Flute

A flute is a pipe with holes to change the length of the pipe, and thus the resulting frequencies or pitches. The most basic pipe instrument is the horn, which is a pipe without fingerholes.

Archaeologically flutes are some of the oldest surviving instruments. All later air (or wind instruments) are more complex technological advancements of the basic flute.

The distances of the flute fingerholes from the mouthpiece determine the pitch. The relative positions where holes are made would results in sets of pitches, while the exact positions will determine which pitches sound within the particular chosen scale. Modern flutes are manufactured according to modern scales. Earlier flutes had different sets of pitches. For example, pipes used by the Ancient Greeks had three-quarter tone distances.

Bone flutes

Hohle Fels (35000 years ago)

A bone flute was discovered in Hohle Fels cave near Schelklingen in Southern Germany. It was made from the wing bone of a Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus). There are 5 finger holes and a V-shaped mouthpiece. It was probably 34 cm long, and 8 mm in diameter.

Source: http://www.flutopedia.com/dev_flutes_euroasia.htm

Jiahu flute (ca. 7000–5700 B.C.)

These bone flutes from about 8000 years ago are about 20 cm long and 1 cm in diameter. There are 7 finger holes at similar intervals. They are the oldest still playable flutes ever excavated. They are from Jiahu, Henan province, China.