• Throughout history, flutes have been made from many materials, including wood. Today flutes are usually made from silver, gold, or some other type of metal.
  
  
• The flute is a member of the woodwind family of instruments.
  
  
• A musician who plays the flute can be called a flutist, flautist, or just a flute player. 
  
  
• A standard concert flute is around 26 inches long. 
  
  
• A musician holds the flute in a horizontal position and blows across a hole (the mouthpiece) in the side of the tube, in much the same way you would blow across the opening of a bottle to produce a sound.
  
  
• Arranged along the tube are 16 sound holes for finger movements. These holes are covered by the player’s fingers or by keys operated by the fingers called keyhole covers. The musician’s fingers open and close the holes to play different notes. When all the holes are covered, the instrument sounds its lowest note.
  
  
• There are 2-4 flutes in an orchestra.
  
  
• The flute section of the orchestra often includes a piccolo, which is a half-size version of a flute that plays twice as high! The word piccolo means “small” in Italian.
  
  
• The flute is one of the earliest instruments still in existence. The oldest flute ever discovered can be traced to prehistoric times, dating more than 40,000 years ago!
  
  
• There are a vast number of different types of flutes worldwide. They are found in many cultures, and include instruments such as the recorder, the fife, whistles, nose flutes, ocarinas, panpipes, many types of American Indian flutes, and many more. 
  
  
• The flute is one of the two instruments in an orchestra requiring the most breath to play. The other is the big tuba! 

All members of the woodwind family:

• have a similar shape—long tubes into which air (breath) is blown.  
  
  
• were originally all made of wood. Today, the modern flute is made of metal and other woodwinds have some metal parts.
  
  
• make different sounds by covering and uncovering holes along the tube with the fingers, or by pressing keys.

Color in the flute and add a fun background, or draw your own flute. You are the artist and can use whatever colors or designs you like to make it special!

Click the photo to print and draw

 

Ah, morning! Morning is a magical time of the day. It is quiet outside, and with the first rays of the sun, the sky begins to turn from dark to light. A bird sings to greet the new day. As you listen to this beautiful music, imagine a wonderful sunrise and think about the peaceful mood of early morning.

• Felix Mendelssohn’s wonderful music describes tiny magical creatures playing games in a magical forest. The music is playful, quick, and funny! It features the flute, along with other instruments in the woodwind section—the oboe, the clarinet, and the bassoon.