The flute produces a sound as follows: First, it is the head joint that produces the sound. Why does it make a sound? What happens inside the head joint? Interior of head joint. The head joint is not perfectly cylindrical in shape The head joint tube narrows toward its left end.
Internal shape of the head joint. Yamaha's three types of tapering. There are also various types of embouchure hole cuts There are also a number of variations to the cut of the embouchure hole. Examples of embouchure hole cuts. The distance between the embouchure hole and cork is 17mm The embouchure hole of a flute is always situated at a distance of 17mm from the cork more precisely, the near end of the reflective plate. The role of the split E mechanism Not all flutes have a split E mechanism, but on those that do, it is easier to produce an E in the third top octave.
Structure The parts of the flute How is the sound produced? How to Play Playing the Flute Fingering diagrams for the flute. How the Instrument is Made Manufacturing the head joint Constructing the body Making the keys and pad cups Assembly and finishing. Choosing an Instrument Choosing on the basis of the quality of the material Choosing on the basis of the key type. Care and Maintenance Care and maintenance after playing Periodic maintenance Check the reflective plate!
Some Musical instruments consists of tubular structures like pipes which are open at both ends. Normally air column is contained in it which are in contact with the atmospheric air available One can take the flute and some organ pipes. The fundamental frequency is such that both the end pointa maintains maximum amplitude and the mid point of the tube has stationary antinode.
Air is free to undergo its back-and-forth longitudinal motion at the open end of an air column; and as such, the standing wave patterns will depict anti-nodes at the open ends of air columns. In other words: if we move ahead and find the modes of vibration of open ended organ pipe or flute further harmonics can be produced keeping in the mind that the open ends can serve only as anti nodes of vibration in the stationary waves of higher frequencies.
One might have seen flutes having some holes and the player is closing or opening the holes to produce sound of various frequencies. Actually by opening a side hole the player varies the length of the vibrating air column and changes the frequency of fundamental as well as its harmonics to produce sounds of low or high frequencies and its permutation and combination leads to "music". Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.
Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How does a flute produce its sound? Ask Question. Consequently, the resonances fall gradually and uniformly with frequency over the whole range. For the lowest note or two on the flute, there is no array of open holes and so there is no cutoff frequency due to that effect.
In principle, if the higher harmonics were strong enough, one would expect this to lead to a different timbre of these notes. One way to avoid this--a way that is used for the oboe and clarinet--is to supply a bell that radiates high frequencies but not low, and which has a cut-off frequency comparable with that of the tone hole array.
The flute has less radiated power at high frequencies than do the oboe and clarinet, so the need for a bell to 'homogenise' the timbre is rather less.
However, a bell would increase high frequency radiation, both for long and short tube notes, and the pinschofon is the name of such an instrument. This technical paper gives measurements and analyses of cutoff frequencies and crossfingering in baroque, classical and modern flutes. There is also a more detailed explanation of cut-off frequencies and their effects here. Frequency response of the flute So now let's look at the acoustic impedance spectrum of the modern flute.
We'll choose the fingering used for C 5 and C 6, with nearly all tone holes open. It is shown in the graph below. This graph covers a wide frequency range, but does not show much fine detail. For more detail, see C 5. Below about 2. The first three minima all support standing waves, and you can therefore play the notes C 5, C 6 and G 6 with this fingering.
However, above 2. This is because of the high pass filter mentioned above under cut off frequencies. Higher still, around 5 kHz, the resonances almost disappear completely, because they are shorted out by the Helmholtz resonator discussed above under the cork and the 'upstream space'.
Above this frequency range, the Helmholtz resonator is no longer a short circuit, so the resonances reappear, although they are weak because of the 'friction' of the air with the walls increased effect of viscothermal losses at high frequencies. Notice, however, an important difference. The spacing of peaks or troughs in the graph at the low frequency end is about Hz roughly the frequency of C 5, and corresponding to a standing wave in the half of the flute with no tone holes.
At high frequencies, the spacing of peaks or troughs is about Hz. This is the frequency of C4, and corresponds to the standing wave over the whole length of the flute. At these high frequencies, the wave in the bore of the flute propagates straight past the open tone holes, not 'noticing' that they are there, because of the inertia of the air discussed above under cut off frequencies.
A human player cannot blow air fast enough to excite a fundamental frequency in this range. For a loud note in the normal range, some high harmonics will fall in this range. However, these harmonics have little need of the flute as a resonator, so the tuning of these ultra high resonances has little practical importance.
Finally, notice the general shape of the curve, which has a broad maximum at about 9 or 10 kHz. This is due to the relatively narrow embouchure riser: the tube of air linking the main bore to the lip plate. The air in this tube and a little bit outside at both ends the end effects is itself a resonant tube, whose resonance occurs over a broad range of frequencies because the tube's width is comparable with its length.
The solid line on the graph is the theoretical impedance of a truncated cone having the geometry of the embouchure riser, including end effects. Some more detail is given in our technical paper about the end effects on the flute. Other flutes: recorder, shakuhachi, dizi, pan pipes, ocarina and relatives Flutes are a diverse family, whose earliest examples are 40, years old. Many cultures have developed flutes of different sorts. The photo below shows some of the sub-families.
Here, the windway geometry forms the air jet, instead of leaving that to the player's lips. This makes the recorder a relatively easy instrument for beginners. The shakuhachi b is a Japanese end-blown flute, whose end is sealed against the player's chin.
This gives a more flexible air jet geometry, and thus more flexible pitch, but makes it a difficult instrument for beginners. The Chinese xiao not shown is another end-blown flute, though it has more tone holes. See Shakuhachi acoustics. The dizi c is a Chinese transverse flute, whose distinguishing feature is a thin membrane indicated here by an arrow stretched over a hole in the wall. The non-linearity of that membrane's pressure-volume curve has the effect of transferring power from low to high harmonics, giving it a brighter sound.
The panpipes or syrinx d are different in having a resonant duct for each note, each duct closed at the remote end. The ocarina e uses a Helmholtz resonator to drive the jet, instead of a resonant duct. This allows it to play much lower notes than one would expect for its size: there is no simple relation between the wavelength and the length of the instrument. Here, the air inside acts as a spring, and the tiny masses of air in open tone holes act, in parallel, as vibrating masses on that spring: roughly speaking, a greater area of open tone holes gives a higher pitch.
See Helmholtz resonator for explanation. Most ocarinas e. On this flute, even the lowest notes use only one resonance, which gives the instrument its relatively soft, pure tone. More detailed information For more flute acoustics, return to the main flute site. Most of the individual note pages have descriptions of the acoustical effects relevant to their particular fingerings.
If you are a flutist, you'll also want to check out the tools provided on the virtual flute. There is more detailed discussions of flute acoustics in several of our research papers that concern the acoustics of flutes and other instruments.
The most recent paper concerns finger motion in flute playing. These include multiphonics , undertones , end effects and the importance of the material from which the flute is made. For further reading, we propose Wolfe, J. Fletcher and T. Rossing New York: Springer-Verlag, Other references, some less technical, are listed here. If you found this page already too technical, try How do woodwind instruments work?
For background on topics in acoustics waves, frequencies, resonances etc see Basics. Terry McGee's site has much on the evolution and history of the flute.
Our page on air speed, air flow, pressure and power in woodwind and brass instruments. Also in this series: Introduction to clarinet acoustics Introduction to saxophone acoustics Introduction to double reed acoustics Introduction to brass acoustics Guitar acoustics Violin acoustics Didjeridu acoustics Vocal tract acoustics and speech Research and scholarship possibilities.
See also Collaborations with the School of Music including possible research projects for music students. Sounds with definite pitch are usually periodic, meaning that they repeat after a period, called T. It makes the vibration build to a point at which it can vibrate the air around it, and a note is heard. This is done by opening a hole in the side of the tube. The vibrating portion of the tube will always be at least on the first octave between the mouth hole and the first open hole beneath it.
The total amount of expansion or contraction on a given note exaggerated in the illustrations is an average of one fiftieth of an inch, with an individual molecule moving in either direction only half that distance! As an example, lets close up the holes in the tube again and take a look at the first harmonic. It looks something like this:. All these ways of vibrating are occurring in the flute tube at the same time.
And if we open holes in the tube, all these vibrational patterns will then be occurring between the mouth hole and the first open hole beneath it. How is it possible for all these vibrations to be happening simultaneously? To understand this it might help to think of these vibrations not so much as actual movements of the air, but as the movement of forces that act on the air.
If the two forces were going in the same direction, it would move in that direction an extra amount.
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