Chiff and Fipple Forums

Well, I do have a Flutophone, bought as new in it's box a few years ago simply so's I could answer this sort of question to myself.

Yes it does have a hole in it's end and no, it's not an ocarina! If the end hole is covered when all finger holes are also covered the Flutophone just squeaks!

Reasoning :

With an ocarina if all holes are covered, (including the end, if applicable), the lowest possible note is played.

This is true of the Fitchhorn "Song Flute".

A Swanson "Tonette" doesn't have an open end, so this doesn't apply.

Hope this helps

Nanohedron wrote:

Steve Bliven wrote:The head joint slides on a tenon for playing "with an out of tune piano" according to the accompanying instructions.

OMG. I literally laughed out loud at that.

We had the closed bottom black Tonettes in grammer school in the 60s and, with a piano in every classroom, a fair number of out of tune pianos. Though I can't remember any teacher trying to explain anything about tuning the Tonette. We just screeched away through "Hot Cross Buns."

I found a couple photos on Ebay that show straight into the bottom of a flutophone bell and a tonette that has a bell.

As folks have stated here, the tonette is closed (the bell apparently is just for show, it doesn't open into the bottom of the tonette's air chamber). The flutophone has a pretty small hole. It almost looks like it's more to release moisture than to project sound out of. But given Kyprfer's test, we know that if you cover it up, it changes the sound, so it does have a musical purpose or effect of some sort.

@Kypfer, you can really close the open end of a song flute and it does not change the notes? Never knew that. Thanks.

Steve Bliven wrote:The head joint slides on a tenon for playing "with an out of tune piano" according to the accompanying instructions.

Nanohedron wrote:OMG. I literally laughed out loud at that.

Just another way a Tonette can brighten your day.

Best wishes.

Steve

BobbieCB wrote:@Kypfer, you can really close the open end of a song flute and it does not change the notes? Never knew that. Thanks.

Sorry, slightly misleading statement on my part. When the end of the Song Flute is covered it plays an even lower note than the "all fingers down" note, as one might expect from an ocarina. With "all fingers down" the Song Flute plays a "C", cover the end as well and it plays a fairly good "B". Whether that's by accident or design I don't know

I believe its like a recorder