Rattlebrained

4 or so years ago I stumbled on a video of someone blowing into a Aztec or Maya “Death” Whistle and thought: “Wow, that’s pretty cool, would be fun to have one”… So I searched the web, found a few websites on Aztec whistles and archeology, but didn’t see any you could buy. I remember telling a friend who goes occasionally to Mexico about them and to pick one up if ever… Time went by, as it has a way of doing, and slowly they moved from drawer to drawer towards the back of my mind.

Then a couple of months ago I saw a group of clay whistles and flutes at my local music store, wondered if there was a death whistle among them (wishful thinking); there wasn’t. Once home I searched the web again and lo and behold, 3 or 4 websites had some for sale; cool!

Or at least I thought so, until I spent some time listening to various examples, and watching some of the videos that can now be found. Turn’s out that there are almost as many variations of the sound of a death whistle as there are death whistles. How to chose? Where to start?

Well, I thought, if it’s going to cost me over $50 to get one and have it shipped to Europe better find out more about them first. So..
Mexicolore.co.uk has a couple of articles on them and some images of cross sections.
Scott Garcia has made a How to make an aztec death whistle video of the way he makes them.
Likewise OOODesign (who has a bunch of interesting videos) has this one: a small sound experiment on death whistle which towards the end shows how he has experimented with two pierced hollow plastic balls, one inside the other.

Suddenly it seemed more interesting to d-i-y.
Being of somewhat an impatient disposition, and not equipped for making things in clay I bought a package of black soft Fimo clay (which I have never used and is cooked in the oven) and gave it a go. 4 hours later I contemplated what I had made.

Death Whistle no1

Whistle Number 1:

The whistle made a ok “wind in a cavern sound” but no one was screaming in it. :P
I tried modifying the way the air hit the inner ball with a drill bit and made thing worse; less wind, not very interesting.

However all was not lost: after wasting 2 hours attempting to shape the whole whistle in one go, I had learned that it was a lot easier to make each part separately and cook them at a lower heat; around 90° Celsius, for 15min (an average of sorts determined after speed reading through a few forums).

It occurred to me that I had some plastic balls (not unlike very thick ping pong balls) that I had once recuperated somewhere that might be used to do some experimenting myself. I drilled a 2mm hole in one and used a small piece of tubing to blow at the it (the hole) with different distances and angles. I made the hole progressively bigger: 2.5mm and 3mm (which was too big for the size of the ball). By doing this I was able to get something of an idea of how to position the tube the air comes in on versus the hole. Still, it also showed how hard it was going to be to get a precise position with my Fimo clay as well as how elusive the “screams” are.

I went out a got some more Fimo, since the black had a tendency of getting black everywhere I hesitated on white, though I was buying light grey and ended up with mother-of-pearl. Oh well.. Cheesy…

To be more effective I made two whistles, first the ball and “air blowing” tube for one, and then for the other as the first elements were cooking. I made the tube around a 1.5mm drill bit with the idea of making it larger after it was cooked as needed. One thing I had noticed after the first unsuccessful whistle is that in the cross section images, the hole of the air tube is slightly thinner where the air exits, which I’m guessing accelerates the flow by compressing it. This work well IMO, I ended up with a 3.2mm tube thinning down to 2.5mm at the output.

So what do they sound like? Not really as great as I would like, but it’s getting there.

Death Whistle no2

Whistle Number 2:

Death Whistle no3

Whistle Number 3:

The size of the hole in the ball is another unknown variable. My experimentation seemed to indicate that the air should be hitting the top edge of the hole which would mean the hole is angled towards the air. But there are many variables, the thickness and the shape of the ball for instance, so I would need to make a lot more whistles before claiming to have a clue as to what’s going on. I also have a feeling that the space behind the air flow could be important for the harmonics.

Death Whistle cross section

In any case, finding the “best” position for the two elements, locking them in place with more polymer clay, and getting it all into the oven without anything moving is the next challenge. And once you have cooked the assembled parts, an outer “shell” needs to be added to cover both inner elements and make the air flow around the ball and out the bottom. This is the part you can decorate but IMO it changes the sound somewhat too, so good luck!

I then cooked the finished whistles at 110° Celsius (230°F) (as indicated on the package) for 30min.

Is polymer clay a good material to make these out of, I’m not sure, when you blow into the whistle a couple of times, the sound changes; possibly because it gets wet inside. Still, it’s a start and doesn’t need a lot of equipment; besides the drill bits I used a pocket knife, a cutter, a toothpick, a wooden ice cream stick and a hard plastic guitar pick (good for smoothing).

A couple of days later, I cut off the top on my first whistle to see if I could save it with the leftover mother-of-pearl colored Fimo with a new “air blowing” tube; disguised as a cap it was easier to position and sounds a lot better but…

Death Whistle no1 reworked

The Return Of Whistle Number 1:

Whistle one is 5cm (2”) high, Whistles 2 and 3 are 7.5cm (3”) high. I’m thinking that the next step is to make one with a larger ball inside; the bigger whistles seem to sound better…

BTW: It seems you need to blow as hard as you can to get the screaming effect…
Also, if anyone who happens to read this has made or bought one, I’d be interested in what they think.