Tuning: I need help

Whistle
1

I have 3 questions about tuning:

A: Should one tune a whistle by tuning A to 440? Because whistles are rarely 100% in tune with themselves I now just play into the tuner and watch to see where the needle hops around. I adjust until it’s somewhere in the middle. It takes longer to tune, but I think I’m better off this way.

B: Should I tune the whistle and tape it up forever?

C: A fiddler told me I should tune slightly sharp. Agree?

There are probably other issues on the question of tuning. Feel free to bring 'em up y’all.

2

A) I tend to go through all the notes and tune to an average (guesswork is involved).

B) I’d say no in case you end up needing to change it with the weather etc.

C) I heard this too but I don’t know. Maybe it’s better to be sharp than flat (a tenet my family has lived by for generations :laughing: )

3

I wouldn’t tune sharp, because then you’re out of tune. And, when you play up high, and are really blowing, you’ll be that much sharper. Besides, what do fiddlers know about tuning whistles? (We don’t tell them how to tune, do we?)

I once had a teacher who used to say that if you think you’re out of tune but are unsure, then you’re sharp. If you know you’re out of tune, then you’re flat.


JP

4

I’ve only been at this since the beginning of the year, but I won’t let a little thing like inexperience stop me from offering my opinion :stuck_out_tongue:

A) My Dixon soprano D was pushed all the way in when I got it. The first octave C# and the second octave D were terribly out of tune, as well. Once I used a tuner to get the D pretty much standard, it also got it in sync with the C#. So, that’s one aspect of tuning. The only other instrument I’ve played with is a concertina. I tuned my Burke to that, as closely as I could, and it was close enough to standard that it didn’t throw it out of tune with itself.

B) You need to be flexible if you want to play with a variety of other musicians. You probably shouldn’t expect a concertina or a hammered dulcimer to tune to you.

C) I’ve read that whistles go a bit sharp when they warm up. (I just tested this with my Village Smithy, and got a 35-cent sharpening on the low D, going from cold to very warm.) Blowing harder pushes them sharper, too. (I can get a variation of almost 50 cents from the first-octave A on my Burke.) So, it seems to me that if you tune a cold whistle by blowing relatively softly, it’ll go sharp all by itself when it warms up and gets pushed. On the other hand, if you push it while tuning, then play more softly, it’ll go flat. I don’t think you’d really want to be playing notes that are actually sharper than those being played by other instruments, unless you’re playing certain types of Mexican music and want that little out-of-tune pulse. I don’t know if this is characteristic of ITM, or not, but it’s not something I’ve seen mentioned anywhere on C&F.