Bamboo flute

The bamboo flute, especially the bone flute, is one of the oldest musical instruments known.^[1] Examples of Paleolithic bone flutes have survived for more than 40,000 years, to be discovered by archaeologists.^[1] While the oldest flutes currently known were found in Europe, Asia too has a long history with the instrument that has continued into the present day. In China, a playable bone flute was discovered, about 9000 years old.^[2]

Bamboo flute

Krishna playing flute with his herd of cows in Bucesvara Temple, Koravangala. 12th century.
Woodwind instrument
Classification	woodwind
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	421 (421.11 End-blown flutes 421.12 Side-blown flutes)
Developed	Unknown where flutes developed. Flutes tens-of-thousands of years old have been discovered in Europe and Asia. Bamboo flutes spread from China and India, along silk road, and across the oceans to Southeast Asia and Africa. Native Americans also made bamboo flutes.

Historians have found the bamboo flute has a long history as well, especially China and India. Flutes made history in records and artworks starting in the Zhou dynasty. The oldest written sources reveal the Chinese were using the kuan (a reed instrument) and hsio (or xiao, an end-blown flute, often of bamboo) in the 12th-11th centuries b.c., followed by the chi (or ch'ih) in the 9th century b.c. and the yüeh in the 8th century b.c.^[3] Of these, the chi is the oldest documented cross flute or transverse flute, and was made from bamboo.^[3][4] The Chinese have a word, zhudi, which literally means "bamboo flute."^[5]

The cross flute (Sanscrit: vāṃśī) was "the outstanding wind instrument of ancient India," according to Curt Sachs.^[6] He said that religious artwork depicting "celestial music" instruments was linked to music with an "aristocratic character."^[6] The Indian bamboo cross flute, Bansuri, was sacred to Krishna, and he is depicted in Hindu art with the instrument.^[6] In India, the cross flute appeared in reliefs from the 1st century a.d. at Sanchi and Amaravati from the 2nd-4th centuries a.d.^[6][7]

In the modern age, bamboo flutes are common in places with ready access to bamboo, including Asia, South and Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa.

See: Chinese flutes

End blown flute mouthpieces

Name	Description	Picture
Xiao blowing hole	(the hole faces away from the player, against the lower lip, making sure the top lip is not concealing the hole, when the instrument is played. Works on the same basics as blowing air over an empty bottle to create noise.)
Shakuhachi	Kinko school utaguchi (歌口, blowing edge) and inlay. The shakuhachi player blows as one would blow across the top of an empty bottle (though the shakuhachi has a sharp edge to blow against called utaguchi) and therefore has substantial pitch control.
Hotchiku	Same technique as shakuhachi. The angle of the utaguchi (歌口, lit. "singing mouth"), or blowing edge, of a hotchiku is closer to perpendicular to the bore axis than that of a modern shakuhachi.
Quena	To produce sound, the player closes the top end of the pipe with the flesh between the chin and lower lip, and blows a stream of air downward, along the axis of the pipe, over an elliptical notch cut into the end.	Blowing tip of Quena flute, South America
Khlui	Thailand. A block has been put into the end of the flute, an internal fipple that creates a hole to blow through, channeling air through a duct to create sound.

List of bamboo flutes, cane flutes, reed flutes

This list is intended to show flutes made of bamboo. It excludes pan flutes or panpipes, and flutes and whistles that don't have finger positions to change notes. It also excludes pipes that use reeds to produce the sound. Bamboo is a grass, and some "cane" or "reed" flutes may get listed here, as long as the plant is being used for a tube that is blown into or across to create noise. Types of flutes include transverse flutes (also called cross flutes), end-blown flutes (ring flutes are included with these) and Nose flutes. Fipple flutes, also called duct flutes, may be added to the list as well, as long as they are bamboo-based instruments. The bamboo variant may be added for instruments that include wood and bamboo versions.

Name in English	Name in other language	Place / Region	Picture	Method of sounding	Description
Atenteben		Ghana[8][9][10]
Bansuri		Bangladesh	A group of bansuri flutes, grouped low pitched to high pitched.
Bansuri		India[11]	Musician playing a large bansuri; the larger instrument is lower toned than a smaller bansuri.
Bām̐surī	(Nepali: बाँसुरी)	Nepal	Public performance by Newar musicians with flutes, Lalitpur.
Bata Nalawa		Sri Lanka
Chi		China[3]
Dizi	Chinese: 笛子 pinyin: dízi)	China[5]	Group of dizi flutes in different sizes and pitches.
Daegeum	Korean: 대금	Korea
Dangjeok or Jeok	Korean: 당적; Hanja: 唐笛	Korea[12]		Notched flute
Danso	단소; 短簫	Korea[13]
Donali	دونَلی	Iran
Dongdi		China
Fijian nose flute		Viti Levu		Nose flute	This nasal flute is made from a section of bamboo, pierced with nine holes. The entire surface is decorated with geometric patterns of different shapes, forming several registers in the vertical direction. To play the flute, a hole must be applied against one nostril while the other is blocked by the fingers.
Floghera	Greek: φλογέρα, romanized: floyéra	Greece	Floyera (end blown flute), souravli (duct flute), madoura (clarinet)	rim-blown	End-blown bamboo flute without a fipple, used in Greek folk music. Played by directing a narrow air stream against its sharp, open upper end. It typically has seven finger holes.[14]
Friscolettu[15]		Sicily		fipple	Seven holes on the front, two in the back
Hotchiku	法竹	Japan[16]
Gasbah[17]	الڨصبة (Egyptian Arabic), Taghanimt (Berber language)	Maghreb		oblique (bevel is cut on the end of the tube)	Oblique flutes are played with the musician be holding the flute at an angle to the mouth, blowing across a bevel cut in the end. Similar to Ney.[17]
Garau-nai		Uzbekistan, Tajikistan[18]
India nose-flute bansuri		West Bengal		Fipple	In 1799, artist Frans Balthazar Solvyns depicted an end-blown flute, called Bansuri (like the side-blown flute), being played nasally.
Ji		Korea
Junggeum	중금; 中笒	Korea[19]	Top a daegeum, in the middle a junggeum, to the right a piri.
Kagurabue	(Japanese: 神楽笛))	Japan[20]
Khloy	Khmer: ខ្លុយ Burmese: ပုလွ	Cambodia[21] Myanmar (Burma)		internal fipple	end-blown duct flute. Mouthhole on bottom of pipe's end, soundhole on flute's bottom (opposite side of the pipe from the fingerholes).[22] This flute may have as many as 8 fingerholes, plus up to 2 additional thumbholes; the thumbholes offer additional notes.[22]
Khlui	(Thai: ขลุ่ย	Thailand		internal fipple	end-blown duct flute. Mouthhole on top of pipe's end, soundhole on flute's top.
Komabue	Japanese: 高麗笛	Japan[23]	Komabue in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts
Koudi	Chinese: 口笛 pinyin: kǒudí	China[24]	A koudi. The large hole in the middle is the blowing hole, and the three smaller holes on the top are finger holes. The two open ends of the tube are also used, played with the thumbs.
Lalove		Indonesia
Malaysian nose flute		Sarawak	Nose flute on Sarawak	Nose flute
Minteki or shinteki	minteki: (kanji: 明笛 shinteki: (kanji: 清笛))	Japan
Moseño		Andes mountains[25][26]
Murali		Nepal[27]
Native American flute		United States (Native American)
Nohkan	能管	Japan	Bottom, a Nohkan. The rest are shinobue.
Ney		Iran	Turkish ney
Ohe Hano Ihu		Hawaii
Paiwan nose flute		Taiwan	Paiwanese nose flute with two pipes.	Nose flute	Instrument of the Paiwan people of Taiwan.
Palendag		Philippines[28]
Palwei (German Wikipedia)	Burmese: ပလွေ	Myanmar	Palwei, a Myanmar transverse flute.
Pinkillu		Peru, Andes mountains[29]	Pinkillu flute and tinya drum. The musician plays the flute one handed while playing the drum.
Quena		Andes	Quena, made from American species of bamboos, (bamboo genera Aulonemia or Rhipidocladum.[30] Also the tokhoro, a species of cane.[30]
Ryūteki		Japan[31]
Sáo	Sáo trúc	Vietnam[32]
Shakuhachi	尺八	Japan[33][34]
Shinobue or takebue	Shinobue: kanji: 篠笛 Takebue: (kanji: 竹笛)	Japan[35]	All but the bottom flute are shinobue. The bottom flute is a Nohkan.
Sogeum	소금; 小笒	Korea[36]
Suling		Indonesia[37]	Man playing end-blown suling, a bamboo ring flute.
Suling		Papua, New Guinea	Woman playing a suling transverse bamboo flute, from Papua, New Guinea.
Tahitian nose flute		Tahiti		Nose flute	Bamboo nose flute bound with bands of colored coconut fiber. Collected from Tahiti, the Society Islands during Cook's voyages to the Pacific 1768–1780.
Tongso	퉁소	Korea[6]
Venu	Sanskrit: वेणु	India
Wa		Myanmar
Xiao	Chinese: 簫 Simplified Chinese: 箫 Pinyan: xiāo	China[3]
Xindi	Chinese: 新 笛; pinyin: xīndí	China[5]
Yak	약	Korea
Yokobue		Japan
Yue		China[38]