How This Guy Became a Whistling Champion

[whistles]

[Narrator] Some people can whistle.

[blowing] And some people can't.

[laughs] Oh god, it's horrible.

[whistles]

Some people whistle pretty well,

but most people can't whistle like this.

[whistles]

I'm Sean Lomax,

I'm a International Grand Champion Whistler,

and I whistle, and I love it.

That's what I do, I whistle.

[whistles Flight of the Bumblebee]

Whistlers like myself, we practice.

We practice many hours and try to attempt to get whistling

to be taken a little bit more seriously.

[whistles Queen of the Night Aria]

[Narrator] Lomax is one of the few people,

who have devoted themselves to whistling

at the highest levels of musicality.

[whistles]

His unique sound has captured

multiple international whistling championships.

He's whistled the National Anthem

before crowds of thousands. [whistling National Anthem]

He's appeared on television shows,

including the Tonight Show.

Sean Lomax.

Sean? [audience applauses]

[whistles]

[Narrator] He's even performed with Cirque Du Soleil.

Whistling has taken Lomax around the world.

It doesn't matter what country I'm in.

If I whistle a song, it has way of just breaking barriers.

People appreciate it and it comes across to people.

[whistles Amazing Grace]

When you hear it really whistled, and it's done properly,

it has a way of just reaching out,

and just going right in and touching.

[Narrator] Whistling might seem frivolous,

even annoying to some,

but it's impossible to deny its indelible place

in our cultural life.

We whistle to express excitement.

[crowd whistling]

We whistle to train and call our dogs.

Whistling is even used as a language

in places like Turkey and the Canary Islands.

[whistling]

And then of course, there are the beloved popular songs

with whistling in them, like Bobby McFerrin's

Don't Worry, Be Happy.

This is a very melodic, great, great piece.

[Narrator] The Bangles's Walk Like An Egyptian.

[Walk Like An Egyptian]

Of course the whistling part I would always whistle.

[Narrator] And, the theme to The Andy Griffith Show.

Could whistle it backwards and forwards,

whistle it in my sleep.

And my wife said I actually used to do that,

whistle in my sleep.

[Narrator] Lomax has a style all his own.

His whistling makes even the simplest songs

sound sophisticated.

Okay, for example, this is how most people

would whistle Pop Goes the Weasel.

[whistling Pop Goes the Weasel]

This is how I would whistle Pop Goes the Weasel.

[whistling embellishments]

[Narrator] But Lomax says anyone

can improve their whistling.

It just takes practice, practice, practice.

[Narrator] So how should beginners get started?

The main thing is to relax.

Don't purse, don't purse your lips.

Find the location, or the spot,

where whistling is comfortable for you.

And the way I do that, or the way

I would suggest you do it, is to practice

in front of a mirror and finding the circle.

[whistling]

Relax, relax, relax. [whistling]

Find the circle and go from there.

[Narrator] To change pitch, just change the size

of the circle. [whistling pitches changing]

Lomax likes to think of it a little bit

like the aperture of a lens in photography.

In photography, a smaller aperture

brings in a tighter amount of light

and gives you a more clearer picture.

Well, it does the same thing with whistling.

So, the smaller the aperture, the higher the pitch.

The larger the aperture, the lower the pitch.

[Narrator] He also suggests practicing

alongside a piano, a pitch pipe, or a frequency tuner.

And you should really do that

when you first start because then your notes

are gonna be tight, they're gonna be accurate,

and you're learning it the right way

and not just by ear.

[Narrator] Whistling at Lomax's level

also takes proper preparation.

Step One: apply lip balm.

I use cherry Chapstick, but anything's good.

[Narrator] Step two: eat a peach.

Peaches, or nectarines, give the right

balance to your mouth.

They clean out all the bad stuff that's in there

and you get good, liquid, spit, sorry.

So, a good peach, before you start whistling,

is the way to go.

Hold on. [laughs]

[Narrator] Step three: work out those lips.

It's necessary to ensure that you keep

these muscles and the lip muscles in really top condition.

And you just do this [silent]

until it begins to hurt. [laughs]

[Narrator] But the real key to pro whistling...

[whistling] Is breathing.

Breathing is important, extremely important.

Breathing is everything.

In order for me to whistle a song,

I have to first figure out how to breathe it.

Once I learn how to breathe it, then whistling

becomes a little bit simpler.

You wanna be able to... [whistling]

Continuous, continuous, without any breaks.

[whistling Flight of the Bumblebee]

[Narrator] In fact, it's breath control

that lets him conquer complex songs,

like Flight of the Bumblebee.

When you break the note, all air ceases

and it's a matter of controlling your breath.

[trumpet playing Flight of the Bumblebee]

The trumpet player, for example, is breaking the notes.

[whistling]

And that is what you're doing with your tongue.

[whistling Flight of the Bumblebee]

It's very difficult and, again, it takes practice.

[whistling Flight of the Bumblebee slowly]

Making a note a little faster each time

just takes practice.

[Narrator] In fact, it took Lomax years

to develop the techniques needed

to perform the most demanding tracks.

I'm combining about three or four

different whistling styles in there

when I'm doing Flight of the Bumblebee.

I'm also humming when I whistle.

[humming and whistling]

With vibrato. [whistling and humming]

[Narrator] The most common style of whistling,

and the one Lomax practices, is called Pucker Style,

which is exactly what it sounds like,

pushing air through pursed lips.

I call it Pucker Power Whistling

because I breathe the music.

[Narrator] And while Pucker might be

the most common style of whistling,

it's not the only one.

There are lots of different types of whistling.

There's... [whistling]

It's very Yoko.

It's referred to as African whistling.

There's, of course, Pucker whistling, that's what I do.

[whistling a scale]

There's whistling that you can do...

Whistling with the fingers.

There's palm whistling, [blowing air]

where you use, which I can't do.

[blowing] Where you use your hands.

There's a whistling where you whistle

between your teeth. [whistling]

See, I can't get there. [laughs]

[Narrator] What Lomax can do is his own,

unique whistling sound.

[whistling in harmony]

There are a lot of really good whistlers out there.

When I learned how to whistle,

I was a young kid in church

and I would hear it a Hammond B3 Organ.

I was trying to emulate the Hammond Organ,

whether it's the Hammond B3 or we're trying

to do a riff in a guitar or something like that.

I've used the whistle to try and emulate.

[Narrator] Listen as Lomax whistles Amazing Grace

with his organ emulation style.

It's almost like two instruments are playing

at the same time. [whistling Amazing Grace]

What I do is I hum and use the cavity

in my nose, between my nose and my upper palate,

to resonate the sound.

The guy in Jurassic Park had that thing

where he blew into it and it made the funny sound.

[horn blowing]

But that's kinda what I'm doing is...

[imitating horn and whistling]

And it just gives it a different, unique, sound.

[whistling Queen of the Night Aria]

[Narrator] Technique is obviously critical,

but at the core of Lomax's whistling

is emotional interpretation of songs,

like his version of Mozart's Queen of the Night.

That's what he says has clinched his multiple

international whistling championships.

[Lomax] You're judged on your dexterity,

you're judged on clarity of notes,

and you're judged on the piece that you pick,

and you're judged on even your stage presence.

[Narrator] Lomax doesn't just read the music,

he researches the song.

With Queen Into the Night, if you know the opera,

the queen is telling her daughter

that she needs to go and kill this guy

and, you know, bring her a blood-stained dagger by morning.

It's a pretty intense song and it's an emotional song.

So, if you can bring that to the performance,

it makes for a much better performance

than just whistling it note-for-note

and it being right, that's very good, of course.

But if you can bring that extra to it, also,

and show the emotional portions,

then it makes for a much better winning performance.

[whistling and singing Queen of the Night Aria]

[Narrator] And it's that dedication

and attention to detail that lends

Lomax's performances their power.

[Lomax] You have to practice.

Once you get there, it's like, wow.

[whistling]

[piano outro]