking, some of us are better at whistling than others.

@gondwanalon But we are immersed in a world of speech, so it’s no wonder that babies babble until their mouths utter the sounds into what we register as letters, words, and sentences. The same can’t be said of whistling.

I’m guessing that the main reason that whistling comes easily to me is because I learned how to play trumpet in Elemantary school and continued through my high school years. The fine motor control of the lips needed for both activities is pretty much the same since the amount of lip tightness is what controls whether the sound comes out at higher octaves or lower octaves.

This is why buglers can get such a variety of notes with no valves to press. Obviously it’s more limited than either trumpets or other brass but they can get quite a variety of notes without any valves.

So that’s the basic skill needed for whistling. You can’t just pick up a trumpet and blow through it as you would a straw and expect to get anything put of it.

So I’m assuming that those who have not picked up whistling on their own are most likely just blowing (as they would to extinguish a candle) and wondering why no sound comes out. Once someone makes them aware of the need to force air through tightened lips, they can begin rudimentary whistling and refine it from there (assuming they can sing and aren’t tone deaf. If they are, then all bets are off)

I honestly don’t know of anyone taking music lessons who couldn’t get the necessary sound from a brass instrument when a teacher instructs them. After that it’s just refinement of technique.

This is also one of the aspects that separates truly exceptional brass players like Louis Armstrong or Winton Marsalis from the rest.

Timing plays a part too, but most of it is lip and breath control since there are only so many possible combinations of the three valves available to all. The rest is all about control. The fancy term associated with this is ombachure (sp?) but what it boils down to is lip control.

Same thing for whistling. Practice makes perfect :)

But you do need to know the basic rudimentary technique which I think anybody is capable of doing, if instructed properly.

I have always been able to whistle, I can’t remember ever actually learning to do it, I just could.

I can whistle a bit, but not very loudly, and I’ve never been able to do a two-finger whistle. I think it’s a skill you either can or can’t do and probably depends on the muscles around your lips. In a similar way to why some people can roll their tongue and others can’t.

When my grandfather was on active service during World War 2 he would often come home at all ours of day and night, and with the blackout it would often be very dark. He had a special “code” whistle, a particular four-note tune that he would whistle on approach to the door so the family would know it was him. My father adopted the same whistle and it worked really well for locating a lost child (me) in a busy place. I adopted it myself when my daughter was little and I use it as a “come here” command for my dog too. Sadly, this code whistle will die with me because neither my daughter nor my dog can whistle.

@muppetish You actually help to make my point. Babies are not immersed in sounds of people whistling to them all the time like speech. Therefore whistling skills are not so easy to aquire.

My Grandmother tells this story about me: When I was 10½ months old, she was in the grocery store with me. She thought she had a squeaky wheel on her cart and looked down to check. It was then that she saw and heard me whistling. Apparently I had discovered it while babbling. Now I am an awesome whistler. I am also a vocalist. I’ve heard that men are supposed to be better whistlers than women, but, could it be that people who are musically inclined are natural whistlers?