The willow flute, also known as a sallow flute, was created by the Scandinavians and saw use in their traditional folk music. The unique instrument possesses and equally unique sound, and has seen use for quite a long time. Like many flutes, the willow flute's design is simple. The thing that sets willow flutes apart from other flutes is that there are no openings which the fingers can manipulate in generating the varied notes and tones. The air which generates the music escapes a hole just below the mouth piece. It possesses its name from the willow tree, which was the first material used in the willow flute's construction. Modern willow flutes are made of plastic, like the recorder or fife.

Most flutes produce their varied notes by changing the effective length of the flute through coving holes along the barrel of the flute. The willow flute does not have holes along its length. It is capable of producing varied notes through the musician changing the amount in which he blows into the flute. More specifically, the musician is changing the air pressure, which directly changes the frequency of the note played. In addition, the opening at the bottom of the flute can be covered or uncovered by the flutist, which will select one of two different sets of overtones that the flute can produce. With the opening to the flute covered, one fundamental and overtone is available to the musician. Uncovering the opening will produce a different fundamental and set of overtones.

It is clear that the willow flute is a unique instrument, one that is not dependent upon the same mechanism that so many other flutes employ. The sound that results from the flute is in that way unique, making it an instrument that can be beneficial to begin to learn. Given its design, one may start to think the flute odd in the way it creates notes; however it is surprisingly not difficult to learn how to play. The flute can be challenging at first, but really, what instrument isn’t challenging? Once the musician gets a hang of the instrument, then playing it becomes quite simple, and the musician is on the way to mastering the flute. It is also not a very expensive instrument either, making obtaining one much simpler than other, more complicated flutes.

There are better choices of musical instrument out there for a beginner to learn with. The willow flute is more suited as an instrument for a more seasoned musician to play. The reason being is that is takes much more control over one's breathing to be able to play the instrument well. Musical techniques of tempo and rhythm are also more difficult when focus is also put on breathing. Once such a set of techniques is mastered, it will be short work to learn the willow flute, and begin to master the varied techniques and music that such an instrument makes available.

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Originally posted 2009-03-02 05:15:58. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Categories:

Acoustic Musical Instruments, Flute, Instrument History

Tags:

air pressure, fife, fingers, holes, how to play the flute, long time, mouth piece, musician, overtones, scandinavians, traditional folk music, unique sound, willow flute, willow tree