Correlation between flute playing and mouth whistling?

[norseman]

I'm still very much a beginner at flute, but I took to it pretty naturally. I was able to get a pretty decent stable tone fairly quickly.

I've been a pretty good mouth whistler for most of my life. I'm wondering if using the little mouth muscles for whistling has given me a good head start in flute playing? They're used a little differently for flute playing than mouth whistling, but it seems like they're pretty related.

How many of you flute players are also good mouth whistlers?

Bob

[jim stone]

Flute playing has much improved my mouth
whistlling, which was never much good
and still isn't very good, but it's better.

I would expect that a good deal of whistling,
even on a whistle, might help somewhat
with flute embouchure.

[Doug_Tipple]

I think that there is quite a bit of similarity between flute playing and mouth whistling, both requiring a focused embouchure.

I have had a life-long passion for mouth whistling, and I am a much better mouth whistler than flute player. At the current time I am reading through a very nice book of tunes called "The Penny Whistle Book" by Robin Williamson. I am playing the tunes with both flute and whistle, but I also have been trying to improve my sight reading skills by mouth whistling the tunes, which I find pretty challenging.

[Lambchop]

I've been a pretty good mouth whistler for most of my life. I'm wondering if using the little mouth muscles for whistling has given me a good head start in flute playing? They're used a little differently for flute playing than mouth whistling, but it seems like they're pretty related.

How many of you flute players are also good mouth whistlers?

Bob

The jury is still way out on my flute playing, but I've been a spectacular mouth whistler since the age of 3. Well, probably more annoying at the age of 3 than spectacular, but pretty good for a 3-year-old.

I think the skills are related, certainly. The whistling transferred easily to the flute and the flute is making my whistling different.

Interestingly, I have discovered that the ornamentation I am now learning isn't anything new . . . I've been whistling it forever. Have no idea where I might have learned it, either.

[treeshark]

I do so hope they are not too related as, much to my annoyance, I've never been able to mouth whistle at all! I had a Godfather who could whistle really complicated classical pieces... and as a kid I always wanted to be able to do the same... I tried for many hours with no success alas.

[MarcusR]

I'm with treeshark on this.
As my whistling is much better inwards than outwards, it better not be any correlation to flute playing
or I might need to give up my embrochure and start sucking on the end instead.

/MarcusR

[Doug_Tipple]

Mouth whistling has one big advantage over flute or whistle playing, and the advantage is that you can make a mouth whistle tone either on the inhale or the exhale, like on a harmonica. Just try doing that on the flute!

One serious advantage of flute playing, however, is that, when you carry your flute with you in public, people are impressed that you play an instrument. Carrying my violin with me on an airplane, I usually receive a lot of comments like, "I wish that I could play an instrument". Yet, when I walk through the shopping mall without an instrument in-hand, no one even guesses that I am a serious mouth whistler. They assume that I am nothing more than one of those boring mall walkers that never buys anything. Oh well!

[norseman]

If you carry a Tipple flute in the pistol case around, people will notice you! In fact, if you carry one on a plane, you may get a whole team of people eager to examine you and your luggage!

Bob

[jim stone]

I've been a pretty good mouth whistler for most of my life. I'm wondering if using the little mouth muscles for whistling has given me a good head start in flute playing? They're used a little differently for flute playing than mouth whistling, but it seems like they're pretty related.

How many of you flute players are also good mouth whistlers?

Bob

The jury is still way out on my flute playing, but I've been a spectacular mouth whistler since the age of 3. Well, probably more annoying at the age of 3 than spectacular, but pretty good for a 3-year-old.

I think the skills are related, certainly. The whistling transferred easily to the flute and the flute is making my whistling different.

Interestingly, I have discovered that the ornamentation I am now learning isn't anything new . . . I've been whistling it forever. Have no idea where I might have learned it, either.

Will you say something more about ornamenting
mouth whistling? I would like to do this, if it's
possible.

Doug, it is a revelation to me that one can
whistle on the inbreath. Thank you!

[fyffer]

I'm with treeshark on this.
As my whistling is much better inwards than outwards, it better not be any correlation to flute playing
or I might need to give up my embrochure and start sucking on the end instead.

/MarcusR

(first post!)
LOL! I, too first whislted on the inhale, and since I can now do both, I don't ever have to breathe to make music! Makes me wax poetic:

If ever, oh ever a whistler I was,
I'd never have played a whistle because
To whistle while whistlin' in
Was just the beginnin', an'
Now I just suck at both of 'em.

(OK, the last line is a little weak, but I got a chuckle out of it!)

[MarcusR]

(first post!)
If ever, oh ever a whistler I was,
I'd never have played a whistle because
To whistle while whistlin' in
Was just the beginnin', an'
Now I just suck at both of 'em.

(OK, the last line is a little weak, but I got a chuckle out of it!)

Brilliant
Cool to start of with a poem on your first post.
And as nobody said it yet, WELCOME ABOARD!

/MarcusR

[Tipple/fipple Flutist]

I had an interesting experience in what you have mentioned, I was having a hard time getting any sound at all from the flute when I first started playing, I then did literally whistle into the flute and I began to get the idea, it does make an interesting sound when you have both the flute and whistle going at the same time. Sort of a vibrato thing. Try it, you may find it as fun and interesting as I did.
I am a very good whistler, warbles and all, I do bird calls and lots of Classical pieces, a great way to entertain yourself on a long walk.

[Lambchop]

Will you say something more about ornamenting
mouth whistling? I would like to do this, if it's
possible.

Doug, it is a revelation to me that one can
whistle on the inbreath. Thank you!

OK, Jim. I've pondered this since Wednesday, but still have no idea what to tell you. Whistling is like riding a bicycle or a surfboard. You can get someone started, but the whole rest of it is something they have to learn by experimentation and practice.

Yes, you can whistle on the inbreath. There is a slight difference in the sound when you do that, so you can affect your whistling by employing in-and-out in different patterns. You can, for instance, make little bubbling or popping notes by whistling in slightly and then out again.

You can also vary the sound by raising and lowering your tongue, varying the tension on your cheeks so that air fills the pocket or not, allowing air to accumulate in your oral cavity and then kind of bouncing it out all at once, and so forth. Lots of things you can do . . . it's not just blowing air through pursed lips.

At least one other person mentioned being able to ornament, so I don't think you can say that I'm making it up. Besides, if singers can ornament, it stands to reason that mouth whistlers can, as well.

You just have to experiment and see what sounds you can make, and hear the sound you want in your mind and try to make that sound.

[fyffer]

One comment on mouth-whistling ornamentation:
One ornament I can get away with sometimes - on the intake and outtake - is kind of akin to a flute roll. If you pronounce the syllables "oodle-ooh", which is basically nothing more than a tongue motion, you get a slight pitch change along with a rhythmic variation in the note you are whistling. I find this easier on the inhale whistle than the exhale, but I know a man who does it both ways, and is clean as a .. er.. whistle.
Just practice, is all.

[Tom O'Farrell]

And I on the other hand have completely lost my ability to mouth whistle at all. And I do blame the flute. I used to be OK as a kid then I started flute when I was about 11 (recorder before that didn't affect me at all) and wham!! It was gone. Can't whistle at all even today.