About Flutes

The flute is played by blowing into the embouchure hole to create a vortex of air and vibrate the air in the tube. The earliest flutes were vertical, and made of animal bones with a blowing hole and finger holes. In the baroque era, flutes were called 'flauto traverso'.

The modern flute uses the so-called 'Boehm system' developed by Theobald Boehm in the middle of the 19th century. Earlier flutes had drawbacks such as feeble sound and unstable pitch. In order to solve these problems, Boehm enlarged the tone holes to increase the sound volume, and, in addition, he opened up tone holes at acoustically-correct positions to obtain the right pitch. Moreover, since the larger tone holes could not be directly covered by the fingers, he created a system to cover the tone holes by using pads. This made the flute easier to play, and created its present clear sound.

There are many types of flutes, including the most common, the standard flute, the alto flute, pitched a fourth below the standard flute, the bass flute, pitched an octave below, and the piccolo, which is half the length of the standard flute and pitched an octave above. Since the piccolo's sound is the highest in the orchestra, it stands out. The most well-know piece in which the piccolo shines is Sousa's 'Stars and Stripes Forever'. The piccolo solo in the obbligato in the trio (intermediate part) is especially famous.

In addition to a 'curved head joint', a U-shaped head joint for easy playing for people of small stature, many variations of key types and foot joints have appeared. For example, there are two types of key cups: lid-like 'covered keys' with which the holes are closed, and ring-like 'ring keys'. The covered keys close the holes with pads. Ring keys require advanced skills to cover the holes, but you can create brighter tones and fine-tune the sound. Take your time and enjoy selecting a flute that fits your taste and playing style.