How to Tune a Wind Chime

Making a wind chime is something anyone can do by cutting metal tubes to various lengths to achieve a variety of musical tones. You can tune the wind chime by slightly shortening the length of the tubes until you hear the desired musical tone when you strike the individual tubes.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Metal tubing of various lengths
• Pipe cutter, hacksaw or grinder
• Reamer
• Fine steel wool, file or sandpaper

1. Hold the top of the chime between two fingers and strike the bottom with something hard to make a sound. Listen closely to the pitch of the sound. If you do not like the sound, then proceed to Step 2.
2. Cut or grind a small section of the tube from the bottom of the chime. The more you remove from the bottom of the chime, the higher the frequency becomes. Continue to shorten the tube and check the pitch until you get the desired sound quality.
3. Sand the bottom of the chime. Depending on what material the chime is made of, you can use a piece of fine steel wool, a file or sandpaper.
4. Smooth the inside of the chime using a grinding tool, known as a reamer, or a piece of fine steel wool.
5. Tune each tube individually. The shorter tubes will make higher pitched sounds and the longer tubes will make lower pitch sounds.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are looking for a specific sound, go to a store and look at the different chimes. Some chimes may have a tag hanging on them that states which notes and materials are used.
• Be careful when removing the bottom of a chime because if the chime becomes too high in frequency; the only way to correct the frequency is to start over with a longer tube.

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