Tune Your Fife!

         Over the years, I have heard many fife and drum corps perform and most of them sounded pretty good when they played together. However, when the fifers from different units got together later on, they frequently were out of tune with each other. It appears that over the span of time, all of the fifes may have somehow become incorrectly tuned to that of a senior member or an instructor. This page of Be A Fifer! is an attempt to get fifers playing together.

             The pitch of a fife is proportional to the distance from the inside surface of the cork and the end of the fife. The closer the cork is moved toward the blow hole, the sharper it gets. The farther away the cork is moved, the flatter the sound produced. However, it is not that simple!

              Most experienced fifers tune their fifes as they play. If they sound a bit flat when compared to their fellow performers, they "roll out." This means that they roll the blow hole away from their lips a bit. This sharpens the pitch a bit. Accustomed to an embouchure plate on their concert flutes, flautists commonly "roll in" when playing the fife, playing flat. If they are sharp, they "roll in." The cork position established by the fife maker is usually the best and one is well-advised not to move the cork unless there is no other recourse.

         If your fife doesn't have the correct pitch, and it cannot be corrected by rolling in or out, you will have to move the cork, which can be tricky in an old fife where the cork has set in one position for many years. They can be dry and brittle. They can break very easily. Every fife player should have a "tuning stick," a piece of cylindrical wood a bit smaller in diameter than the bore of the fife. I have seen fifes tuned with a wooden pencil, but this is not smart. If the diameter of the stick is too small or the end not square, the cork can sometimes get twisted on an angle or break. Most hardware stores or lumber yards carry wood dowel, usually in lengths of much more than you need, so cut it into shorter pieces, making sure the ends are square. Sand the ends smooth. You can probably make two or three out of one piece of dowel.

             It is probably a good idea to soak the cork end of the fife in water for a few minutes to make it a bit more mobile, especially with an old fife or one that hasn't been played for a while.

         When the fife needs adjustment, insert the tuning stick into whichever end of the fife is necessary, and apply steady pressure on the cork, gradually increasing pressure as needed. Sometimes the cork releases suddenly and pops out of the fife entirely. They can be devilish to get back in. Let's avoid that. Also, if the cork begins to cover the blow hole, you can't go any further than that. The instrument either can't be tuned or it may not be a Bb fife. (A Bb fife measures about 10 - 7/8 inches from the center of the blow hole to the center of the last finger hole.)

                                   DON'T DO ANYTHING YET!

         Let's first see if your fife needs tuning. Remember, if you change the pitch, everybody else you play with will have to change their fife, too. Sometimes things are better left alone.

              The most common fife played today is in the key of Bb. This means when we play a "D, "with all of the tone holes covered, we are really playing a Bb as sounded on a piano. The following information applies to a Bb fife only.

         Don't make any adjustments until you have performed all four tests below, while rolling in and out. Bear in mind that few fifes are perfect in pitch. Most will vary a bit on some notes, particularly old ones that may have changed in dimensions due to dehydration and cracking. Any adjustments made will be a compromise to some degree. We don't want to create a monster here!

                Let's start with a low C#, with all the finger holes open. Play a note and compare it with this Midi file:

                                                     

         With all of the finger holes open, we'll now try a middle C#:

                                                    

          If that sounds OK, let's try a low D:

                                                   

               If things are still going well, play a D scale along with the MIDI file:

                                                   

         If your fife is way out of whack, something will have to be done to make it playable. Even then, if you tend to play for your own enjoyment and not with another fifer, maybe leaving well enough alone is the best idea of all.

        Final note: If for some reason you have no idea of where the cork should be, do the following. Measure the inside diameter of the fife's bore as accurately as you can. Measure the same distance from the end of your tuning stick. Mark that point with a pencil. Insert the stick into the end of the fife. When the tuning stick makes initial contact with the cork, the mark should be in the center of the blow hole. This may not be 100% but it should be close. This method will work on any cylindrical bore fife that was designed by the Boehm method, which includes just about all fifes from the late -1800's on.

        Good Luck!                                                         

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