Thread: How would you describe the act of whistling whose purpose is to gain attention?

You know the type of whistle I mean. One that has two changes in pitch, and with the middle note being both lower and held for much less time than the ones before or after. How would that type of whistling be described in a story?

Here's a contextual example: “A block past Buckland Road, a (blank) whistle pierced the air, and without thinking he slammed on the brakes.” I realise the adjective or adjectival phrase could simply be left out, but a good writer should be able to do better.

The first thing the description of your whistle put me in mind of, OX, was a guy whistling at a girl he thinks is good-looking. Any time I've ever whistled for someone's attention, I placed two fingers in my mouth and whistled once, sharply and for maybe five or ten seconds. I've never heard anyone whistle more than once, but that doesn't answer your question.

Something like: "A three-toned whistle pierced the air . . . "

Probably not.

Yeah, I think the one for a girl (or guy) is a wolf-whistle. I don't know why exactly, never seen a wolf or even a dog successfully whistle anything. Perhaps you could describe the whistle more by what it does than what it sounds like, like 'a shrill, attention-grabbing' whistle, or a 'concentration-shattering' whistle. Those are both probably quite bad examples, but you know what I mean...

Sam, the pre-pc “wolf whistle” is a similar structure to what I described but the various pitches are different.

I suppose if your way was “sharp” enough it’d work – I guess I was thinking of people who don’t use their fingers.

Definitely don’t like “three-toned”.

BabaYaga - Good thinking.

I believe I know which whistle(s) you are referring to.

The guy-whistling-at-girl one sounds like this: hwee-hwew

The three-toned-whistle sounds like: hweh-oo-wih

Am I correct?

If so, maybe you could describe the sound of that whistle using comparison. EG: "three notes of a wind chime", "three hammer falls on a xylophone", "a triad melody", or simply get into specifics "a whistle of three distinct pitches, strung together like a sagging necklace".

*shrug*?

I don't think you even need to describe the sound exactly. Just describe the situation.

Fred heard someone whistle and slammed the brakes. He looked around to see who was trying to get his attention. Then he saw Bill standing in front of the hardware story, waving frantically.

Or maybe:

Fred a heard a piercing whistle and slammed the brakes. He looked around to see who was trying to get his attention. Then he saw Bill standing in front of the hardware story, waving frantically.

We can guess what the whistle sounded like.

Or this may be one those things where it's not worth the extra words, or it's not important enough to justify the additional description or try to force it. So you move on and think of a more elegant or simple way to say that someone is trying to get your character's attention. Is the whistle that important or are you just locked into it for no good reason? Does some major plot twist pivot on the sound of this whistle?

Originally Posted by JosephB

Does some major plot twist pivot on the sound of this whistle?

As it happens, yes. That's why I need to get it right.

I agree with Joseph.
Look at Kyle's example of the whistle,
Does it need to describe the whistle?
We know what it sounds like to whistle for someone's attention, not to be confused with whistling a tune or whistling at a girl.

Originally Posted by SeverinR

I agree with Joseph.

This is pretty much how we could end all of these threads.

Agreed with the above suggestions. An exception is if whistling itself is central to the piece, or an important theme, or an important character trait. Then early on you can have a session where whistling is the topic of discussion, or an older character is teaching a younger character. That way you teach the audience various whistles, and can refer to them in action scenes using the simple labels taught earlier in the work.

Other than that I just can't see how to describe complex whistles on the fly without disturbing the flow.

I can see describing the whistle if the sound is a recurring element.

Perhaps the villain always uses that specific whistle right before something bad is going to happen. In that case, describing the sound of the whistle would be necessary, since the whistle itself is going to be used as an emotional/psychological trigger.

But I do agree if the whistle itself isn't important, then putting too much effort into describing it would read tediously. Like an author describing the pattern on a character's clothing during a fistfight, when the clothing itself has no relevance to anything.

What comes to mind for me is a 'cooee' whistle (sounds like a backwards wolf whistle I guess). I looked it up, and apparently it's mostly an Australian thing, so the meaning might be lost.
I would use it in the context: 'so-and-so whistled cooee...'

Joe has the answer.

No he doesn't. See amended Post #8