Make a flute on a Sunday afternoon Pt 3
Make a flute on a Sunday afternoon Pt 3
Making the flute
The first step is to calculate the hole positions. Here is a screenshot of the measurements I used.
You’ll notice that the size of all the holes can be changed. Changing a hole diameter will affect its position on the flute. A smaller hole leads to a longer acoustic length (think of it as follows: the biggest hole we can make is to cut the flute at that point, and the smallest hole is no hole. The pitch should therefore sweep a continuous range between the no hole and the fully open case as we increase the hole size. This is also how one can bend notes by partially covering holes.). So for a given pitch, shrinking a hole moves it up the flute (towards mouth) and growing it moves it down. One has to mess with it a little bit to achieve an optimal hole size and spacing. The largest gap tends to be between the bottom two holes, and that’s why I use a slightly smaller last hole. On a flute this large, one needs either pretty big hands or some practice.
Once you have played with the flutomat to your satisfaction, your can go on and drill the first hole. First draw a straight line down the flute and mark all the hole positions. It is useful at this point to have not had too many Sunday brunch bloody marys. The first hole will be the mouth hole or embouchure hole. Secure the pipe and start with a small drill bit, and increase the size in small increments. For the embouchure, a 1cm hole works well. Try it out by putting your palm tightly against the mouth end of the flute and gently blowing across the mouth hole. Check the tuning. Your goal is to hit a few cents flat of C#. You can check this by asking Wolfram Alpha to “Play C#3”.
Check the higher octave as well, by blowing slightly faster by tightening up your lips a bit. It should be a perfect octave. The reason we shoot for slightly flat is that once we insert the cork (the palm is temporary) the pitch will sharpen slightly. In fact, by adjusting the cork position, we can fine tune this note. Now insert the cork, make sure it’s a good seal and tune the note again. File of the edges of the hole and finish with the fine emery paper. Check tuning once again. Yay, we’re almost there!
Article by Deepak Iyer – Read More Here