Description
A bamboo flute is a wind instrument made from a stem of bamboo; many types are used worldwide, particularly in folk music, as can be seen in this list of bamboo flutes. The oldest types of bamboo flutes are played like a transverse flute, meaning that the player controls the tone entirely with their lips. Some such instruments are literally played transversely, such as the North Indian bansuri; others semi-transversely, such as the kaval from the Balkans, or the ney from Asia Minor. Still others use a sharpened edge and are played straight (thus belonging to the family of straight flutes), such as the shakuhachi from Japan, the xiao from China, or the quena from South America, which has an additional slit cut into the flute to facilitate tone production and is therefore considered to belong to the family of "notched flutes." The playing style of more modern instruments is sometimes similar to that of the recorder: the tone is largely produced automatically by the construction of the instrument using a small block. Hence the name recorder. The tone of a bamboo flute is always relatively soft, due to the softness and light weight of the material.
