In Arthur Ransome’s delightful series of ‘Swallows and Amazons’ children’s books from the 1930’s, the kids use owl calls to signal to each other at various points in their adventures.
“There was a noise in the wood below them, a noise something like an owl and something like a cuckoo, ending in a gurgle of laughter that was not like a bird at all.
“Here they are,” said John.
“It’s no good their trying to make the owl call,” said Roger. “They can’t do it.”
“What they’re good at is ducks,” said John. “I’ve never heard anybody quack so well as Peggy.”
“Nobody can be good at everything,” said Titty.
– from ‘Swallowdale’ –
I always imagine that they are making owl calls by blowing through their hands rather than too-wit-too-wooing. So how do you do that? Clasp your hands together like this:
If its more natural for you to have your hands wrapping around in the opposite way, thats fine; go with what feels best. Widen the clasp of your fingers so a little cave forms inside your hands. Your fingers can start fairly relaxed as long as they don’t let air escape between them. Now press your thumbs towards each other so that there is only a very small slot between them. The tops of your thumbs should be bent over so the top joints make little ‘mountains’, and the second joints of your thumbs roll inwards towards each other a bit so the fleshy part of your thumbs are pressing together firmly.
Now curl your lips a little around your teeth, and with mouth slightly open, press your lips to the top thumb joints, take a breath and blow through and down into the hollow of your hands. The air seems to tumble around in the hollow and then goes out through a small gap between your palms at the bottom of the hollow. Hopefully you have just made a cool owl call! But its more likely you will have to experiment and practise a bit to get the knack. Try altering the shape of the hollow by tensioning your hands differently, or blow more or less forcefully. Often a more relaxed clasp and a gentler blow makes the best whistle.Once you can do this whistle, you can trill the call by briefly opening and closing the bottom three fingers of the hand that wraps around the back of the clasp, or vary it by making different sequences of long and short calls. The tone is just right for a dove call, too, such as
this one recorded by
MatthewJCook.If you want to learn how to make that kind of piercing whistle that people make with two fingers in their mouth, there are
excellent instructions here.
Posted in noise, tricks
I’ve been trying this thing for a few weeks. How long does it take [normally] for a person to get the hang of this? Great guide, though.
I cant seem to get tis technique here so why dont you just reply back and tell me how to do it even though it says it up there. it is just too hard for me!
LOL! I’ve done my best!
And how long does it take? I’m afraid thats a bit like asking how long is a piece of string.
I did it!! whoooo!x
lol.. great instructions coz years ago me sister tried to teach me and i couldnt doo it. she soooo couldnt teach it.
Now i can even do it curling my tongue a bit, but its really not as loud.
An excellent guide. My uncle taught me this years ago and I only remembered I could do it a few days ago, so I decided to look it up on the net to see what other people had to say. (My keywords were the sad description “blow through thumbs”)
I’m trying to learn the theme to Doctor Who now, there’s only so much entertainment owl noises can give.
LOL on both counts, Rodwen! Good luck with Dr Who!
my father used to do that when I was a kid. I wasn’t able to do it back then, but thanks to you twenty years later I did my first dove call, or as we called it the “cuckoo”.
it’s annoying i can’t seem to be able to do it it is too hard but the instructions on this website are different to what i used to think it was.
i’ll keep trying!
lol
this annoying when you cant do it. Its more annoying when you do it once and can’t do it again. Its amazing that the sound comes out of two hands but its really hard to do
i found this hard but after about 10 minutes i kept getting the sounds so thankyou for your really amazing guide.
why is it so hard 4 me i tried it alot and it just wont work
cool in a mexican and my dad is great at that so i asked him for strp by step instoction but u helped to
THIS IS RUBBISH THESE INTRUCTIONS R SO HARD THEY MAKE NO FLIPPING SENSE TO ME!!!!!!!!! I DONT HAVE A FOGGY HOW U DO IT AND MY DAD KEEPS ON DOING IT AND IT MAKES NO FLAMMMING SENSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET A BETTER GUIDE!
(p.s) sorry everyone if thats really rude i have major anger issues when i cant do anything and everyone else can LOL
i will keep tryin!
why is it so hard i can do practicly every other noise and i do a
lol hope i learn it soon and i hope everyone else does aswell that carnt do it
brilliant duck noise ;D
i cant do it!!! why is this…every1 does it at school, i justcant do it…*help* plz?
any1?
I have been trying this for months!!! I finally did it! My best friend Alyssa tried to teach me and my friend Emily tried to teach me and so did another student at my school and I couldn’t do it but I tried this and I works!!! LOVE IT!!! I CAN DO IT!!! GREAT GUIDE!!!
I cant DO ITTTTTT!!!!!! waaahhh xx
i cant get the hang of it my dog could of wrpte better instructions than that
Lol, I got it in less then a day.