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| Flutes are usually made of metal, but sometimes you will see flutes made of wood. Flutes are some of the highest instruments in the orchestra, and they are very good at playing fast, detailed music. The very highest-pitched instrument in the orchestra is a kind of flute, but it plays a whole octave higher. It's called the piccolo - that's the Italian word for "little"; -- and its sound rings out over the whole orchestra even though it is only a foot long. An orchestra usually has one flute player who plays the piccolo when it is needed. | 
Composer: Tchaikovsky Piece: Nutcracker Suite Orchestra: London Philharmonic Conductor: Previn |
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Look at Tiffany, our flutist, and you will see that she holds the flute up and to the side when she plays. She blows across a hole at one end of the flute. If you have ever tried to "play" a glass soda bottle, you've had your first flute lesson! The flute has many keys, and by pressing them with her fingers, Tiffany can play different pitches. Piccolos are played in exactly the same way. Flutes and piccolos are easy to carry around. Flutes break down into three parts -- and piccolos into two parts -- that Tiffany must put together before she can play.
In stories and legends, flutes often have magical properties - like the flute played by "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." In this story, a flutist puts all the kids in town into a trance with his beautiful playing, and leads them around wherever he wants. The spell is only broken when he stops playing. |
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