If a musical instrument such as trumpet or flute is "flat", should the pipe be lengthened or shortened? Explain with at least 2 content related sentences.

Question

Physics

Jaylah Kim

11 October, 08:29

If a musical instrument such as trumpet or flute is "flat", should the pipe be lengthened or shortened? Explain with at least 2 content related sentences.

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Answers (1)

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Carsen Griffith · Answer 1

If a musical instrument is flat, the pipe should be shortened.

Explanation:

When a musical instrument is out of tune, there can be two possibilities:

1. Flat.

2. Sharp.

A musical instrument, let's say a flat flute, is said to be flat when the pitch of its sound is lower than it is supposed to be.

A sharp flute, on the other hand means that the pitch of its sound is higher than it is supposed to be.

Now, in order to tune the flute we change its length using head-joint adjustments. This is because length is one factor in determining whether a flute plays a particular pitch in tune.

Increasing the length of the flute lowers the pitch while shortening the flute increases its pitch.

So, if a musical instrument is flat, its pitch is lower than it is supposed to be. To fix it, the pipe should be shortened.