So my Kerry Optima has the ability to be tuned. I pulled up an online tuner (here) and started playing notes. Everything was VERY sharp, so I pulled the tuning slide out a bit. The problem is, once the D is in tune I find that other notes (like A and B) and very flat, and sometimes even cross down a whole other note.
What’s the thing to do? Which note should I tune the instrument to? Or should I just find a ‘happy medium’ and leave it at that?
G or A are probably the easiest notes to tune to. Tuners don’t work too well on whistles as each note has it’s own different pressure requirement to be in tune. Many players, myself included, tune G of A to another instrument and then blow the whistle in a way that it’s in tune with itself. It takes a bit of practise.
It is quite unusual for a whistle to be flat on A and B if it’s in tune on the low D.
I’ve never played a Kerry but when folk ask me to try their new Goldie or MK they’ve almost always got the slider to far in because they’re blowing to softly, making the whistle a bit out of tune with itself. I wouldn’t worry too much about the tuning slide till you get used to the whistle.
For myself, I look to get the middle of the range in tune ie. g to g’. It varies from whistle to whistle, but usually that means using the middle d as your reference, but sometimes I find it better to use the c#, depends on the whistle and the tuner. Play with it.
As Bogman refers to, the first thing to do is to make sure you’re blowing the whistle the way it was designed to be blown. If you’re blowing unevenly, or blowing at an overall level that’s too low, you can throw off the tuning.
That being said, many whistles have out-of-tune scales as they come from the makers. Most of my whistles have been carved a bit to even out their scale.
You can select the flattest notes as your baseline pitch, and put electrical tape on the top edge of the holes of the notes that are too sharp to bring them into line.
Or you can select the sharpest notes as your baseline pitch, and carve out the holes of the flat notes to bring them into line.
Pancelticpiper is right in saying that some whistles don’t have their holes in the perfect spots, and that carving the tone holes is one way of correcting this. I’ve carved tone holes on a few whistles I own, including some off-the-shelf Generations. However, I would not recommend performing any permanent alteration to a whistle, especially a high-end or low whistle from a maker who is currently in business, before trying everything else.
I experienced the same thing you’re describing with my MK pro, when I first got it. It seemed like the upper hand notes (C#, B, A) were very flat, and the lower hand notes (E, D) were very sharp. Pushing in the slide all the way fixed this, but made the whistle as a whole way sharp of concert pitch. I was confused, because MK whistles have a reputation for being very well in tune. Well, it turns out that the problem was 98% me and my blowing. With practice I learned to blow the MK the way it was intended, which was harder than I was used to. Now when I play it, it plays almost perfectly in tune, at concert pitch–no carving required.
Also, when I’m tuning a whistle to another instrument, I try to check both Ds and either both Gs or both As. That lets me set the tuning slide at the best compromise position, and also reminds me of the overall breath pressure curve the whistle requires.