Are they wood, metal, plastic?
We tell you about the materials from which flutes are made, one of the most common and used instruments around the world.
Its sound and charm are an essential part of this instrument. Although the opposite is often said, the material with which they are made matters, since it helps to achieve subtle differences in their sonic color.
Stay with us and discover everything you need to know about the materials with which the best recorders are made.
What type of material is used to make sweet flutes?
The recorder or recorder is an instrument characterized by the simplicity of its structure. She is the main protagonist of the subject of music in schools. Later, we will talk about flutes in schools.
What material is the recorder made of? When this instrument was created, bones from different animals were used.
Over the years, the way of making the recorder has evolved and now wood, plastic or a combination of both are used as the main materials.
If we talk about wood, palo santo, ebony, granadilla, maple, olive or cherry are normally used. Its elaboration is handmade, which implies a higher final price of the instrument and therefore a less widespread commercialization in the collegiate world.
But, as we have told you, wood is not the only material used to make the recorder. Nowadays, it is more and more common to see flutes made of plastic, since these can be mass-produced and at a much lower cost.
In fact, plastic flutes have their origin in the Second World War, a time when it was very difficult to find quality woods in Europe. And it is that the material with which the instrument is built is tremendously important.
The functioning of the instrument and its behavior over time depend on the material. In the case of wood, if it is not suitable, deformities may occur that will modify the internal profile of the instrument, as well as its geometry and section.
Depending on the type of wood used, one degree of obstruction or another will be obtained, which is why hard woods are generally chosen.
The recorder or recorder is the musical instrument with which we are going to work at school for some years. It will allow us to work on fine motor skills, musical and artistic expression, socialization, self-esteem, effort and perseverance, and a lot of very interesting values and educational aspects.
It is considered the ideal school instrument for several reasons:
· It is very cheap – From 6 or 7 euros we can buy a flute with an acceptable quality.
· It is very resistant – The plastic flutes resist very well the usual knocks of the daily rattle in the school bag, falls due to carelessness…
·Almost no maintenance needed – Unless we are not very careful, an annual cleaning is more than enough, while hardwood flutes need to be dried after each use and need to be oiled from time to time.
·It is very easy to make it sound – Just bring your lips close to the flute’s beak and blow gently through the channel, so that the flute sounds more or less well. Any other wind instrument needs the student to learn for a long time (even years) the correct way to blow to achieve a minimal quality sound.
·His fingering is very simple – The finger positions are very simple and intuitive, and with a few weeks of practice we can already start playing small melodies.
The first thing we must be clear about is that we should NEVER buy our recorder in Chinese bazaars, since the sound and tuning will not be what we want and, to save two or three euros, you will have to buy a decent flute again. , with the consequent expense of buying twice.
