Feadog C tuning problem

[de Salier]

Hello,

This is my first post here on the forums, So I'll first introduce myself.
My name is Erwin, a Dutchman living is Scotland, but possibly moving to England shortly.
I started playing the whistle again last October when I was on my own in a small cabin in Scotland. I practiced a bit years ago on a Waltons D.

At the moment I have 4 whistles, a:
Feadog D
Feadog C
Feadog Pro D
Dixon Trad D

I tweaked the Feadogs, the D and Pro D are perfectly in tune, and the play very easy (Pro D bit more tricky though).
I tried to tweak the C whistle as well, but I'm having difficulties with that one. The lower notes (CDE) are a bit sharp (+10/15), the upper notes (FGA) are very flat (-20), the D natural sounding like a dying steam locomotive whistle.
The D whistles were out of tune in the same direction over the entire length, so it was easy to adjust their tuning, but what to do when the lower part is sharp and the upper part flat?

Is there a solution for such a problem, or do I have to find another C whistle and throw this one away?

Regards,
Erwin

[Tunborough]

Welcome to C&F, Erwin.

Until wiser heads check in, I will suggest that the whistle may want you to blow harder at the top of the octave than you are inclined to. What do you observe about the tuning of the notes at the bottom of the upper octave?

[pancelticpiper]

The lower notes (CDE) are a bit sharp (+10/15), the upper notes (FGA) are very flat (-20), the D natural sounding like a dying steam locomotive whistle.

For every Thing there is a Season:
a Time to Tape, a Time to Carve;
a Time to Raise, a Time to Lower;
a Time to Chop, a Time to Refrain from Chopping.

What I would do in this case, that the bell-note and the notes emitting from holes 5 and 6 are sharp, but the notes emitting from the other holes are flat, is to lift the head until the C, D, and E are in tune, then carve out hole 4 until F is in tune with C D E, then carve hole 3 to raise G to pitch, then hole 2 until A is at pitch.

Best to do it in that sequence, because enlarging hole 4 will by itself raise the note emitting from hole 3 a bit, meaning a tad less carving necessary on hole 3, and so forth.

Hole 1 is a special case, because some players (such as myself) want the crossfingered note to be in tune with normal blowing, in this case Bb (B flat). This usually means that B natural will be a tad flat and require a bit of a boost of pressure to get it up to pitch. I'm used to that, and prefer it to having B up to pitch and a Bb that's way too sharp.

This is all assuming that the OP is blowing the whistle normally. I, too, like all my whistles of various pitches to be tuned in a consistent way, so I don't have to remember the special out-of-tuneness of each one, and the corrective blowing each requires.

(I, like the OP, are referencing the concert/sounding pitches on a C whistle rather than the written or imagined pitches.)

[scottie]

The lower notes (CDE) are a bit sharp (+10/15), the upper notes (FGA) are very flat (-20), the D natural sounding like a dying steam locomotive whistle.

For every Thing there is a Season:
a Time to Tape, a Time to Carve;
a Time to Raise, a Time to Lower;
a Time to Chop, a Time to Refrain from Chopping.

What I would do in this case, that the bell-note and the notes emitting from holes 5 and 6 are sharp, but the notes emitting from the other holes are flat, is to lift the head until the C, D, and E are in tune, then carve out hole 4 until F is in tune with C D E, then carve hole 3 to raise G to pitch, then hole 2 until A is at pitch.

Best to do it in that sequence, because enlarging hole 4 will by itself raise the note emitting from hole 3 a bit, meaning a tad less carving necessary on hole 3, and so forth.

Hole 1 is a special case, because some players (such as myself) want the crossfingered note to be in tune with normal blowing, in this case Bb (B flat). This usually means that B natural will be a tad flat and require a bit of a boost of pressure to get it up to pitch. I'm used to that, and prefer it to having B up to pitch and a Bb that's way too sharp.

This is all assuming that the OP is blowing the whistle normally. I, too, like all my whistles of various pitches to be tuned in a consistent way, so I don't have to remember the special out-of-tuneness of each one, and the corrective blowing each requires.

(I, like the OP, are referencing the concert/sounding pitches on a C whistle rather than the written or imagined pitches.)

When you mention lifting the head do you mean moving it out so that you increase the length of the sound chamber?
Thanks....

[pancelticpiper]

Yes "pulling out the head" as people say with the flute, or "lifting the reed" as people say with bagpipes.

Either way, you're increasing the sounding length of the instrument thus flattening the pitch overall.

The opposite is "pushing in the head" on the flute or "sinking the reed" on the bagpipes which raises the pitch.

"Shorter sharper, longer flatter" as generations of school band kids have been told.