The FLUTE

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge, instead of using a reed. A musician who plays the flute is generally referred to as either a flautist or a flutist. Flute tones are sweet and blend well with other instruments.

The Indian Bamboo Flute

The Indian Bamboo Flute, one of the instruments of Indian classical music, developed independently of the Western flute. The Hindu god Krishna is traditionally considered a master of the instrument. The Indian flutes are very simple instruments when compared with their Western counterparts; they are made of bamboo and are keyless. The Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic Music, the pitches are referred by numbers such as 1(C), 1-1/2(C#), 2(D), 2-1/2(D#), 3(E), 4(F), 4-1/2(F#), 5(G), 5-1/2(G#), 6(A), 6-1/2(A#) & 7(B) (The above is assuming the tonic note is C). However, the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately) and 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 finger holes and one blowing hole, is used predominantly in Hindustani music, the music of Northern India. The second is Venu or Pullanguzhal, which has eight finger holes, and is played predominantly in Carnatic music, the music of Southern India. Presently, the 8-holed flute with cross-fingering technique, is common among many Carnatic flautists. This was introduced by the eminent flautist T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th Century. Prior to this, the South Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by Sharaba Shastri of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th Century.

The quality of the sound from the flute 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 South India.

Categories of flute

Playing the zampoña, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan pipes.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 the edge of the mouthpiece. However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle, tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement that is termed a "fipple"). This gives the instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the instrument easier to play, but takes 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.

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 to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube. End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have internal ducts to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. The earliest extant transverse flute is a chi (篪) flute discovered in the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at the Suizhou site, Hubei province, 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, police whistle, and bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired.

Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. Organs are blown by bellows or fans.