2: Whistle For It!

You may think you can’t whistle for toffee – but you’re wrong. With this simple technique under your belt, you’ll be able to drive everyone else mad whenever you’re out in the park or the countryside…

You will need:

* a blade of grass (a broad one seems to work the best)
* good lungs


What to do:

1. Put your thumbs together, so that the nails are both facing you, and your thumbs are joined together down their length. Sandwich the blade of grass sandwiched between them, so that the grass is fairly taut. It should be slightly visible through the natural hole there’ll be between the curve of your thumbs.

2. Position your lips at this hole, as though about to playing a trumpet or other brass instrument. Now blow!

3. Did you hear a brilliant honking whistle – perhaps like a tropical bird’s mating call? No, well try again! Try blowing harder, and also more softly. And keep trying until you hear the noise you’re after, because practice makes perfect!


What’s going on:

You’ve just recreated the principle on which that beautiful instrument, the clarinet, was created. When you blow on the grass, you make it vibrate, and these vibrations travel through the air, creating a sound in your ears.

If you can’t find a piece of grass, you can also create this sound by taking two pieces of paper, holding the two edges together, one very slightly in front of the other, and blowing on them… Or you can take up the clarinet, but that takes a bit longer.