# Why is the flute transverse? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 8, 2018, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284 "2018-08-08T16:34:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2018, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/21 "2018-08-08T23:17:01Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > If you put a bend on it, the air column would end at the bend. If that were true, it would result in some extremely awkward musical instruments. A tuba would be 18 feet long! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2018, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/22 "2018-08-08T23:53:27Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’ve wondered that too, but it seems that would help you hold on to it, since it’s not going to be as easy for it to slide out of your hands. Probably more importantly, though, is that other than being cocked way over to the side, it’s being held with the same grip as any other woodwind. > > I have no idea if it shares any fingering with any of the other instruments that are held upright. If it does, that would certainly make it easier to move from one to the other. A standard Boehm flute shares much of the same fingering with other woodwinds (saxes, clarinets, oboes, recorders). [Not identical fingering, but similar.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boehm_system) > [@](#): > > The fingering system for the saxophone closely resembles the Boehm system. A key system inspired by Boehm’s for the clarinet family is also known as the “Boehm system”, although it was developed by Hyacinthe Klosé and not Boehm himself. The Boehm system was also adapted for a small number of flageolets. Boehm did work on a system for the bassoon, and Boehm-inspired oboes have been made, but non-Boehm systems remain predominant for these instruments. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/23 "2018-08-09T00:03:07Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > If that were true, it would result in some extremely awkward musical instruments. A tuba would be 18 feet long! :eek: Like the alp horn, which gets its name from the traditional call to the player’s friends after a playing session ends: “Alp! Alp! B’ring dertruk! B’ring dertruk!”. While the meaning of this phrase is lost in the mists of time, the tradition among alp horn players remains vibrant to this day. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/24 "2018-08-09T01:12:59Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Not necessarily, you could have a J-shaped flute where the \*embouchure \*is transverse but the body is vertical (possibly with a small counterweight on the opposite side of the J so the flute is nicely balanced). There are flutes for kids where the body of the flute does a sort of Ʊ next to the \*embouchure \*so that their tiny arms can more easily reach the keys (which are towards the end of the instrument) without reaching too far - I’d assume some length of tubing is necessary before the keys for Acoustic Physics Reasons. That’s what I was describing. That “J” would be the original flute but have a bar that is perpendicular to the other part. And, yes, they do use such bends on the larger instruments, so it’s not impossible. But it’s not traditional, and the original looks more elegant and works. I would also bet that any flutist would have to do extra work to learn to play one. Part of playing involves rotating the body slightly for certain notes. And your arms and hands would be a different position, messing with your muscle memory. In other words, it’s not broke enough to warrant fixing. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/25 "2018-08-09T03:16:32Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The sound is changed by changing the length of the column of air. If you put a bend on it, the air column would end at the bend. The keys would have minimal effect on the sound. So in order to work, the flute needs a straight column. [Sackbut.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sackbut) ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/26 "2018-08-09T04:46:54Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > A standard Boehm flute shares much of the same fingering with other woodwinds (saxes, clarinets, oboes, recorders)… True enough. After learning recorder and tin whistle, I was surprised at how easily I could pick up flute fingerings. Then, after I could play the flute, how easy it was to pick up a sax. I was hardly an expert sax player–I was much more comfortable with flute, which I ended up studying for a number of years–but I had little trouble with the sax, based on the fingerings that I knew from flute, tin whistle, and recorder. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/27 "2018-08-09T05:12:49Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Remember, the flute is played by blowing _over_ the hole (like puffing on a jug in a jug band). Not like playing a jug. A jug is played by buzzing the lips into the opening, adjusting the pitch by how tight the lips are held together. The jug serves as a sound chamber. You can make a sound by blowing across the top, but you only get one pitch, and it’s not very loud. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/28 "2018-08-09T11:07:29Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The sound is changed by changing the length of the column of air. If you put a bend on it, the air column would end at the bend. The keys would have minimal effect on the sound. So in order to work, the flute needs a straight column. Then [this bent bass flute](http://www.gemeinhardt.com/gemeinhardt-21bsp-bass-flute.html) doesn’t make any sound? And the keys are just there for decoration? ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/29 "2018-08-09T14:44:25Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > Not like playing a jug. A jug is played by buzzing the lips into the opening, adjusting the pitch by how tight the lips are held together. The jug serves as a sound chamber. You can make a sound by blowing across the top, but you only get one pitch, and it’s not very loud. Really buzzing, as with a trumpet? I’ve never heard of playing a jug that way. But there are lots of things I’ve never heard of. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/30 "2018-08-09T19:36:01Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > Meh… A trombone makes a flute look like the cockpit of a 747. Sure it’s bigger, but a trombone is just a piece of pipe that can be lengthened by sliding. Very few instruments can claim to be easier to duplicate than the trombone, by buying common items at Bob’s Plumbing Supply. 🙂 (Even professionally-made trombones have very little done to them that Bob himself wouldn’t recognize. He would see the way the slide fits together, understand perfectly, give a low whistle, and say “That’s some nice work!”) Understood. I was trying to address the issue of weight and whether holding the instrument is awkward. Holding a trombone for an entire parade can’t be any easier than carrying a flute. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/31 "2018-08-09T20:37:45Z")
I played flute in the Army band. But, when we marched in parades, I played piccolo. In a marching band, you wouldn’t hear a flute. But, you wouldn’t mistake a piccolo. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/32 "2018-08-10T12:27:13Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > Really buzzing, as with a trumpet? I’ve never heard of playing a jug that way. > > But there are lots of things I’ve never heard of. 🙂 [Yes.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jug_(instrument)) Otherwise it could only make one pitch, and not very loud. > [@](#): > > With an embouchure like that used for a brass instrument, the musician holds the mouth of the jug about an inch from his or her mouth and emits a blast of sound, made by a buzzing of the lips, directly into it. The jug does not touch the musician’s mouth, but serves as a resonating chamber to amplify and enrich the sound made by the musician’s lips. Changes in pitch are controlled by loosening or tightening the lips. An accomplished jug player might have a two-octave range. > [@](#): > > Jugs will also produce sound at their main resonance frequency when air is blown across the top opening. This method is not used in bands, since it is relatively quiet and produces only a single pitch. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/33 "2018-08-10T12:45:08Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > The [contrabass flute](https://youtu.be/y0qHyy6U-98) is parallel and it has a couple of bends in it. I suspect that shorter frequencies lose some significant energy going around bends. That would be why bendy wind instruments are either brass (high energy at any pitch), or lower pitched woodwinds (higher energy at lower pitch). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/34 "2018-08-10T12:57:13Z")
The relevant part of a wind instrument is not made out of brass, nor silver nor wood. The relevant part is made out of air. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/35 "2018-08-12T00:30:14Z")
The answers are very interesting. Ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/36 "2018-08-12T00:56:26Z")
Flute and recorder do indeed sound different, and much of that is because of the different ways in which they are blown. Also, the recorder is a simpler instrument than the flute. As orchestral music became more complex, recorders were used less in the orchestra and flutes more (flutes can play more notes and a wider range of notes than recorders.) And back when recorders were sometimes used in orchestras, not all orchestras had a standard lineup of instruments. (I also find it interesting that this was in Great Debates - maybe just a little error. Now the debate between whether the recorder or the ukulele should be the instrument that kids learn in schools - that can get heated.) ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/37 "2018-08-12T02:50:49Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > Understood. I was trying to address the issue of weight and whether holding the instrument is awkward. Holding a trombone for an entire parade can’t be any easier than carrying a flute. I’d be reluctant to try either of them that way. But my instrument is far worse from that perspective, so don’t complain _too_ loudly. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/38 "2018-08-12T11:46:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The relevant part of a wind instrument is not made out of brass, nor silver nor wood. The relevant part is made out of air. If you’re going to get downright pedantic, the relevant part of a wind instrument is the shape of the air, which I think pretty much everyone on this thread already gets. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/39 "2018-08-12T11:55:28Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > Really buzzing, as with a trumpet? I’ve never heard of playing a jug that way. > > But there are lots of things I’ve never heard of. 🙂 I didn’t know this either, and I looked it up on YouTube, and it’s totally true. It makes sense now that I think of it. If you blow over the top, you only get one pitch. It would be strange for a one-note musical instrument to be so popular. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284/40 "2018-08-12T12:28:53Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > Not like playing a jug. A jug is played by buzzing the lips into the opening, adjusting the pitch by how tight the lips are held together. The jug serves as a sound chamber. You can make a sound by blowing across the top, but you only get one pitch, and it’s not very loud. I didn’t know that, either. It suggests I might be able to transfer my ability to buzz on pitch to a fairly cheap instrument. Cool. It’s different from doing it in a mouthpiece, I find. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-flute-transverse/819284.md?page=3)