Tuneful whistling seems to be almost a forgotten
art. Yet whistling can be a
useful substitute for those times when one has the
urge to produce
music, but is too
lazy to whip out one's musical
instrument and toss off a few notes. You don’t need any extraneous
equipment, and there's no complicated fingering to remember.
However, whistling should only be done alone in the privacy of one's home, because not everyone can endure the sound of prolonged whistling, specially of complex melodies. Listeners, unfortunately, cannot appreciate the fact that while they hear what they take to be only an irritating shrill noise, the whistler is in fact rendering the full orchestrated multi-nuanced version. (And if you start to whistle only the counterpoint, this drives listeners completely nuts.)
Some good tunes are: "Strangers in the Night", "Fascinating Rhythm", the James Bond theme, "Puttin' on the Ritz", "Begin the Beguine", The Avengers theme, "Cheek to Cheek"...(You can try to whistle "Whole Lotta Love" or "3 A.M Eternal", but they’re just not gonna cut it.)