PJ asks “How can you hear a tuning fork over a concert pitch chanter?”
I hold the end against two of my teeth. Plenty of volume that way.
Nick Whitmer
When tuning one of my guitars I prefer using a tuning fork. I could use my piano, or synthesizer, or pitch pipe, but I prefer to use a tuning fork. You just need to tune one string and then you tune the rest to that. And the tuning fork has good volume when place against the guitar. Tuning forks are accurate and cheap.
But how do you play the notes on the chanter at the same time as holding a tuning fork? I know you can play an A with the left thumb and two fingers or a back D with the whole chanter open, but without the proper fingering (i.e using the right hand on the lower tone holes), these notes are not true.
PJ-
With the fork on a box set up, you can strike the fork, and it will sustain for a good while. You could even have an assistant keep striking the fork for you while you play to get a semi-constant pitch.
As for holding it in your teeth, it will make your whole head viberate, and the pitch again sustains, and is quite loud. You could easily get the chanter ready to play (bag nearly filled), strike the fork, bite it between your teeth, and have a good 15+ seconds to noodle around with tuning. Glad you brought it up, Nick, I had forgotten about it! (I usually set the fork against a table, or hold it to my ear.)
Often times, tuning to a pitch (for me at least) doesn’t involve hearing the pitch constantly; its striking the fork for a reference note, internalizing it, then comparing it to the chanter, violin, etc. This is usually the case with a tuning fork. Strike, internalize, compare. Works pretty well for me, but thats me personally.
With tuning forks being the primary way to get a pitch ‘back in the day’ , it really makes me appreciate a good in tune historical instrument, as its not only a testimate to the maker’s skill, but the maker’s musicality.
One thing that no-one seems to have mentioned (unless I missed it) is that people tend to suffer from ear fatigue after awhile. That is a quartz tuner’s greatest ability, to not tire.
Tuning forks are known to be fussy about being kept at a relatively stable temperature, and they will, in time, go out of tune. Although it is fashionable amongst some luddites to automatically criticize all things electronic, there is no question that these devices have their uses, and can come in very handy.
djm
Quote true about ear fatigue, djm. I have no personal beef against electronic tuners, and it is quite true they can be very handy.
For the 10 years I’ve been making music, I’ve always used a fork (I’ve gone through quite a few; sometimes replacing as often as 4 times a year or more) or a piano or other instrument in the group setting to tune myself, and thats what I’m used to. When I started music, electronic tuners weren’t readily available, and when they became cheaper and more available, I never really felt the need to cross over. Its great that tuners are there, but I’m still gonna live in the past 
And, in closing, ELECTRICITY IS STATIC FROM SATAN!! 
REPENT!!
I’ve a slight hearing loss (low frequencies only) in my right ear. So tuning my drones is a nightmare unless I have a electronic tuner which can pick up on bass frequencies.
Perhaps Nick meant he holds it with his teeth.
As an aside a fiddler player friend of mine tunes to a tuning fork which he strikes then touches to the bone just behind his ear.
Ian
No, I don’t hold the tuning fork with my teeth. That seems uncomfortable, and hard on the teeth. I play A on the chanter one-handed. Tune the drone in concord to that A. Retune two-handed chanter A to the drone, if necessary.
BTW, I have had the same tuning fork for 30+ years. I had heard comments similar to djm’s that forks go out of tune. Within the last 2 years I took the fork to a friend’s house & checked it against his electronic strobe tuner. It was spot on. Perhaps I’ll check it again in 5 years or so.
Nick Whitmer
Sorry, Nick, let me rephrase that, then. Tuning forks have been known to go out of tune after a period of time, some sooner than others. This is not a guarantee that all tuning forks are alike, nor that all tuning forks will fail - simply that they have been known to go out of whack in the past.
djm
What make of fork are you using Nick? The ones I get usually do loose pitch within a year. But then again, mine get handled fairly rough sometimes, periodically dropped by me or others, get moved and bumped around alot, and are extensivly used.
The fork is probably by Taktell; it has their symbol and the word “Germany” stamped on the handle.
Its been dropped & dinged but I always strike it on my knee.
Nick
I use a tuning fork to retune my guitar during playing in sessions. I have found that touching the fork against the teeth (not biting it) works quite well but can still be a little bit uncomfortable, vibration wise.
The best way for me, and the way I find the loudest, is to strike the fork on my knee (don’t bash them on hard surfaces if you want them to last). Next, place the end of the fork against the flap of skin, not the ear lobe, (what is the correct name for it anyone?) that is at the pivot point of the jaw and push the flap with the fork so that it starts to close off the opening to the ear.
Wow is it loud!
Does that make sense to you?
Another hint: I have excellent experience with these so-called “electronic tuning forks” They are concipated for guitars and therefore give E, A, D, G, B and D. They are tiny and awfully cheap. You can get them anywhere. They might not fit a Bb chanter or a C# or an Eb but they are fine for D, C and B. Just press the button and they give you a nice constant drone.
Just press the button?!
Dos not seem the only thing in life that give’s! a nice constant Drone! 
all the best. 
What’s not been said is the sea-change in how uilleann pipes are used, which has had an effect on how they are tuned. In the “old days” (18th & early 19th centuries) pipes were usually played solo and it seems to me that the idea of making pipes play at a certain pitch did not exist. (Actually the idea of a fixed pitch didn’t exist in Baroque music either and every ensemble played at a different pitch.) The makers made pipes which played beautifully with themselves. So, the makers didn’t need tuners of any sort.
Nowadays pipes are usually played along with other instruments, often fixed-pitch instruments like accordions and synthesizers, and the expectation is that the pipes will be able to play in tune at the pitch of A=440. So, by using a tuning fork or electronic tuner, the pipemaker must make his pipes pitched at the modern standard. But the SCALE of the pipes must be tuned by the ear of the maker, as pipes don’t play the Equal Temperament scale, but are tuned to Just Intonation. (If you don’t know the difference, tune a chanter so that each note is exactly in tune according to an electronic tuner, and then switch on the drones. You’ll hear that the F’s in particular are horrible, and that nearly every note is wrong against the drones.) So, I can’t imagine ANY maker relying on an electronic tuner alone, and not his ear, in the making of his pipes.
I have to disagree with you about the “idea” of a fixed pitch. There were plenty of pitch standards, and tuning forks, about in the 19th and early 19th centuries, and instruments were certainly made to particular pitch standards.
I suspect this was also true of the pipes (and there is evidence to this effect), though your point about them being primarily a solo instrument certainly applies.
Bill
(Actually the idea of a fixed pitch didn’t exist in Baroque music either and every ensemble played at a different pitch.)
But the individual musicians within the ensemble had to tune to a common source surely. There had to have been some fixed standard for them to play together…
So, the makers didn’t need tuners of any sort.
So they licked a finger and stuck it up in the air…
So, I can’t imagine ANY maker relying on an electronic tuner alone, and not his ear, in the making of his pipes.
No, not alone but it’s a good place to get the basics in tune. Tonics, 4th’s, 5th’s et. al.
In the “old days” (18th & early 19th centuries) pipes were usually played solo and it seems to me that the idea of making pipes play at a certain pitch did not exist.
It’s known that the early Timothy Kenna concert sets of pipes were made to play at A=392 (close to modern C)and then later kenna and Coyne A=415 (close to modern C#, re. Ennis’ “concert” set).
There may have been a few standard pitches that ran concurrently but they were set pitches.
Usually solo, but when O’Farrell and Courtney played with ensembles at the Black Knight and Oscar and Malvina shows in the 1790’s they had to be in tune to the equivilant of concert D at the time.
Tommy