hi guys,

I've been thinking about the tuning of my chieftain v5. now I ask from you more experienced.

what are the things that affects low whistles tuning? Mine is usually a bit flat. Things that comes to mind are
1. temperature (when cold they are flat)
2. under blowing (also makes them flat),
3. what about cleaning the wind way (does this affect tuning)

So if under blowing seems to flatten my v5, is it then impossible to play songs quietly or softly without sacrificing the tuning? Give me some insights please.

Temperature is probably the biggest factor. When making whistles in the basement I always have to warm them up a lot to get the tuning right or they will be badly out of tune in a warmer room. My V5 has really good tuning and cannot be blown out of tune all that much just by changing breath pressure. Gunk and funk in the windway will also affect tuning.

Yes indeed on whistles each note is only in tune if you blow it at the pressure required by the design built into the whistle by the maker.

You'll find that required pressure when you play octaves. Usually a good note is G. Try going back and forth between low-octave G and 2nd octave G, basically

G g G g G g G

Play those while looking at an electronic tuner. You might have to adjust the tuning slide and your blowing until you find a tuning slide placement AND dial in your blowing to get those two G's exactly on pitch with each other. (An octave apart, of course.)

If the G's in both octaves can be consistently be played right in tune, the rest of the scale should be good too. You might have to learn little adjustments here and there but overall it should be very close.

The volume each note sounds at, when blown at the pressure required to play the entire gamut in tune, is built in by the maker.

If you try to play more quietly you'll be flat, if you try to play more loudly you'll be sharp.

Now of course if you learn to blow the whole whistle with good tuning at one temperature, if you leave the whistle out in the cold and pick it up and play it without warming it up it will be very flat. But whistles can be brought up to temperature quickly, by blowing through them with a finger held over the window to keep it from sounding. Players do that on stage all the time, to warm up the whistle and also to clear the windway of moisture.

_________________
Richard Cook
1978 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle