Teaching Policies

Instrument Rental Agreement

History Of The Flute

Construction Of The Flute

The Flute Family

Categories Of Flute

In its most basic form, a flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. Over time, the increasing demands of musical performance have led to the development of what many people consider the flute, the Western concert flute, which has a complex array of holes and keys.

There are several broad classes of flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across a hole, on the side of the instrument. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina, have a duct which directs the air onto an edge, an arrangement which is given the term, "fipple".
This gives the instrument a distinct timbre, different from non-fipple flutes, and makes the instrument easier to play, although it does take a degree of control away from the musician. Usually, fipple flutes are not referred to as flutes, even though the physics, technique and sound, define them as being such. Instead, they can collectively be called whistles, or determined by each of their independently adopted names.

Another division is between side-blown, or transverse flutes, such as the Western concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao, kaval, danso, shakuhachi, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses a hole on the side of the tube in order to produce a sound, instead of blowing onto the end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes, such as the recorder, which are also played vertically, but which have internal ducts to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. The earliest example of a transverse flute is a chi, discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, in China. It dates from 433 BC, of the later Zhou Dynasty. It is fashioned of lacquered bamboo with closed ends, and has five stops that are at the flute's side, instead of the top. Chi flutes are mentioned in Shi Jing, compiled and edited by Confucius.

Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, pan pipes, policeman’s whistle, and bosun's whistle, are all closed at one end. Open-ended flutes, such as the concert flute, and recorder, have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and which possess a brighter tone. An organ pipe may also be either open or closed, (open or stopped), depending on the sound desired. Flutes can also be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes, whereas organs are blown by bellows or fans.

The Indian Bamboo Flute, one of the instruments native to Indian classical music, was developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god, Krishna, is traditionally considered a master of the instrument. Krishna's flute is called the Vamsi. The Indian flutes are very simple instruments in comparison to their Western counterparts. They are made of bamboo, and have no keys. The quality of the sound produced on these flutes depends somewhat on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is generally agreed that the best bamboo grows in the Nagarcoil area in Southern India.

The Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred to by numbers, assuming the tonic note is C:
1(C), 1-1/2(C sharp), 2(D), 2-1/2(D sharp), 3(E), 4(F), 4-1/2(F sharp), 5(G), 5-1/2(G sharp), 6(A), 6-1/2(A sharp), & 7(B).
However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed, and hence any of the flutes may be used for the performance, so long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned accordingly, but is largely left to the personal preference of the artist.

Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first is the Bansuri, which has six tone holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in Hindustani music, the music of Northern India. The second is the Venu, or Pullanguzhal, which has eight tone holes, and is played predominantly in Carnatic music, the music of Southern India. Currently, the 8-holed flute, with cross-fingering technique, is common among many Carnatic flautists. It was introduced by the eminent flautist T. R. Mahalingam, in the mid-20th Century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven tone holes, with the standard fingering, developed by Sharaba Shastri of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th Century.

The Chinese dizi is of a similar construction, and follows a similar tonal system, to that of the Indian flutes. It has an additional hole positioned between the embouchure hole, and the first tone hole, which holds the secret to the distinctive reedy sound the instrument produces when blown, characteristic to Chinese classical music.

A thin piece of reed, or onion skin, is placed over this hole, often attached to the flute using garlic juice, due to its adhesive properties. When the dizi is blown, the air causes the reed to vibrate, according to how tightly or loosely it has been fixed across the hole, thus producing a bright reedy tone. The dizi has two more, much smaller holes towards the far end of the tube. These help to maintain a settled tone, and which also serve as a place for threading decorative tassels.

The dvoyanka is a double flute from the Balkans, made of a single piece of wood, with six tone holes on one side. It is most frequently made of ash-wood, plum tree, pear tree, cornel, or boxwood. A melodic line is played on one pipe, which is then accompanied by a drone from the other pipe. This kind of playing is similar by structure to music played on the kaval. It is also a favorite instrument of shepherds.

Line-dances, and lively melodies, are frequently played on the dvoyanka. Shepherds used to direct their flocks by their playing, since sheep remember and recognize a melody over time. A shepherd could “teach” his flock to start from the pen towards the pasture, at the sounding of one melody, and to then return to the village in the evening at the sounding of another. The dvoyanka is similar to the dvojnica, an instrument typical for the regions of Central and Western Serbia, and also Serbian regions across the river Drina, which are made and played somewhat differently from the dvoyanka.

A pinkillo is a simple wind instrument, found in Peru and Bolivia. It is a straight, end-blown flute, similar to that of the quena, made from bamboo. It has a bright sound, with recorder-like fingering, and can be played on a diatonic or chromatic scale.

The ocarina, also native to Peru, is a small round example of a fipple flute, made of clay. On its upper and lower surfaces are small tone holes, combinations of which can produce the notes of a scale. Ocarinas come in varying sizes, from very small, to quite large. They are also often decoratively painted, and which are often found hanging from the necks of shepherds.

Terje Isungset is one of Europe's most accomplished and innovative percussionists. With over two decades of experience in jazz and ethnic Scandinavian music, he is taking these types of music far beyond their traditional boundaries. He has crafted his own instruments from Norwegian natural elements, including arctic birch, granite, slate, sheep bells, and even ice!

Terje Isungset is, in fact, a world innovator in producing fully sounding instruments made of ice, as seen in the internationally televised Millenium/New Year 2000 event from Sweden, and the 2002 Iceman Is CD. He has pioneered the making of ice instruments from solid blocks of pure ice, including flutes, and recording ethereal sounds, as well as serious music, under harsh and extreme conditions.

His series of ice concerts takes this one step further, by presenting the same concept live, using fragile instruments with very quiet sound output.  This requires a location where pure, clean natural ice is on hand, along with a very cold semi-outdoor venue, in a completely quiet environment.  However, planned concerts have unfortunately been cancelled, due to thaw-out temperatures, or unforeseen noise pollution, such as traffic, or crowds of people.

Of course, these fragile ice instruments have a very limited life expectancy, according to the environment to which they are exposed, and the physical and musical demands put upon them. So, reserve instruments are kept “chilled” ready, during performances in which to replace melting ones, in order for the show to go on…!