Re: When you whistle why do you always get the note you want?

Hi!

A very interesting question! I never even thought about that before. I guess you're right: it seems to be quasi automatic.
But: Unless you're very talented at whistling I kind of doubt that you always instantly get the exact note you want to produce. Have you ever recorded your whistling and then analyzed it? From my personal experience I can tell that I tend to miss the occasional note whenever I try whistling very complicated tunes (such as presto passages from classical works). Humming those same tunes poses no problem, though. I guess that's because I have better control over the 'humming generator'.

To come back to your question: try the following - stand in front of a mirror and closely observe your lips while at the same time touching your throat. You will most likely find that the tension in the throat muscles changes and that your lips slightly change position and thus the aperture, or opening, varies. After all the same principle as in musical instruments (and here, preeminently, the wind instruments) should apply. In order to produce a different note the way the air takes through the resonance apparatus has to be modulated. In wind instruments this is usually accomplished by shortening or lenghtening (via valves or holes or the like) the distance the air travels through the system. This is hardly feasible in humans since we can only to a slight degree change the length of our vocal tract. As far as I know changes are brought about by
a) widening or narrowing the aperture (opening) through which we force the air, i.e. vocal chords and lips
b) varying the position (towards the palate or towards the floor of the oral cavity) and the shape (arc, rolling it up slightly, etc.) of the tongue
c) tensing up or relaxing our facial, glottal, pharygeal and laryngeal (face, floor of the mouth, and throat) musculature, e.g. cheek musculature, lips, etc. Together with b) this contributes to changing the resonance behavior and the volume of the oral cavity.
d) producing tension in the diaphragm or other parts of respiratory/vocal system which function as a type of bellows.

To become an accomplished whistler generally takes some time, i.e. you need to practice at least a little bit. Also, the acoustic feed-back into your auditory system is important. Where did I go wrong and what do I have to change in order to get that note right? Through repetition the motor cortex is trained to produce the correct sequence of muscular movements (a program) to generate the sounds desired.
For easy tunes this learning is fast, for more difficult tunes it takes a little longer (if you're not already well trained). Some persons have better pitch than others and get it right almost instantly. Some even become professional whistlers (see ref. 3!).

Check out these references to whistling and what contributes to successfully mastering it:

• Rick Miller's whistling page.
• a page on a genetic disease called facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. One of the clinical signs is difficulty whistling which is attributed to weakness of the facial muscles!
• an article about a virtuoso whistler.
• That's what I came up with doing a Google Search (www.google.com) on whistling phonation.
• I also remember reading an article in Scientific American about the vocal apparatus (it spefically covered singing as far as I recall) which might be helpful. I can't cite it, though, but it must have been published at least 15 years ago. I couldn't find it on their homepage (www.sciam.com). If you want me to I will dig it out at home.