Hi. I've been playing flute for a few months now and I STILL don't know how to tune the stinker. Can someone tell me how to tune my flute? I tried to tune it to B flat and it's TOO flat. Can someone please tell me how to fix that with easy instructions that I can follow? Thanks, that'd be great!!!

if you're flat, try pushing the headjoint in, or supporting with more air. if youre sharp, pull out.

See, that's the problem. My head joint is pushed in as far as it goes. And I know it's flat because the pitch is a heck of a lot lower than it should be.

Check the position of the cork in your headjoint.

Whether or not Bb is in tune will not dictate if the flute as a whole is. To get the flute as close to in tune for as many pitches as necessary, finger Low C, and lift your thumb so that C2 sounds. If the pitches match, finger D1, and lift your left index finger so that D2 sounds. If the pitches don't match, adjust the headjoint until they do. Once the pitch matches between octaves, odds are your head is about where it should be, and assuming your flute has a reasonable scale, and that the head cork is in the right place, the rest of the adjustment needs to be done with your air. Raise the air to pull pitch sharper, and lower it slightly to flatten pitch. Pushing the headjoint in and pulling it out is not a good way to try to tune, as it will change pitch relationships unevenly, meaning you need to adjust much more for some notes than for others. Pitch starts with having a flute with a decent scale, and having the head in the right position so that the octave lengths are correct, but the fine tuning (and there are almost always a couple of notes that need some babying, no matter how nice an instrument you play) must be done by the player.

I am judging this based on a CD I bought that comes with a tuner for Bflat.

Is the tuner set to close to 400 hz?

Don't you mean 440 hz?

I think so. I didn't look. I just pushed play.

You're tuning using a CD?
I highly recommend buying a tuner instead.

I was talking to Josh...i think...or whoever's above me!