Can anyone tell me how to tune my piccolo? My teacher is always too busy to help, and I`m the only piccolo. A friend told me to use the cleaning rod and adjust the thingy in the end of the head joint, but it didn`t work; my B-flat was as flat as ever...

Did you line up the mark on rod directly in middle of embrocher hole?

Cork is also probably tight if it needs to go in you have to push it.

The so-called tuning cork is really more to do with adjusting the responsiveness of various areas areas of the piccolo`s range, and the third octave tuning relative to the other two.

It is unlikely to affect just the tuning of Bb.

If it is just your Bb, then it could be a really poor design of piccolo, or it could be the A key not opening far enough... perhaps because the A key`s pivot is jamming or its spring is un-tensioned, or off the `spring cradle`.

However for the piccolo to generally work properly the `tuning cork` DOES need to be in approximately the right place, determined by the mark on your cleaning rod. (BTW different designs of piccolo need this mark in different places.) There must be no leaking past the cork, and the metal end at the embouchure end of the cork must be firm against the cork. If you need more help with this then people in this forum can help with detail.

well....

The A not opening far enough could also be a too thick cork or somehow the foot has been bent so key cannot open as far.