World Wide Whistling Whiz

(Columbia) – Of all the noises we hear on a daily basis, there’s one sound sweeter than the rest floating through one Columbia neighborhood. Gary Phifer is one person content to whistle his own tune. There’s something carried on the breeze in his neighborhood—a sound neither vocal chord nor instrument could make. That’s not to say that Gary Phifer isn’t musically talented. “I can’t really describe what’s actually happening,” Phifer said from his Forest Acres home. The 67-year-old retired engineer has been making beautiful music almost his entire life. Give him any title, contemporary to classical, and he’ll give you something to hum along with. But this is not an easy talent. He first picked up the skill from his father during his childhood. Phifer says he and his friends used to whistle to signal to each other when they’d be playing out in the woods. By high school, he’d joined the marching band, and had learned to hum melodies. He finally began performing concert-style pieces when he moved to Columbia in the late 1960s. For twenty years, he compiled the music for the Columbia Ballet. Phifer says all those experiences helped get him to where he is today. “You keep trying and trying and nothing seems to quite work, then out of the clear blue your brain will figure out how to get your tongue and cheeks coordinated,” Phifer said. It’s a talent he practices every day, “because you lose your polish if you don’t.”How else would he and his duet partner win first place at the International Whistling Convention in 2005 and second place in April 2007?Gary’s wife Jo says she doesn’t share her husband’s talent, but she does love his music. “I love it when he whistles. It’s very special to me,” she says. “It makes you happy. It’s your own instrument with you 24 hours a day. You can whistle anytime you feel like it,” Gary said. The International Whistling Convention is held every two years in Louisburg, North Carolina. Phifer says he plans on competing for as long as he’s able.