A slide whistle (variously known as a swanee whistle, piston flute or less commonly jazz flute) is a wind instrument consisting of a fipple like a recorder's and a tube with a piston in it. It thus has an air reed like some woodwinds, but varies the pitch with a slide. Because the air column is open at one end and closed at the other, it overblows the third harmonic. A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. ... A fipple is a mouthpiece that uses a narrow windway and a blade-like edge to channel and vibrate air blown into it. ... Various recorders The recorder is a flute-like woodwind musical instrument. ... piston + connecting rod In general, a piston is a sliding plug that fits closely inside the bore of a cylinder. ... A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument in which sound is produced by blowing through a mouthpiece against an edge or by a vibrating reed, and in which the pitch is varied by opening or closing holes in the body of the instrument. ... In acoustics and telecommunication, the harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency. ...

The slide whistle is most commonly used as a sound effect (such as in the sound tracks of animated cartoons, when a glissando can suggest something rapidly ascending or falling), but it is also possible to play melodies on the slide whistle. (For the album, see Sound Affects. ... An animated cartoon is a moving picture generated by photographing drawings frame-by-frame, as opposed to a normal movie, which is produced by shooting 24 frames a second of actual moving persons or objects. ... Glissando (plural: glissandi) is a musical term that refers to either a continuous sliding from one pitch to another (a true glissando), or an incidental scale played while moving from one melodic note to another (an effective glissando). ...

The instrument became common in the 1920s when it was occasionally used in popular music and jazz as a special effect. Louis Armstrong switched over from his more usual cornet to the slide whistle for a chorus on a couple of recordings with King Oliver's band and his own Hot 5. At that time, slide saxophones, with reeds rather than a fipple, were also built. Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America and in Australia as the Roaring Twenties . In Europe it is sometimes refered to as the Golden Twenties. ... Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and mostly distributed commercially. ... Jazz master Louis Armstrong remains one of the most loved and best known of all jazz musicians. ... Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971) (also known by the nicknames Satchmo and Pops) was an American jazz musician. ... Bb cornet The cornet is a brass instrument that closely resembles the trumpet. ... Joe King Oliver Joe King Oliver, (December 19, 1885 – April 8, 1938) was a bandleader and jazz musician. ... Saxophones of different sizes play in different registers. ...

In the 30s right through to the 50s it was played with great dexterity by Paul 'Hezzie' Trietch, one of the founder members of the Hoosier Hot Shots. They made many succesful recordings and Hezzie's virtuosity was legendary.

The slide whistle is today thought of primarily as a kind of "toy" instrument, but has been used by classical composers, with Maurice Ravel possibly being the first, when he called for one in his ballet, L'enfant et les sortilèges. More modern uses in classical music include Luciano Berio's Passaggio, which uses five, and pieces by Cornelius Cardew, Alberto Ginastera, Hans Werner Henze and György Ligeti. Classical music is generally thought of as sophisticated and refined; it may stem from a regional tradition, but aspires to universal form of communication. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... Joseph-Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 – December 28, 1937) was a French composer and pianist, best known for his orchestral work, Boléro, and his famous 1922 orchestral arrangement of Modest Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition. ... The Waltz of the Snowflakes from Tchaikovskys The Nutcracker Ballet is the name given to a specific dance form and technique. ... Luciano Berio (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian composer. ... Cornelius Cardew (May 7, 1936–December 13, 1981) born in Winchcombe, Gloucester, was an English avant-garde composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. ... Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (April 11, 1916 – June 25, 1983) was an Argentinian composer of classical music. ... Hans Werner Henze (born July 1, 1926 in Gütersloh, Westphalia, Germany) is a composer. ... György Sándor Ligeti (born May 28, 1923) is a Hungarian composer (now living in, and a citizen of, Austria), widely seen as one of the great composers of instrumental music of the 20th century. ...

Slide whistles are frequently used for sound effects in animated cartoons. (For the album, see Sound Affects. ... An animated cartoon is a moving picture generated by photographing drawings frame-by-frame, as opposed to a normal movie, which is produced by shooting 24 frames a second of actual moving persons or objects. ...

To fans of 1970s BBC children's television, the instrument will always be associated with the voices of the Clangers. The instrument also features prominently in the game of "Swanee-Kazoo" in the long-running British radio panel game, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. The 1970s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1970 and 1979. ... Corporate logo of the British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the national public service broadcaster of the United Kingdom. ... Childrens television shows are television programs designed for and marketed to children, normally aired during the morning and afternoon hours, mainly before and after school. ... The Clangers is a British stop motion animated childrens television series made by Smallfilms, the company set up by Oliver Postgate (writer and narrator) and Peter Firmin (modelmaker, animator and illustrator). ... Two examples of the kazoo A metal kazoo The kazoo is a simple musical instrument (membranophone) that adds tonal qualities when the player hums into it. ... A game show is a radio or television program, involving members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, playing a game, perhaps involving answering quiz questions, for points or prizes. ... Im Sorry I Havent a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to the initialism ISIHAC, is a radio comedy programme that has had several series each year on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 7 and the BBCs World Service from April 11, 1972 to the present. ...

See also

• Tin whistle
• Whistle
• Whistling