Jim Stewart started the ball rolling with: Is there a generally accepted "correct" order for tuning drones to chanter? Which drone do most people tune first, second, etc.?

Ian Hamilton wrote: Don't know about accepted order, but I usually play a D on the chanter with the left hand only, leaving the right hand free to tune the high d drone in. Once the two are the same, I play the chanter normally (both hands) and fine tune the drone. The rest of the drones I tune in without the chanter in the order low G, high g and low D.

From: Bill Telfer :That wouldn’t work for me. Maybe you have an extraordinarily well-tuned and balanced chanter. In fact I've been waiting for somebody to pick up on this thread and remind us of the Tom Clough way, which I knew I'd read about, but couldn’t remember where.
Now I've found it in NPS Magazine Vol. 12 1991. It makes a lot of sense and has to do with listening and tuning to the chord made by the chanter note B and the little G and D drones. Maybe I even use this method, more or less unconsciously, because for me/my pipes, trying to keep in tune seems to involve compromises anyway.
TC's remark that it 'makes all tunes better ‘on the one sharp' reminds me of an even earlier article, dealing with tuning, (by who/when I cant remember but it was very scientific and largely beyond me) , which demonstrated that even when your D drone is perfectly in tune for playing in G it can’t be in tune for playing in D. You have to re-tune....

From: Glenn Baggott :
Yup Bill, I've been doing the b tuning ever since Les Jessop's note on Tom Clough's practice - a left hand D is usually very far from the nominal pitch - who started the left hand D tuning fashion anyway, I wonder?

From: Ian Hamilton:
As a matter of interest, what is the list's experience of out of tune left hand Ds? Both my Burleigh and Sloan sets are only a couple of cents out

From: Henry Ford :
So who’s going to write a set of chromatic exercises entitled The Well-Tempered Bagpipe!
My left hand d on the Shaw sets are spot on, but in general they are naturally a bit unstable in this weather we've been having. I've not had to scrape the mould off the reeds yet, but I expect to any day now. I can picture slugs in the blow pipe.

From: Helen Cook:
In my experience Burleigh sets characteristically have a top D out, and often the E. However, my Sloan sets are not.

From: Colin Ross:
The method described by Ian Hamilton is the one I was taught by Forster Charlton in the 60's and has been used by most pipers I know since then. The important thing is to have the chanter playing at the same time as you are tuning the drones.
Richard Butler got it wrong when he said to tune the "g" into the low G on the chanter, and I would suggest that Tom Clough was the same with his tuning to the B, as in both cases the chanter would have to be stopped to enable you to use your right hand to tune in the drone. Has Richard got a secret third hand, and was Tom Clough similarly endowed? Could this also be the secret behind their playing techniques?
The tuning of the smallpipes is Mean Tuning i.e. tuned to the commonly used keys of G, .D. and A. This is described in RB's tutor as used by myself for years now. If you try to tune for E you will find yourself in difficulty with the middle B as it will be tuned in as a true fifth and when you go back to G it will sound too sharp. If you stick to the three keys of G, D, &A to check your unisons, thirds, and fifths, your chanter will sound in tune and tuning with the D (or E for the key of A} will be a doddle.
Remember if you are tempted to tune your chanter to keep the pressure steady at 15" water gauge.

From Julia Say:
After I’d collated the above postings, I went and did some practising, noting what I actually did. I’ve encountered the d out of tune problem on all the chanters I’ve had (3). I’ve usually put it down to the weather, the reed, or the physical / mental state of the nut holding the steering wheel – the last can make a surprising difference to one’s tuning abilities.
Anyway I play the low G and G drone together, noting if they’re out. I’ve been able to hear if they were out (reliably) since about a year after I started playing, but only in the last couple of years been able to tell which way if they’re close. Adjust accordingly and try again - repeat until satisfactory. Then get the 2 G drones exactly in – that’s been easier since I got a 5 drone set with removeable stock, I can thoroughly recommend them for ease of tuning – the beats are very clear. At that stage I play for about 10 minutes, by which time my left arm’s steadied up, and the pressure is as constant as it gets. Then I add the d drone, tuning it to the 2 G’s, not the chanter, cos that’s sharp on the required drone position at the moment. Next week it could be different. Sometimes I start with the little G drone instead – I’m sure I’ve seen that done, which made me decide to try it.
To get from G to D, I shut the G’s (obviously), check the remaining D (against both chanter D’s), get the octave on the 2 D drones, and then add the A (again, this is much easier with 5 drones – saves an awful lot of mucking about). I find tuning beads hard to manipulate.
I hadn’t / haven’t tried the Clough tuning, as I’d understood that mean tuning meant that the B could be an unreliable interval. I can see what he was getting at, though, forming a G chord. Presumably he’d worked out a theory behind this. That’s one of the letters of Tom’s I’m going to reread, and possibly reproduce. He certainly also had some other novel ideas (extended slider on the d drone to get a C for example)
I’ve had experience of having to retune a drone, ostensibly producing the same note, to use it for different keys, but I seem to remember there were other problems at the time, and when I changed the reed it went away.

From: Helen Cook :
I would add one small comment. I find that the higher notes sound correct within tighter limitations of tolerance. For that reason I always tune the highest drone first, before I tune others to it. So, if tuning the top G for playing in G I tune the drone into the best the chanter can manage with my right hand off, it is always a bit flat. Then as I put the right hand back on the chanter I can try to assess how far it is out by listening for beating. Adjust, replace right hand, adjust until reasonably satisfied, then check against bottom G and bottom D. If it sounds good to them all, then it is right! Then cut off the chanter and tune the bottom G drone to the top G. Then touch the finger to the hole to shut it up and tune the D to the top G. Release pressure to get them all back and check against G and D notes on the chanter.
It works for me most times, my problem is that I have it all to do again in a few minutes as the reeds adjust to the temperature of the room. They do settle, but I have never found a good way to overcome having to re-tune in concerts or competitions. They can sound great at the beginning of a tune and be beating like mad by the time I have finished.

From: Ina Gilchrist:
As an old hand in the concert business, what I do is the following:-
when I get to the venue, I let my pipes acclimatise for about 1 hour, then I tune to bottom D, A and then G. Since we have pretty violent temperature fluctuations in Germany, I tend to use cane reeds in the winter and brass bodies in the summer. The exception to this is with my 1830 Reid chanter where I use cane reeds all the time because I like the balance better. I think the secret to staying reasonable in tune is to let your pipes get used to their "working conditions". Some players even blow air through the set for 15 minutes or so. ....and of course, it goes without saying, that all good pipers retune as they chew their way through the concert. I must admit however there are other imponderable factors to do with your mood, the state of your parasympathetic nervous system and so on. Does this start another thread?.

Date: Mon, 4 May 1998

From: Dick Hensold <dick@mpls1.mn.uswest.net>
Subject: Re: Tuning drones
I don't have any more to add. I tune the small g drone to *both* the low g and the high g on the chanter. Otherwise the chanter isn't in tune with itself. I think Helen said she tuned this way. Then I tune the low G drone and finally the d drone, with the chanter sounding. I tune Ian's way when I'm in a hurry, but when time is really of the essence, I just play out of tune and hope nobody notices.
I have a crackpot theory about Tom Clough's remark! I think I heard (correct me if I'm wrong) that the older chanters, such as the Reid chanters, had thirds that were slightly flat of pure/just/meantone/in tune . Or whatever term you prefer. If TC was a modernist playing on an older chanter and he wanted his thirds (IOW, B) to be right in tune he would have to have his tonics slightly sharp, and maybe he preferred this. You don't have to be an ethnomusicologist to notice that B is a very important note in traditional Nsp tunes. (There is other evidence floating around to suggest that thirds used to be lower than they are now.)