Tuning with an ET tuner

Uilleann Pipes
1

That’s Equal Tempermant, not little green men… :laughing:

I tried a search for the answer to my soon to be written question, (and found loads of other somewhat related information which I spent a great deal of time reading on and ultimately distracted me from my primary goal [a good distraction though]) but alas gave up in the seemingly endless supply of threads in which to read from. Anyways I’m still new to the pipes, and my education in music theory is hardly a master’s level of understanding so bare with me.

Basically I was wondering if there were any visual scales out there which show the chanter’s just intonation tuning as it would appear on a chromatic ET tuner; For example I have the quarts Korg CA-40 chromatic tuner, and my chanter will currently play or can be played in tune with the drones, so as far as I know, I’m in tune - with my drones… However when I put the bare chanter on the tuner, some notes aren’t hitting “spot on” on the tuner, such as for example F# and C# come out quite obviously flat on the tuner… Duh I know, but since I don’t have a JI (just intonation) tuner, I was just curious what the figures would be, ie, how many cents sharp or flat the values would be as it would appear on the ET tuner. I guess, that is to say, if there is such a standardized rule. I guess it doesn’t even have to be uilleann pipes, as long as it’s a D major (I’ve a concert pitch A=440 by the way) scale in Just Intonation I’d think that’s all that really matters?

Just wondering, if anyone can graciously answer my question I’d much appreciate it. Obviously it’s not going to help me play any better, but I’m a person that likes to know how things work, and why they work the way they do.

Cheers,

2

Take a look at http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?p=681571&highlight=cents#681571

3

Which is how its meant to be.
**simonknight’**s link should be more than enough for ye.
Do not rely on the tuner too much tho.I tested three different tuners wi a tuning fork and only one agreed wi it.
Get a feel for the notes .Minimal use of tuner I say.
Uilliam

4

Coolbeans, thanks guys. The threads Simon listed gave me a wealth of information regarding things of which I did not clearly know about.

I agree with not relying on the tuner too much, and I do not use one when tuning up my pipes, I use my ear. At least when tuning my chanter to drones anyway. When trying to fine tune some other wild card notes, or matching the octaves, I reach for my tuner after a while as my ear gets “tired”… Which was a symptom I thought only I was having but in one of the threads that led to other threads, was a post from Pat Sky mentioning this “tired ear” syndrome after a while… So nice to know it wasn’t just me.

I think this thread or at least the threads provided by Simon Knight should be a sticky me thinks (if it’s not already I don’t know off top of my head)… Since tuning your pipes is a very important part of piping me thinks, and such an incredible amount of information given within these threads I think would just about save more new comers to asking the very question I did yesterday. Just a thought.

Cheers,