I NEED someone to tell me how to tune your flute! PLEASE help me and aS SOON AS POSSIBLE (aka ASAP)! 
My gracious! This sounds so URGENT! And at this hour of the night!
Never let it be said that I have failed to respond to a soul in need . . .
What kind of flute are we talking about here? One piece? Tuning slide? No tuning slide?
hi michelle,
tuning your flute is fairly simple when you have got a flute with an tuning slide.
if the flute sounds sharp, you pull out the tuning slide a little bit at a time, if it sounds flat, you push the tuning slide in a bit.
if you want you can check the tuning with an tuner but it can be done by ear too.
tune to the note of A (mostly recommended) or G.
succes, hope this helps
berti
Are you taking about tuning the whole register of the flute up or down OR do you mean getting individual notes to have good intonation??
TO make any flute flatter, pull the headjoint out. Sharper, push it back in.
yeah, the question is the same as my topic
Are you asking how to tell if itās sharp or not?
If you have a well-developed ear, you just hear it. Otherwise, you can use an electronic tuner.
If you canāt tell by ear, and you donāt have a tuner, then you might not need to worry about it . . . I think.
If youāre not playing with another instrument, then you have less reason to worry about it . . .
Perhaps if you told us why you needed to tune it?
Buy an electronic tuner. Play as hard as you would in a session or when you are playing with other people. Really push the flute hard, as you would when you play outside of your kitchen.
Too many people play softly when they tune to the tuner. Then they play hard and out of tune when they go for volume.
Most players overblow. This throws the second octave out of tune and makes it shrill and sharp. By spending time in front of a tuner you will learn when to push the flute and when to hold back, and how to get each note into perfect tune by adjusting both the angle of the flute and your embouchure.
The slide is just the first step in tuning. The flute changes as you play it, and again after you set it down and pick it up again for a minute. You must really listen to the other instruments you play with. After the slide has the flute roughly in tune, final ā fine ā tuning must come on the fly, as you adjust your embouchure while you play. Just moving the slide wonāt do it.
David Levine wrote:
Most players overblow.
Trueā¦ but how do you fix this? How do you know if youāre overblowing, or if you just naturally play sharp (especially if you have a good round sound, just a bit sharpā¦ with a tendancy to go sharp)?
I remember a discussion about pitch on the wooden flute list where several professional players said they tended to play sharp, and had to pull out a lot. Iāve only ever met one player who played really flat, with her flute pushed all the way in - which made it difficult to pull out far enough to be in tune with her.
Well, thatās one reason to play in front of a tuner. Then you can see the extent to which you blow sharp. I find it uncomfortable to sit next to many flute players because so many play sharp in the second octave. I prefer to sit next to a fixed pitch instrument, such as a box or concertina, or a fiddler who I can trust to play in tune.
A good rule to remember is to blow hard in the lower octave but relax a bit in the second. It takes time ā years perhaps ā before you can hear yourself play in tune, but it can be done. So persevereā¦
I know that I am one of the offenders, and I have been working on this for a few months now. But in order to keep my upper octave from rising, I feel as though my embouchure changes so much from lower octave to higher that I am not able to make the switch quickly enough to play tunes. Iām pursing my lips quite a bit to get that upper octave. Any advice? Or am I just not in well enough practice yet?
Thank you guys for the the help, it is GREATLY appreciated!
Hi Shannon,
The fact that you are aware of the problem, and that you recognise it as such, is a great step towards solving the problem. You have the solution very close at this point. Most players never realize that they blow sharp. Part of the problem is that players push harder to get the second octave clear and loud. The trick is to blow much as you would the bottom octave, but with a more defined, focused embouchure.
One thing to do is to blow bottom A and then switch to high a, back and forth. Do it with the B/b as well, and G/g, and so forth. This will teach you to hear how sharp you are and will help you learn to focus your embouchure better.
It also helps to pkay on a small fife or very high flute. Then you see that more blowing doesnāt help you get the sound you want. Itās all in the tight embouchure. Thatās why fifers often seem to have such a clean tone and powerful sound. Itās harder to get good sound from those small things. Overblowing is never the answer, though some great players can use it for effect when they want to-- without going sharp.
Youāre on the right road. Keep on.
Another way to practise that, I think, is to practise the notes in the third octave, and to play them soft and clean with a really focused stream of air (with a tuner). That would give you better grip on the second octave as well. I have never played the fife but it might be same kind of practise for the lips. Am I right, David?
With regard to tuning a flute, I agree with what David and others have said. Basically, there are two kinds of tuning that you can do with a flute. The first kind of tuning has to do with adjusting the tuning cork so that the flute is in tune with itself, that is, the intonation is correct throughout the range of the flute. The position of the tuning cork or stopper is usually about a bore diameter distance from the surface of the stopper to the center of the blow hole.
The second kind of tuning has to do with tuning the fundamental pitch of the flute. This kind of tuning can be accomplished by adjusting the tuning slide so that the note in question is the same as a standard note on an electronic tuner or other referenced note. The following is what I have written about tuning in my Flute Buyerās Guide on my webpage.
A Word About Tuning: In western music (as opposed to world music) the octave is divided into twelve notes or half tones. Although it is contrary to what a musically sensitive person hears, to simplify the tuning of instruments (especially keyboard instruments) it was decided to make the interval between these twelve half-tone notes exactly the same size, with each of the half-tone intervals being further broken down into 100 units or cents. Therefore, the octave is divided into 1200 cents, with half-tone intervals being 100 cents and whole-tone intervals being 200 cents. This system of intonation is called equal-temperment, and it is the standard for all electronic tuners, except for the more expensive tuners that allow tuning to the exact frequency.
Human beings have an innate sense of relationship, both visually and aurally. For example, without using any measuring devices we are able to divide a pie into eight equal pieces. Similarly, with regard to music we can sense certain basic musical intervals in the octave. It turns out that the basic intervals that we sense are related to rational numbers or fractions. The simplest relationship is the octave interval (twice the frequency) or 2:1 ratio. The perfect fifth interval has a ratio of 3:2, and the fourth interval has a ration of 4:3. As the integers become larger, it becomes more difficult to sense the interval. For example, the interval of a seventh is 15:8. A system of intonation for intervals arrived at in this fashion is called Just intonation. However, with Just intonation the intervals are not all the same size, and in the past this caused many technical problems in tuning, so this system was abandoned in favor of equal-temperment..
Our current equal-temperment system of intonation is obviously convenient, but this convenience has been bought at a price. The price is that the scale doesnāt sound right to a musically sensitive person. For example, it is nearly impossible for a musician to tune a piano, because the ācorrectā notes donāt sound exactly right. In fact, three of the eight notes in a one-octave diatonic, equal-temperment scale vary between 14 and 19 cents from the same notes in the musicianās scale of Just intonation. Also, as an orchestra tunes by ear to an A440 pitch on the oboe, the string section tunes their instruments by ear (no tuners) by listening for perfect fifths between the strings, and somehow the whole orchestra comes together and sounds in-tune to the listener. But actually there are many variations in pitch that are not perceived by the listener. Because of variations in attack strength and embouchure, the side-blown flute is especially vulnerable to frequency fluctuations, and frequency fluctuations up to 4 per cent have been observed, even among concert musicians. I can play my Irish flute in front of an electronic tuner and have the needle swing from 20 cents below to 20 cents above standard pitch just by the way I blow and the way I shape my lips (embouchure).
And lastly, quoting from the classic book āMusic, Sound, and Sensationā by Fritz Winckel: āAlthough completely pure intonation is most difficult on the flute, it is also of least importance, for the (flute) tone is poor in overtone content, and a slight distuning can have a positive equalizing effect.ā In other words it may be a good thing to be slightly off-pitch. And that is my main thesis and purpose for writing the above comments about tuning. I believe that some people have unreasonable expectations about pitch and intonation. They think that their $20 electronic tuner set to equal-temperment is the gold standard and that any variation from ādead-onā pitch accuracy is not acceptable. To the contrary, my attitude with regard to flute performance is to lay perfectionism aside and accept some variations in intonation as inescapable and perhaps even a good thing.
ā¦practise the notes in the third octave, and to play them soft and clean with a really focused stream of air (with a tuner). That would give you better grip on the second octave as wellā¦
Absolutely right. Pat Olwell suggests blowing the high a and b as quietly as you can, as practise in developing a tight embouchure.
The gist of Dougās post seems to suggest that one not worry overmuch about tuning. Now, I do have a lot of respect for Doug. But having spend time with makers who spend hours final tuning an instrument, Dougās comments donāt seem all that helpful. I say worry about being in tune. Worry a lot!
I can accept that there are more important things that being spot-on in tuning. But nothing is more unpleasant to me that to sit next to a flute-player who over-blows sharp. At that point I canāt hear myself well enough to tell whether I am in tune.
Thank you both for this advice!! All of it makes sense and is understandable and is either something I have been doing or will start implementing, starting today.
I will also start working on playing very high, quiet harmonics ā this is a tip I picked up from a classical flute player to help focus the embouchure. I donāt know how to explain it, except itās like what Grey Larson recommends in his book ā finger a low D, and work on getting the second octave D, the A above that, and the D, F# and A above that ā except you go even higher, and work to just let the notes just whisper.
I have actually been using a tighter embouchure in the low register than in the high, in order to get that low D to really sing. But Iām learning the flute and developing some discrimination in my air focus, so I donāt doubt that I can find another way to loosen up in the bottom register as well as continuing to develop that focus for the upper notes.
This board is the best ā I am not a fabulous player, but I can hear such good improvement in my technique, sound and style, just from reading what the experienced members say and trying it out. Thank you, David and Marcus, for taking the time to write.
harmonics or overtonesā¦ the 1st overtone is the octave, the 2nd is a 12th.
In a bit you may find that the 1st octave is harder than the 2nd!
Hi, Doug ā I think that you make a lot of sense here. The equally tempered scale is not the aesthetic that we are after when we play on our instruments, and blind slavery to an electronic tuner can, in the long run, hurt our playing. Iāve played orchestral settings where I was required to change the pitch of a long held note midstream because the noteās relationship to the underlying harmony changed (say from 3rd to 7th). Also, I know how an unfocused tone quality (on the oboe, but I bet it is actually the same for a flute) can make the instrument sound as though it is playing sharp, when actually the fundamental is actually dead on. Many players turn their ears and minds off when they turn the tuner on, and Iām sure that noboday advocates that.
But I think that a tuner can be a very good tool, if it is used properly. A tuner can help us to develop our ear to recognize and subsequently to internalize general tendencies of our playing, such as the āsecond octave sharpā syndrome thatās going on in this thread.
I know that you are not advocating that we throw out our tuners completely and to play without careful listening to our playing. I just wanted to emphasize that a tuner is a very useful tool when used properly and with care.
Thank you ā I can never remember if the fundamental is considered the 0th or 1st harmonic!