Virtual Flute

What this virtual flute is

This page gives you a flute you can play with a mouse, a touch screen or a keyboard. It covers three octaves, from C4 to B6, laid out as a piano-style keyboard so the notes are easy to find. Press and hold a key and the note sounds for as long as you hold it, with a soft start and a little breath, which is how a flute behaves. Nothing needs installing and no account is required.

The sound is synthesized in your browser from simple waves and filtered noise, and no audio files are downloaded. It gives a flute-like impression, but it is a simplified imitation and is not a recording of a real flute.

How a flute makes its sound

A flute is an air-reed instrument. There is no reed or string. The player blows a thin stream of air across the sharp edge of a hole, and the stream splits against that edge and flutters from one side to the other. That flutter sets the air inside the tube vibrating, and the length of the vibrating column decides the pitch. Opening finger holes shortens the column and raises the note.

The tone is plain compared with a violin or a reed instrument. It is close to a pure wave, with only weak overtones, particularly in the lower register, and it carries a soft breathy hiss from the air itself. This page copies that by blending a sine wave with two quiet overtones and a band of filtered noise. The Breathiness slider changes how much of that noise you hear.

The range of the flute

The concert flute used in orchestras and bands plays from middle C, C4, up to around C7 and a little beyond for skilled players. This page offers C4 to B6, which is the part of the range most simple tunes use. The lowest octave sounds warm and mellow and the highest is bright and piercing.

The family also includes the piccolo, which sounds an octave higher, and the alto flute, which sounds lower. Related instruments such as the recorder, the Japanese shakuhachi and the pan pipes make sound in the same basic way. Bone flutes tens of thousands of years old have been found in caves in southern Germany, which makes flutes some of the oldest instruments we know of.

Playing with a mouse, touch screen or keyboard

• Mouse. Press and hold a key. Hold the button and drag across the keys to glide from note to note.
• Touch screen. Touch and hold a key. The flute plays one note at a time, so a second finger changes the pitch of the same note instead of adding a new one. Swipe sideways to reach other octaves.
• Computer keyboard. The bottom row, Z X C V B N M, plays the white keys of one octave starting at C, with S D G H J as the black keys. The top row, Q W E R T Y U I O P, plays an octave higher. Each key shows its letter.
• Keyboard navigation. Press Tab to reach the keys, use the arrow keys to move, and hold Enter or Space to play the note in focus.

The Octave buttons move the computer keys between the lowest and the middle of the range. The on-screen keyboard always shows the full three octaves.

One note at a time, and legato

A flute is monophonic, which means it can sound only one note at once, because there is only one column of air to vibrate. This page follows the same rule. If you press a second key while holding the first, the sound does not start again. Instead the same note slides quickly to the new pitch, which musicians call legato, meaning smooth and connected.

If you let go of the newer key while still holding the older one, the pitch returns to the held note. If you let go of everything, the note fades out. This lets you play a connected phrase by overlapping keys slightly, which sounds far more natural than separate, detached notes.

Vibrato and breathiness

Vibrato is a small, regular wobble in pitch. Flutists make it mostly with the breath, by pulsing the air, and it makes a long note sound alive. The slider sets the width of the wobble in cents, where one hundred cents is a semitone, and it fades in after the note starts. Set it to zero for a plain, steady tone.

Breathiness is the airy noise you hear along with the pitch. A low setting sounds clean and focused, while a high setting sounds like a breathy, soft flute or a shakuhachi. Both sliders work while you are holding a note, so you can hear the difference at once.

Beginner exercises

1. Long tones. Hold a single note for several seconds with vibrato at 0, then at about 8, and compare how the sound changes.
2. The C major scale. With the computer keys starting at C4, press Z X C V B N M in turn, then Q for the C above. Overlap each key a little for a smooth line.
3. Mary Had a Little Lamb. Play C X Z X C C C, then X X X, then C B B.
4. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Play Z Z B B N N B, then V V C C X X Z.
5. Breath color. Play the same phrase with Breathiness at 0, then at 70, and decide which suits the tune.

What a virtual flute is good for

A virtual flute is a quick way to hear a melodic line without a real instrument. It helps beginners find the notes of a tune, and teachers can use it to demonstrate legato, vibrato and range. Compare it with the virtual violin, which sustains notes with a bow, and with the virtual harmonica, which uses reeds.

Online flute versus a real one

A real flute is hard to begin with. Making a clear sound takes a good embouchure, the shape of the lips and mouth, plus controlled breath, and the player must hold the instrument correctly while covering the holes and keys with the fingers.

The virtual flute removes all of that, so you can focus on the notes and the shape of a melody. Its tone does not change with how you blow, because there is no breath to control. Think of it as a way to explore tunes, not a replacement for the real thing.

Limitations of this version

• The sound is a basic synthesized imitation of a flute, not a recording, and does not match any particular instrument.
• Loudness and tone do not change with how hard you press. Volume is set by the slider.
• The range is C4 to B6. The lowest and highest notes a real flute can reach are not available.
• There are no tonguing effects, trills or flutter-tonguing, and no fingering chart.
• Nothing is recorded or saved, and there is no MIDI input.

Common problems and how to fix them

• No sound. Browsers keep audio off until you interact with the page, so press and hold a key first. Then check the volume slider, your device volume and the tab's mute icon. On an iPhone, also check that the silent switch is off.
• A second note replaces the first. That is intended, because a flute plays one note at a time. Use the piano or guitar page for chords.
• The letters play the wrong notes. Check the octave setting. The layout follows the physical position of keys, so on a non-US keyboard the letters on your keys may differ from the labels on screen.
• The keys do nothing. Click an empty part of the page so focus is not in another field.
• The sound lags. Close heavy tabs and use wired headphones or the device speaker.