Chiff and Fipple Forums

Finally, your point about clarinets raises an interesting problem, which is that a keyboard layout isn't just going to make embouchure difficulties vanish. I'm imagining that you would connect the air tube to the headpiece (whether that be a sideblown hole, a fipple, or reed like Clarinet) in a way...

I'm not sure this is what you're saying, but what if each key actually lifted an entire section of tube, so that the tube became shorter? So the tube is split into a ton of pieces, and every time you lift a key, a chunk of tube is removed from the whole? Yes, that's the idea, though they can't stay...

Cyberknight - responding to some of your other thoughts: "It can't do slides" - you're right. I wonder if there's a smart modification that could be made where slides become possible? For example, on a traditional piano, one of the foot pedals shifts all the hammer heads over slightly, so ...

Cyberknight - thanks for your thoughts. Quick question: you mentioned the current design I posted above wouldn't be able to do more than an octave. Is there a physical limiting factor that is the reason for that? I was imagining that you could get as low as you wanted, depending on the length of the...

Looking at the drawing I assumed it was tuned for one hole open at a time. (Is that 'closed fingering'?) That would cause a lot of weird sounding notes that sound muffled, and the higher up you go, the more they'll misfire. Having one flute tube per piano key is likely the most workable solution if...

What if there was a flute / whistle that could be played using a keyboard layout, and was chromatic? I created the design for such an instrument - I call it the Pianoflute! - and I'm curious what you think of it, and whether any Maker would be interested in trying to make it. Here's an overview of i...

Just wanted to say a quick thanks to everyone who's responded to my question!

Making a tapered or conical whistle is something I've recently been thinking about... what do you like about them?

Thanks for the responses, everyone! Richard, I noticed that in those flute pictures, the bend is always before the note holes. The part with holes, that serves to shorten the column of air, is straight. Is that more about ease of mechanical production, on the instrument manufacturer's part? I guess ...

Imagine the biggest bass whistle (or flute) you can think of. So big that it becomes too long to be made as a straight tube. So you bend it, such that it curves around you. Like this (warning, crude drawing incoming): https://i.ibb.co/GtLmFgb/curved-bass-flute.png For the time being, let's not worry...