I’d like to make a whistle in the original tuning, sometimes referred to as Pythagorean. I plan on following most of the instructions here:
http://science.univr.it/goccia/whistle/index.html
but I have no clue where to place the holes. I suppose I could just do it by ear, but I’d prefer having a rough idea where to place them before hacking up a whistle. Does anyone know of a website describing the math behind the hole placement ? Or perhaps a source of Pythagorean whistles ?
Thanks!
Does that require triangle holes?
Actually the A, B, and C holes are square… :>
I was going to suggest just intonation instead of Pythogorean until I realized that would make the major keys extremely nice but would throw off the fifths of the minor keys. So I will keep my mouth shut about that.
The biggest shift in pitch from equal temperament is about 10 cents, right? Unfortunately I have no idea what that translates to in terms of hole placement…
What draws you to the old tuning?
It’s my understanding that it’s more authentic, and sounds a little better, considering the songs were written for the tuning, that it uses pure fifths, and that equal temperment was really only needed for chromatic instruments like keyboards.
So I figure, if I’m playing alone, I’d prefer a “true” whistle, and besides, it makes a good project.
I’m aware that even the best whistles aren’t in tune across the whole spectrum, so it’s more of a “let’s just see what happens” kind of experiment. If I’ve got anything else wrong, please don’t hesitate to correct me.
Thanks!
I haven’t heard the term Pythagorean Tuning, although he started the whole bloody mess with his comma.
If you run a search for “just intoned” or “just intonation” you should find some of the many threads that have dealt with the subject.
Yeah, Pythagorean has true fifths everywhere, except G#/D# or something equally irrelevant to a D whistle, where the comma is “fixed.” That’s at the cost of perfect thirds I think. Just intonation has perfect thirds and fifths in two major keys at the cost of horrible fifths in their relative minors. I can definitely see why you’d want to use Pythagorean for a whistle because of that. I haven’t gone digging for the threads you mentioned but I’ve read through them in the past - they’re interesting. I always thought there was a best way until I did some reading about it.
If you make yourself one of these, let us know how you like it. I’m curious how noticeable the difference would be when you’re playing by yourself on a melody instrument.