How to get a sound from a Shepherd’s Whistle
Before I started selling Shepherd’s Whistles I tried one myself and judging by the many questions I have received asking how to get a sound from the whistle, discovered they are not that easy to get a sound out of at first.
Do not despair! It took me about an hour to finally get a ‘tweet’ out of it, once you get the initial sound you will find it gets much easier. It is all to do with how you position it in your mouth. If you are familiar with wind instruments that can help.
Place the whole of the whistle in the mouth making sure that the straight edge of the whistle goes in first, with the plastic whistles there is a piece to hold on to which you would normally attach a piece of string to for hanging the whistle around your neck. This remains just outside the mouth. The nickel whistle does not have this piece but is otherwise identical.
Place your tongue over the top of the whistle so that the tongue covers the small hole in the centre of the whistle. It is your tongue that eventually controls the pitch, sound and strength of the noise coming from the whistle. You need to pucker your lips around the whistle and blow down from the top lip, this sounds complicated but when you have the whistle in your mouth you will find that there is only one way to blow.
You really have to keep blowing until you hear a sound, once you get a sound it is like riding a bike, you will just need to practice until you get the sounds you want. You will also find that once you get the hang of it there is not much effort involved in blowing, i.e you do not have to blow hard, which you will be doing whilst trying to get that first sound.
The different sounds are made by moving the tongue. In fact the whole secret to these whistles and getting the most out of them is to do with tongue movement. Although I said place the tongue over the top of the whistle, it is just as effective to place the tongue underneath the whistle.
If any experienced whistle blowers have any further comments please feel free to add them. There may be an easier way to use the whistle I have just explained how I learnt how to use mine.