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Let’s do something completely different.
Here’s a thread about flute acoustics.
An ancient instrument with versions in very different forms from many countries. But how do they actually produce music?
After all, just blowing into a tube generally doesn’t.
Here’s a thread about flute acoustics.
An ancient instrument with versions in very different forms from many countries. But how do they actually produce music?
After all, just blowing into a tube generally doesn’t.
All music consists of air vibrating at certain frequencies. There are many different ways to produce that vibration.
Despite big differences in shape and sound, flutes have in common the way they make air vibrate.
Despite big differences in shape and sound, flutes have in common the way they make air vibrate.
Basically, you blow air across a sharp edge, where one side of the edge goes into a pipe, and the other end goes outside.
Due to changes in air pressure, the air alternates rapidly between going into the pipe and out of it. This creates the vibration.
Due to changes in air pressure, the air alternates rapidly between going into the pipe and out of it. This creates the vibration.
Flutes differ from many other tube instruments by having nothing solid vibrate. Clarinets, oboes, saxophones, and others, have reeds that vibrate. Trumpets, horns, and the like, the player’s lips are what vibrates. Flutes skip that step and just make the air vibrate on its own.
The length and diameter of the pipe control the frequency of the vibrations, so a longer, bigger pipe makes a deeper note, and a shorter, smaller pipe makes a higher one. Holes on the sides of the flute can be uncovered to effectively shorten the pipe and raise the pitch.
Once air is vibrating in the column, flutes are all pretty similar. The big differences come in a) how the sharp edge is mounted to the pipe and b) how air is directed to the edge. In those there’s huge variety one to the other.
The simplest way to mount the edge is just to sharpen part of the rim of an open pipe. The Japanese bamboo flutes, of which shakuhachi is most famous, are like this. The player is responsible to shape air into a stream and hit the edge with it, which takes skill.
The classic transverse flutes that are held out to the side (concert flutes, piccolos, Irish flutes, etc.) are the same, except they have the sharpened hole on the side of the flute, and the near end of the pipe is closed. Again, the player forms and directs a stream of air.
Much easier to learn to play are the “fipple flutes.” A fipple is a plug that almost blocks one end of the pipe, leaving a small channel that directs air to a sharp edge on the side of the flute. All you have to do is blow, not direct or shape the air. Recorders, whistles, etc.
A fascinating version is the Native American flute. You hold it like the recorder, but you blow air into an initial chamber, which then exits through a narrow channel between the flute body and a tied-on block, then hits a sharp edge where the main sound chamber begins.
There are other forms of flute too, like the ocarina, which isn’t actually an air-column flute at all, but has similarities.
And if blowing air yourself is too hard, you can always have a machine force the air to the pipe. AKA an organ.
And if blowing air yourself is too hard, you can always have a machine force the air to the pipe. AKA an organ.
So that’s the basics of how flutes make sound. I’ve left out a lot of the more complex stuff (even just of the parts I know, which is hardly everything). But if you’ve ever wondered how flutes, recorders, whistles, etc. make their sounds, now you know. /end
