How Many Types of Flutes Are There?
If you thought that the only flute there is today is the concert flute, you are completely wrong! The instrument has an entire family with flutes that look and sound different.
The most well-known flutes in the family include:
The most well-known flutes in the family include:
The piccolo. This is the smallest in the family. It is typically 33 cm (nearly half the size of a concert flute). It is a two-piece instrument with a mouthpiece and a body. It has the highest and most piercing sound of all flutes. Its highest is a high G in four octaves (an octave higher than the concert flute) and its lowest is a low D due to the missing foot joint. Colors vary--silver and black are most common for the piccolo.
The concert flute. This is the most commonly known flute of all. The sizes range from 65 cm to 70 cm depending on the size of the foot joint and whether the flute is in the key of B or key of C. It has three pieces which include the mouth piece, body, and foot joint. It can go up to three octaves but the sound is varied. It can go really high and sound penetrating (not as much as the piccolo, however) or can be played extremely low and sweet-sounding. Colors can vary--silver, gold, and sometimes clear are some popular colors on the flute.
The alto flute. This flute is similar to the concert flute but is larger in length (86 cm) and is able to play lower pitches (a 4th pitch lower than concert flutes). However, they are held the same way and sometimes have the same shape. As seen in the picture on the left, the instrument has two different types of head joints and the curled one is to help players with shorter arms to reach the keys. The sound is much deeper than the concert flute and the notes on sheet music played by the alto have a lovely, mellow sound. Colors may vary.
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Some of the other, less common flutes include:
The bass flute (185 cm)
The contrabass flute (2.7 m)