This is a can of worms I have long avoided wanting to open. But here goes.
There are all kinds of tuning issues with all kinds of whistles. Spend some time with an electronic tuner if you want to know what I mean.
for example, what note do you use (on a D whistle) to “get in tune” with the rest of the group? Most whistles low and middle D are off substantially using a normal amount of breath (normal meaning not consciously having to over or underblow). Yes, I know some of you will pounce on this statement and point out that of course you micro-adjust, but there really is an acceptable amount of adjustment which you can do and then there is an unacceptable amount that you will never achieve playing fast. Many just play fast and accept the intonation variances and get their ears used to it.
The other issue is whether you cover the top hole on the middle D. You are usually admonished to leave it uncovered, but I have always found it (covered) to be a better sounding note, but it’s a bit sharper, as I recall.
We’re treading on the even-versus-traditional scale stuff here, I would add, and your background (especially in classical music) and other instrument abilities count for a lot. If you have played on a well-tuned piano for much of your life, you are going to have to make some real adjustments to a wind instrument, much less one with non-even tempered tuning.
How did your whistle builder tune the scale? Mike Burke states clearly that his whistles are not even-tempered as I recall. So your choices of which note to consider the best for tuning would be affected by this.
I am at work so I can’t do the comparison and give specifics now. but a month ago, I took a Burke brass pro D, a Reyburn D and my newest whistle, a Sindt silver D and played various notes into the tuning machine. I found the Sindt to be the closest on the low and middle D using some kind of “normal” amount of pressure. And I think (forgive me, like I said, I don’t have the whistles in front of me) that the Sindt might be a little more even-tempered than the others. The trade-off with Sindt seems to be that Cnatural often mentioned here. I actually like the slightly sharp C nat from cross fingering the Burke (especially on the Old Bush for example), but it’s too far off on the Sindt for my ears. Remember Breathnach’s description of a C natural as being “halfway between the B and D”?
When I was in a band, I used the Aluminum Pro D Burke, but in retrospect, I always played it sharp and kind of “ruined” my ears doing so, meaning that, when I tuned it to an electronic tuner (as opposed to by ear), it sounded flat, even when the other instruments were in tune with the same tuner. I think your ears and brain get used to things all too easily and you accept them as right after a while, especially when you play alone a lot.
I think Dana noticed how out of tune that particular whistle was at our various whistle parties. Mind you, I loved the whistle, but began to wonder how much pain I was inflicting on others with it, always an unpleasant prospect, if he was noticing it (mangling tunes is another whole set of issues, I might add).
I really do love some of my Burke whistles, especially the Eb pro session brass, which is a damn near perfect whistle, but I think, at this point, that the Sindt D works best with guitars and pianos and such. But it has its own drawbacks as well.
And really, I still do not know what the best note to tune the whistle to an electronic tuner is. I wouldn’t mind hearing others’ comments about how they tune up (if not just by ear).
PS. Please don’t ever say “Burke is dead,” okay?? Use the word whistle. I freaked out…
I can be in tune on my GFM and could be in tune on Vargas’ Generation Bb (which was also lost recently), but I couldn’t do that on Burke. Maybe I was not persistent enough, though.
