Bird Call Hands

How to use your hands to make the bird call sound.

Step 1: Getting the Hands in the Proper Position

The first section of this tutorial will show you how to correctly arrange your hands to get the proper sound.

Step 2: Put One Hand on the Other

(I don't think that this should matter whether you're left or right handed, but if you are left handed and this feels unconfortable, please do the opposite hands as described)

Place the left edge of your right hand at the base of the fingers on the left hand.

Step 3: Move Right Hand Down

Now take your right hand and, pivoting on the left edge where your hands are touching, move it down onto the left hand.

You should not need to lift your hand to do this step.

Step 4: Cup Hands and Align Thumbs

Take the fingertips on both hands and curl them around the other hand.

The thumb of the right hand will be lower down then the thumb of the left hand. Keeping your hands together, move the left thumb up so that both thumbs are aligned.

Your hands are now in the correct position to do the bird call.

Step 5: Proper Blowing Technique

The following steps teach you how to blow properly so that the hands will create the proper sound.

Step 6: Pucker Your Lips & Inhale

Pucker your lips and hold your hands in front of them.

Inhale.

To inhale properly, try the following:

• Though to play most instruments you breath from your chest, you will actually blow better here if you breathe from your throat (get a lot of air in your throat, but not any in your lungs. Basically, do a breath that gets your shoulders to move)
• Hold the breath in puckered lips (again, if you play a woodwind instrument, you're encouraged to not do this. However, this technique works better here
• Do not inhale with your hands already at your lips

Step 7: Bring Hands to Face & Exhale

Now, bring your hands to your lips. You should not have your lips over the space, but over the knuckles (see picture).

HOW TO PROPERLY EXHALE TO GET THE WHISTLE:

If you exhale incorrectly, you will only hear air passing through your hands, not the desired whistle.

• Keep your hands tight. If they're too loose, air will escape out the sides
• That being said...make sure that there is some space between them. Otherwise, the air has nowhere to go.
• Blow hard. If you do not blow strong enough, you will not get the whistle.
• Keep your hands steady. If they are shaking, the whistle might stop mid-blow.

Step 8: Getting the Bird Call Sound

To achieve the bird call sound, while blowing, move the fingers AND ONLY THE FINGERS of the right hand slightly (it may help to only move the fingertips).

Step 9: Advanced Techniques

There is another, more advanced way to use the bird call technique as well.

You may have noticed that by moving the palms of the hands (while in the grip) in and out will change the pitch of the note you are producing. If you feel very confident with your call and breating techniques, you may be able to produce full songs on your hands.

There really aren't many tips I can give on this; you can either do it, or you can't. I'll just point out some things:

- Moving your hands closer together will cause the pitch to rise
- Moving your hands farther apart will cause the pitch to lower
- If you are really good at this, you can get the pitch to rise extremely high by removing all the fingers of the left hand except for the index finger. BE CAREFUL IF YOU DO THIS! It requires a lot of air to achieve the very high notes, and you may feel light headed.

On that happy note...have fun bird calling!

Comments

[Mcmorris]

im blowing hard and the air is coming out the little hole at the bottom of my thumbs... not making any sound tho

[XRaptor]

I did it literally

[brian12388909624]

This is a lot like real whistling, it's gonna be hard for anyone to give exact advice on the technique. It's one of things that's just going to require practice, like a lot. It took me several years to learn how to whistle with my mouth, I'm not kidding! But I can do it now. You can do this too. Just persevere.
This guide DOES work, keep trying new things.

[Foromador]

Where is the air supposed to escape? Nothing I'm doing is working, and a lot of others seem to be having similar issues. I feel like there's a piece of information this instructable is missing. I tried it with the palms of my hands so tight together no air could escape, and I tried it with the palms my hands so far apart that the air went right through my thumbs and neither method worked. I tried making it so the air would escape through a different path, still didn't work. What am I doing wrong??? Am I supposed to just blow, or am I supposed to whistle into my hands? Idk but if I could give this a thumbs down I would because this is infuriating

[christian.blas21]

The air should go downwards and escapes to that little hole of the thumbs

[christian.blas21]

It works, I did it for 30 mins straight and gave up, but when I tried it again it works but not that loud, then I tried making the hole tighter.

Tip: your lips should be pushed inside, like you do when you immitate you grand parents that has no teeth
Blow at the top of the two tumbs, not in the hole

[caguilar35380]

it works! TIP: put your teeth on you're nail. it works!!!😁

[caguilar35380]

i blew put i just heard no whistle

[lainey.l.blackwell]

this did not work :(

[jose.chavez]

this was made three years ago so I think they need to update this crap because I have been trying for 2 straight hour and it does not work maybe they did not explain it right

[jose.chavez]

correction 14 years

[nhardy407]

Its not working

[Dj_Foxworth]

I'm only able to do a high pitch whistle and when ever I tried doing it like it says to do it, I can never do it. It only makes really high pitched whistles that hurt peoples ears. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

[Dosorog]

Holy shoot it actually works

[KaylaD45]

I have tried everything, but air always escapes either down my chin or up into my nose, sometimes both. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

[SupperEyes]

You need to press your lips against the closed hands so that it makes a seal. If your lips are not close enough, air will escape

[eskimoboy]

wow... this is REALLY loud. A piece of advice: do not do this into the ear of a sleeping person. They may lash out and strike your hands into your face, giving you an unsightly black eye. :)

[BicycleWriter]

Oof xd that did not happen

[blackstar132]

haha. i wouldnt do that.

[Sebastiandragonmaster]

cough cough.... you toatally did not do that cough cough...