I'm very new and have not heard anything about how and when to use the tuning slide. May be a silly question but even the tutorial I have does not go into detail about this. This is a terrific forum with so much knowledge! I would appreciate your help with this.

Do you have an electronic tuner? If so, play a first octave G or A and either pull out the headjoint or push it in to get the flute in tune with the tuner. Of course, with any flute there is incredible latitude on the part of the player and technique with the pitch, but that will get you at least in the ballpark. If you're not playing with anyone else, just do the test with the tuner once and leave it in that position. If you're playing with other people, you will adjust the position as required to play in tune with them.

Cheers,

Michael Eskin
http://www.michaeleskin.com

Hi!

The tuning slide can actually be quite confusing. The trick is to remember that pushing the head joint IN towards the body of the flute SHARPENS the pitch (the shorter the bore, the sharper the instrument - therefore, an ordinary D whistle is an octave higher than a D flute), while pulling the head joint further from the body - lengthening the bore of the flute - lowers the pitch. This is VERY important info - there is NOTHING worse than an out-of-tune flute in a session! And the flute is the instrument that will be heard over all the others... The other thing to remember is that, as the wood of the flute warms up - whether from your breath, or because the room temperature is high - the flute gets sharper. A good idea is to ask the musicians around you whether they think you're in tune. Very few people will be rude enough to tell you if you're painfully out of tune, and if you genuinely can't tell (or if they're looking pained) then they'll be able to help!

Sorry, forgot to mention this earlier: pitch can also vary depending on the angle between the embouchure and the finger-holes on the flute: the more the embouchure is tilted towards the player's body, the flatter the pitch becomes. If you're playing, and notice that you're slightly out (NB: this DOES NOT WORK for very out-of-tune flutes!!) then you can tilt your flute to correct the tuning...

Deirdre

So if I understand you'all, after one plays for awhile and the flute
warms up, supposing it was in tune to
begin with, one should pull out the slide
a bit? This to compensate for
the sharpness. If so, how much?
(Of course till the flute is in tune,
but is that typically an inch, a 1/4
of an inch, or...?) Thanks.

Hi. Sorry I didn't get back sooner. Generally, it takes quite a while for the wood of a flute to warm up, so if you're in tune at the beginning, the greatest temperature changes will take place in the first few minutes. So, you should check after the first few tunes/sets to see whether you're still in tune. Even then, though, the discrepancy due to temperature will be quite small (unless your flute was refrigerated to begin with!), so any adjustments will be very small - probably less than 1/8 inch. But this can vary...

Good luck!

good points all about use of the slide, especially on retuning as the session progresses....flutes warm up and pitch sharpens. Tune to the accordion.....they'll usually be right on.....then the guitar, then the fiddle, as choices.
anyway.....remember the science, too, by Rudall&Rose that with every change of the slide, so, too, must the cork change. As the slide moves inward, the cork moves backward in an amount about 20% of the movement (this is totally approximate). Outward slide, inward cork.
It's best shown on their Patent Head....terribly heavy (although beautiful) but the science and engineering of one is gorgeous. No one applies this now, but should, frankly.
Greg Collins has a Patent Head....I'm sure he'll chime inhere with a word or two.

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