no…i am not speaking of any kind of bathroom problems! I just have been having a bit of an issue with both octaves of the A note on my chanter. It seems as though the first octave is sharp and the second octave is flat. Can anyone take a stab at what the problem would be? I might also note that any note above the second octave A is also flat. Any thoughts? Thanks so much
Was it the maker of the chanter who also made the reed.
If the second octave is flat then that indicates one of two things. That the volume of the staple is too small or the reed is too long. But since you indicate that the first octave is sharp then the staple is probably the issue.
When you say the second octave is flat and the first octave is sharp do you just mean with respect to each other. Or are you using a tuner.
The safest thing to try is simply to pull the reed out a bit which might make the chanter flatter overall.
Ok, thanks. The notes are out of tune in reference with a tuner. But it is enough so that it really affects the tunes that i am playing. I rushed the chanter and it brought it in closer.
The reed may also be too closed. Open it up just slightly
Hey pipers,
I have a problem similar the one above. I searched trough the forum for days now but didn’t find the exact same problem so I write it down here instead of opening another topic.
Oukay, I got my practice set 3 weeks ago and started to get into the instrument via The new approach to Uilleann Piping. Well, as a friend visited me and wanted to accompany me with the guitar we discovered that most of the tones of the pipes are not in tune. I wrote to an uilleann piper from Switzerland who gave me the advice of adjusting the bridle. I did that and some more of my tones were in tune. Well, but I don’t get all the exact tones just with adjusting the bridle.
Well, I write you down now how my lower octave sounds (tested with a guitar tuner).
Low D: quite in tune
E: 25% higher than “in tune” (I think the correct word is “sharp”?)
G: in tune
A: in tune
B: a half tone lower than B (#A)
Back D: between 50 and 20 % lower/flat. The strange thing here is when I take off gradually the pressure off the bag the note raises and very close to the point where the tone doesn’t sound anymore, reaches the exact tone.
The upper octave is quite in tune then.
I tried the adjusting, pushing the reed deeper in the chanter and also I cut off around 1 mm of the head of the reed but it didn’t help. Its still the same…
The practice set is a new one from Michael Vignoles bought via Tradschool.com . I already contacted him and he wrote me most of the things to do above but yeah, it didn’t help.
Can you help me?
Ugi, did you read this excellent](http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=64147&sid=274bf5c96419e83a1c336446bed9a88f%22%3Eexcellent) post from Pat Sky?
djm
Hi Djm. Yes I have read that post which actually made me opening different holes to get the exact B for example. But I don’t get the correct value, especially B remains always the same altough I open different holes.
And I tought that most pipes can be played properly with the fingerings in the book which is as I know the standard cloed fingering scale.
Fingering may vary from chanter to chanter. The most standard thing about UPs is that there are no standards, and that’s the way we likes 'em. 
I thought the bits about changing the pressure you apply to different notes was applicable to several of your comments.
djm
If your reed was OK before, it’s likely that it’s destroyed now. 1mm is a LOT to cut from a reed, especially for a beginner. For someone playing for 3 weeks to take a knife to the reed is a very bad idea.
The E and B tunings you describe are within normal range. Realize that the correct pipe tuning is not the same tuning system as used for guitars and electronic tuners - in particular F# and B are noticeably different in the two systems. The problem with your back d note is common, and may indicate that the reed is (was?) too closed. However, now that the reed has been chopped, opening it will probably make it too stiff.
PLEASE get over in person to an experienced player and/or reedmaker; you’ll be glad you did.
best regards,
Bill
All those posts are a relief, I posted a reply to the excellent Pat Sky’s post sharing my chanter’s “difficult note” (the blue note 
) I thought that the fingering matter wasn´t so flexible. (I don´t wanna write that post again) so the different fingering is Cnat: G finger lifted instead of F#.
Its difficult to accept but chanters very rarely have all the notes in tune. Like it says in Pat Sky’s essay-its in the pressure of the bag and the fingering that makes it in tune. It really takes a while to get this and it gets even harder when you bring in the drones (which require a constant amount of pressure).
Just keep at it and you will find out all the individual inconsistencies in your chanter.
You may have to stick some tape here and there to partially cover some holes-just play around until you find what works good. And remember that in a month the reed will change so when you get it ‘in tune’ be sure to keep checking the more the reed plays in.
Even (or especially?) the best pipers in the world have taped up chanters with paper and rushes up the bottom and all sorts of tweaks to keep it around about in tune. So don’t be surprised when you play along with someone who has an easy instrument to tune (guitar 
) and one or two notes miss the mark
Thank you very much for the answers!
I really hope that I didn’t destroy the reed but actually I don’t have the ability to judge that. It still sounds good (in my ears) so I’ll use it until I go to an experianced player (I contacted one…).
But about the comparision of the tuning of the uilleann pipes and other instruments like guitars I’m quite surprised. Since in all the sessions when more instruments (or two pipes) play unisono I don’t hear “wrong” notes and if a tin whitle plays a B and the piper plays a B which has the tunig of #A then there’s a problem in my ears. But I know that a quarter note difference doesn’t sound wrong in my ears.
And about the tape, I actually don’t know what its meant with that. Where (in my point) could I put some paper/stuff into the chanter that could help the tuning of some tunes?
I’ll go to an experianced player but I’m waiting for a date.