534a1: End-blown flute

With end-blown flutes, the airstream is directed against the sharp rim of the open upper end of a pipe by a player's lips. There are a variety of ways the end can be cut to obtain an edge.

The number of finger holes is usually under four.

Materials used for flutes include horn, wood, bamboo, animal bone, metal, and even PVC pipe!

Traditional flutes are often "sight tuned," that is, the holes are placed where the fingers conveniently fall or where it looks good to put a hole, rather than boring the holes to produce a certain pitch.

The end-blown flute may be a single flute or a set of pipes of graduated length arranged in a row. There may be a double row. This set of pipes is different from panpipes in that the tubes of panpipes have no finger holes and the lower end is usually stopped.

• Ocm module: End-blown flute
• In ocm module: Aerophones
• In ocm module: Musical instruments
• In modular book: Expanded ethnomusicology categories for the Outline of Cultural Materials, by Kenneth R. Hollingsworth
• In bookshelf: Anthropology

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 21 March 1999

© 1999 SIL International