This is the very very first draft of my new whistling-harp project! 

• note to self - come up with catchier name than ‘whistling-harp project’. Shouldn’t be too difficult - anything would be catchier than that)

The basic premise is this:

• I love whistling 

(Semi-relevant Digression: I can’t touch type, which is neither here nor there, but being a two-finger-typist means that 

a. I don’t appear dissimilar from how I imagine a bear would look like when I type. Flurrying paws, lots of growling and a near-constant desire for honey 

b. I am prone to a high frequency of typos - which, of course, I meet with CONSTANT VIGILANCE - but when I first typed out ‘whistling’ it came out as ‘shitling’. Thanks a LOT, Subconscious!)

• Whistling is among my greatest joys and talents. Not that I have that many talents, but I do have a lot of joys.  Yet there isn’t really much of a forum for  whistling. No place for little old me. 
• It is confined to the world of old men and Disney animals - a crowd in which I wouldn’t necessarily have placed myself. 
• So one of my long-term goals is to record a series of songs, tunes, and ditties - whistled by me, and accompanied by my good self, on the harp. (Directed by, Executive Produced by, Starring and Guest Starring … Me. Spot the cameo by who-is-it-oh-wait-it’s-ME)
• The harp accompaniment is more out of necessity than choice. If I had the funds or the professional capital to have a symphonic accompaniment, I would go for that. But for now, it’s just me at the harp, me on the whistles and.. that’s it.
•  All this MeMeMe-ing acts as a nice segue into the nature of my very first whistling recording: it’s whistling of an operatic nature!   
• The Aria (I know it sounds ridiculous to talk about Arias when it’s whistling, but go with it) is O Mio Babbino Caro, by Puccini. Or, at least, a very bald arrangement of it. 
• That’s the other VERY important thing: this is a first draft. A totally imperfect version of something that I care a surprising amount about and wanted to share - because it can be fun, interesting, meaningful or sometimes just plain funny to hear something before it’s ready - or even before it’s a thing. 
• By all this I suppose I mean that it’s just some Primordial Warbling at this point but that’s half the fun. 
• Half Baked is my favourite ice cream flavour and it’s my favourite flavour of shared endeavour. Coincidence? Perhaps — but this’ll the kind of trivia worth its weight in gold when I’m a super-famous-whistler-whizz-extaordinaire (I’ve already had the stationary made so that’d better happen) 

Many thanks to Ralegh Long for helping me record this first thing. And more importantly, for laughing with me, not at me. Right now, I realise that I am the Florence Foster-Jenkins of whistling. A more flattering likeness I could not wish for. 

p.s. You can read my blog about my first on stage whistling experience here, if you do so wish.

p.p.s. Schönberg said that he wanted to write tunes that postmen would whistle. He can dream on.