How do you 'tune' a flute?

[leeny]

Hello flautist friends. Like many other people I have
spotted on these boards, I too have just taken up my flute again after many
years not playing (naughty I know). Anyway when I played flute at school we used
to use a metal tuning fork to find the right pitch of a note, think we tested on
an A or C... can''t remember. Anyway I phoned the shop where I got my flute
from and the guy said nowadays people don''t buy the metal tuning forks
anymore there are new digital ones that you blow in to. Talk about make me feel
old! Does anyone know about these new gadgets? [:blackeye:] how do they work,
how do you operate it? Do folks still use metal tuning forks? I did a search on
''tuning'' on the mesage board but I couldn''t find anything. Thank you in
advance, love to you all Salena []

[Stacie]

I picked up a Korg Chromatic Tuner (Model CA-30)
which is about the size of a playing card and about as thick as your pinky
finger. You can calibrate it to any tuning. It also can generate the notes of
the scale to help your ear training I guess. I just adjust the head joint
playing a B and try to get it right around the center of the LDC display. Any
music store should have a good selection of small tuners (and metronomes for
that matter). Stacie

[tovli]

First be sure your stopper is set right by
inserting your cleaning rod into your headjoint with the 19mm line going in
first. Be sure the line is centered in the embouchure hole. Next, line up the
embouchure hole with the open holes in keys, or better rotate the top of the
embouchure hole to line up with the center of the open holes in keys. Then
adjust the headjoint to be about three millimeters out from fully inserted. Now
finger E and blow E1 (bottom line), then blow an E2 (top space of staff) and
then overblow to get a B2. Quickly finger and blow a B2 (just above the staff),
and adjust headjoint till both B2 are same pitch. This is the point at which
your flute plays in tune with itself. Now your first register will probably be a
little flat if you aren't "supporting" the notes enough, and your third
register might be sharp, especially the problem notes. If you play your A into a
tuner and adjust the frequency of A till the needle is centered - that is where
you play your flute in tune - if it says A=442 you probably got a good one. See
http://mypage.uniserve.ca/~lwk/wyept2.htm#tune for history and techy details by
Trevor Wye. Really, just match up your B naturals and play music. Regards, Tovli