A flute changes pitch by opening and closing holes to shorten or lengthen its air column.

The longer version

The air inside a tube has its own natural rates, set mostly by how long the vibrating column is. Opening a hole partway along effectively cuts the tube short, because beyond that opening the pressure can equalise with the room instead of swinging, so the column resonates faster.

Closing holes again lengthens the column and drops the pitch. A player also overblows to jump to a higher mode of the same column, and hole size and spacing partly decide tone colour and smoothness between notes. The edge tone at the mouth hole starts the vibration; the tube then selects which of its modes survives.

Where this entry sits

Sound and Music gathers facts about how vibrations move through air and water, how ears turn them into meaning, and how instruments and notation shape what listeners hear. Expect echoes, pitch, volume, acoustics, and the odd silence in between. The full list sits on the Sound and Music page, where every entry is listed in order.