I’ve started making low whistles out of aluminum pipe and tried to use an online tuner to get it right. The online tuner drove me nuts. Seems like it was constantly changing - I’d drill a hole, check it, drill a little more, and get a very different value than expected. I realize warming up an aluminum whistle can be tricky as it ‘cools down’ as soon as you stop playing and I found the whole thing too frustrating so I came up with a different approach. Now I tune the bell note with the online tuner, taking my time to make sure the whistle is warmed up, then drill all the holes a bit flat and start to play it with normal breath pressure. Once I’m sure it’s warmed up I use flutini as I’m playing tunes and I can see how it’s responding under ‘normal’ playing, and then I adjust the individual holes as needed. Using the online tuner and trying to do one hole at a time was too inaccurate for me as I was blowing with different pressure each time I checked it out, but playing tunes in flutini gave me more accurate ‘real life’ tuning. So I’m wondering how others do it.
Also, I noticed on Guido’s website, he mentions tuning the 3rd and 6th holes (from the bottom) a little flat (temperment) but I’m not sure how flat he meant. Any ideas ?
That’s one of the big issue in tuning a whistle or flute. What’s “normal” breath pressure? You may benefit from reading this. Then follow the link to Flutini. But maybe you’ve already done that. Anyway, we are all standing on the shoulders…
Start your reading here maybe. Then Google temperament and scales and see what you think is relevant to you. Whistles, being diatonic, can benefit from using a just scale for playing in their root key. But you may want to consider what other instruments you will be playing with and how they are tuned.
It’s not quite as simple as poking six holes in a piece of pipe, is it?
Feadoggie
Thanks Dennis - as always a wealth of information. Re flutini - a real gift as it allows me to tune the whistle to my typical breathing. Re the temperment issue, I now realize that since I play my whistle in different scales depending on the tune/song, equal temperment would be best for me.