That ain't no whistling in the dark.

August 21, 2015 7:23 AM

You may recall that in the film To Have and Have Not, Lauren Bacall famously reminds Humphrey Bogart how to whistle: you just put your lips together and blow. And that is indeed how most of us do it. But not Hungarian whistling sensation Hacki Tamás, who, back in the 1960s, delivered some pitch-perfect Mozart by not *exactly* following Bacall's advice.
posted by flapjax at midnite (7 comments total)

Is he whistling through his teeth? Or just making the right shapes with his tongue? I've always been to whistle through my teeth (something I put down to an accident of dental genetics rather than any particular skill), but it's fairly tuneless. It's a shame there isn't a more modern video with better synchronisation between the video and audio.
posted by leo_r at 7:58 AM on August 21, 2015

I don't get it. How does he whistle like that? Most whistlers do "put their lips together and blow." Then there are the freakish singers like Yma Sumac (see 2:45-3:00).
posted by kozad at 8:21 AM on August 21, 2015

He appears to be employing the tongue-against-the-roof-of-the-mouth alternative approach to whistling, and further shaping the tones by changing his mouth shape. I can do tongue-whistling myself, but nowhere near the fellow's speed, articulation, and tonal quality.
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 8:32 AM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

I believe this technique is "palate whistling." Google it, if you're interested, there's various information.

I've been attempting to whistle like this for years ever since seeing this guy, but have made exactly zero progress. Not a single promising reproducible wheeze.

I just love the insanity of these tones coming out of, to westerners, incompatible mouth shapes. in it appears to simultaneously bewilder and anger people on a spectrum (guy at 0:55).
posted by cmoj at 9:48 AM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm a pretty competent whistler (Bacall style) and have two cues for my dogs, a quick "tweet tweet" to get their attention/stop and another "feeOOoWheeeep" to get them to come.

This guy could probably get them to make a cappuccino.
posted by remlapm at 10:32 AM on August 21, 2015 [6 favorites]

Amazing.

I've always admired people who can whistle well, though I am not one of them. There are some stunningly talented whistlers out there, and for your listening pleasure, here are a few choice favorites:

Geert Chatrou, World Champion in 2004, 2005 and 2008, gives a wonderful TEDx talk featuring his prodigious talent. As well as the first 2:20 of the talk, he also amazes at the 7:30 mark.

The late, great Ron McCroby appearing on the Tonight Show back in 1982.

'Whistling Tom' Bryant from Key West, Florida, is another well-known whistler, appearing here in a clip from the fine whistling documentary 'Pucker Up."

The great Roger Whittaker is another superb whistler.

There are others, but these are the ones that I feel are among the best...
posted by Quasimike at 11:05 AM on August 21, 2015 [6 favorites]

After watching some of these guys I've got a real strong image of Johnny Carson saying "That is some wacky, crazy stuff.".
posted by benito.strauss at 10:30 PM on September 19, 2015