From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A pitchpipe is a small device used to provide a pitch reference for musicians without absolute pitch. Although it may be described as a musical instrument, it is not typically used to play music as such.

The earliest pitchpipes were instruments rather like a recorder, but rather than finger holes, they had a plunger like a slide whistle's (also known as a swanee whistle). The pipe was generally made of wood with a square bore, and the plunger was leather-coated. On this plunger are marked the notes of either the chromatic scale or the diatonic scale, and by setting it to the correct position, the indicated note will be produced when the instrument is blown.

Pitchpipes of this sort were most often used in the 18th and 19th centuries in churches which had no organ to give the opening note of a hymn. They are now quite rare, and hardly ever used for what they were intended, but may still be used as an alternative to a tuning fork. They are also useful for establishing what pitch standard was being used at a particular place and time.

Although few look like a pipe, the pitchpipe name is still applied to any device used as a pitch reference. The most common type is a free reed aerophone with marked openings into which the user blows. Some pitchpipes are intended for tuning string instruments, and only provide reeds for notes appropriate to a particular instrument.

Chromatic pitch pipes are favored by a cappella singers and timpanists. These are shaped like discs with the holes for the reeds around the perimeter. Chromatic pipes most often provide thirteen pitches, each a half step above the previous. By providing all of the notes of a single octave, a singer can start in any key called for in Western music. Different pipes are available for men and women due to the differences in vocal range: male singers most often use F-F pipes, while female singers favor C-C pipes. In recent years, electronic chromatic pitchpipes have become small enough to fit on key chains.

• An "online pitch pipe" (recordings of each of the pitches on a free-reed instrument)