Learn to do that loud whistling you always hear when people are hailing a cab

I learned to do this with four friends. We just decided we wanted to learn how. None of us knew how. We all went to a park (stone-cold sober) and just stuck our fingers in our mouths and tried. After much drooling and light-headedness, someone managed, and we gave each other tips until we could all do it.

I do it one-handed, with my thumb and middle finger of my right hand. I put them together like an OK sign, put the join against the tip of my tongue, fold my tongue upward, stick the thumb and finger (still pressing the tongue) into my mouth up to the first knuckle with my lips curved over my teeth, bite down medium-hard (hard enough to feel but not hard enough to hurt), and blow hard.

I can’t make different tones. I have heard, but don’t know, that it is possible for people with tongues that curl to do it with no hands and impossible for people with boring tongues to do with no hands. I have a boring tongue and have never tried to do it with no hands.

After 3 days of trying different combinations, i finally got it down with four fingers. Thanks to somebody mentioning that 4 fingers can give you more control and volumn, I gave it a shot. My next step is to do this with only my right hand. Next, left hand only. Next, no hand loud whistles.

I suppose everybody needs to adjust something to get it working. For me, putting four fingers means I can create a bigger cavity using all four fingers, my tongue pushed right against the finger. the four fingers helps closing the gap on the side of the cavity. Also, it doesn’t seem to require as much of tightening the lips when I use four fingers. When I switched to two fingers it became critical to tighten my lips.

as of the tongue, i find that I can create the whistle whether my tongue is curled up, down or stright pushing against the fingers. However they create different sized cavity hence different pitches.

my problem earlier was that I did not insert my fingers deep enough to create a good cavity and entry point for the air to flow through. I found that i needed to commit my fingers all the way in, so i can control the direction that I blow.

I found that practicing as the train goes by is a good idea. I’m now onto the two fingers and fingerless practice!

I found that it’s better to practice in small chunks. Once I got it right, it feels way too easy to be a miracle that i used to think it is. it’s really just “put the finger in your month against the tongue and blow.” as long as you got a real idea how it actually works.

i like to keep the opening between my fingers small, so it sounds sharper and longer.

Keep working guys, eventually you’ll get it. Good luck.