Tuner Question

[jmiller]

What's the best way to use a tuner with a whistle? Tune to A or to the whistle key at 440?

[jiminos]

this is not meant to be a smart a** answer.....
the best way to use a tuner with a whistle is.... don't.

if your whistle is a high end whistle and tunable, it's a fair guess that the intonation is more on than not and you really don't need to worry about a tuner. if your whistle is a cheap one and the intonation is alllllllll out of whack, a tuner ain't gonna help much....

if you are playing by yourself, it doesn't matter if your concert A is 440 or not.... you're plain' by yerself!

if you are playing with others.... tune to their concert A and call it good.... if all of you are off the 440 by a bit, but yer all off the same amount, it doesn't really matter much, does it?

be well,

jim

[Tommy]

Try Snark SN-4

[cutterpup]

this is not meant to be a smart a** answer.....
the best way to use a tuner with a whistle is.... don't.

if your whistle is a high end whistle and tunable, it's a fair guess that the intonation is more on than not and you really don't need to worry about a tuner. if your whistle is a cheap one and the intonation is alllllllll out of whack, a tuner ain't gonna help much....

be well,

jim

That was me last night I'm trying to decide on another D whistle to go along with my "quiet" brass from Mack Hoover. So I played my untuneable "cheap" whistles (a clarke, a meg and a walton) against my tuner. The Clarke was the only one I could easily get to play in tune. Soooo, that said, Im now playing with a group annd am open to suggestions for a whistle that is louder than my Hoover (and the clarke) but not too difficult to play in tune.

[mutepointe]

Here's my two cents about tuners:
1. If you're not playing with other people, you don't need to worry.
2. If you're playing with other people, then you got to be in tune.
a. I tune to the first octave G on a D whistle because that's about in the middle of the notes that I'm going to be playing. This also gives me one hand to adjust.
b. Conditions have to be maximized, if you're tuning. The whistle has to be warm and you have to be blowing as you would when you whistle. I bet there are other things to consider too.
c. There is a lot of wiggle room in where a whistle is "set" and you're ability to still make a note sound sharp, flat, or OK.
d. I don't like to re-tune my whistles every time that I play them because I play with the same people, so I use these silicon pencil grips on some of my whistles to keep the two pieces from re-adjusting.

e. There are some whistles that may be in tune to themselves but can never be put in tune to play with other people. At best, those are solo instruments.
f. I find it difficult to just "tune by ear" so I use an electronic tuner but I can still tell after I tune a whistle electronically and I start playing with other people if I'm sharp or flat. That's usually where that "wiggle room" comes in. Go ahead and try an electronic tuner, without moving the whistle, you can get that tuner gauge to fly all over the place depending on how you're whislting. That's where you need to blow into you're whistle as you naturally play and not try to blow so that you can get the tuner guage where you want it. That's backwards.

That's just my experience.

[Feadoggie]

d. I don't like to re-tune my whistles every time that I play them because I play with the same people, so I use these silicon pencil grips on some of my whistles to keep the two pieces from re-adjusting.

That's a good suggestion! Those might not work well on some whistle designs with bigger bodies though . But the concept is well worth adopting. I use small silicon elastic hairbands on whistles with internal slides like Thin Weasels, Water Weasles, Susatos, etc. They just mark the home position when tuned so I can get back there when I need to. YMMV

Feadoggie

[highland-piper]

My approach is pretty much like Mutepoint, although I tune to A instead of G on a D whistle, for no particular reason.

With my Mellow Dog whistle, which shares a head between two bodies, I put a mark on the body where it's in tune at 440 with a permanent marker. Makes it fast to swap. Doesn't guarantee the others are playing at 440, but it's a good starting point.