This info is about homemade clarinets and flutes. They are typically made from PVC pipe, but could be made from other plastics, metal, bamboo, other types of wood, glass and even novelty materials such as carrots, straws, paper and feather dusters!
There is a lot of great info about constructing homemade flutes written by people in the USA. Although the principles hold true anywhere, sourcing the PVC pipe (with US dimensions) can be difficult for people like me (in Australia). So some options include:
- instructions by Linsey Pollak (below) who sources PVC pipe or poly-pipe with Australian (often metric) dimensions
- adapting the dimensions of your flute (or clarinet?) using one of the calculators below
- Linsey Pollak | Carrot clarinet | TEDxSydney video
- Linsey Pollak | Carrot clarinet making - with measurements video
- Linsey Pollak | Videos | Mostly playing his instruments
- Linsey Pollak | 3 Carrot Cylisax video: construction demo with carrot threading tool
- Xavi Lozano | Tubes of the World video
Australian instrument maker and musician.
- He provides measurements and other construction info
- Almost all info is free (or very cheap)
- Most of his materials are easily purchased in Australia
- For clarinets, his designs often require that you have an alto sax mouthpiece
https://www.linseypollak.com/instruments/ discusses how to make a variety of wind instruments, including:
- clarini: see him playing it here [worked well for me; decent sound for notes in the major scale; limited range of 9 notes (F4-G5?)]
- carrot clarinet
- cylisax mk6 (cylindrical bore instrument which behaves like a saxophone in the upper register) made from polypipe (video of similar instrument)
- several flutes (see Flute section)
He has also designed a serious wooden instrument for purchase, the Cylisax.
- pic & description
- Cylisax Mk9 made from Budgeroo - video: audio recording with still images
- Cylisax Mk8 video
- Cylisax Mk7 video
- Cylisax Mk5 video
- Cylisax Mk3 vs Soprano Saxophone video: made from 1/2" irrigation pipe
The $5.00 Clarinet with Closing Notes and sample sound [but did not work well for me; very quiet 2nd-lowest note; gave up; mouthpiece worked ok on real alto sax for about 1.5 octaves! 😆]
Dan Bruner | My Musical Instrument Projects: excellent detail but no sample sounds
Bart Hopkin | ADDITIONAL NOTES PERTAINING TO HOMEMADE WOODWIND MAKING
- An Easy Way to Make Barrel Joints to Connect Mouth pieces to Tubes
- Fabricating Your Own Mouthpiece
- Register Holes
- Suitable Plastics including toxicity info (for mouthpieces)
- Mark Shepard’s Flute Page
- Doug Tipple | Making a Simple Irish Flute
- cutting the embouchure
- position of the stopper/plug/cork
- tuning
- referenced by How to Make a Flute out of PVC Pipe (with Irish Flute 6 hole finging chart)
- How To Easily Make a PVC Flute video
- Linsey Pollak | Three flutes - with fingering chart (near the bottom of the page)
- Making Simple PVC Flutes here and here which includes:
- Making the Embouchure hole
- The Cork / Rubber Stopper / etc.
- Tuning Slide (i.e. head piece separate from the rest of the body)
- Lip Plate
- link to How to Flute: A Beginner’s Guide to Playing the Flute
- link to generic fingering chart - without note names
- Doug Tipple | Making a Simple Irish Flute; for two octave tuning see the section starting with Final Adjustments; to sharpen the higher octave note, undercut the embouchure side of the finger holes... without changing the top view appearance
- Make and Tune PVC Pennywhistle Accurately in Two Octaves video; see 8m44s - 13m34s; note that this method is very different to Doug Tipple's method above
- How to Tune a DIY PVC or Bamboo Flute - Part 1 video & Part 2 video
If all other things remain constant, the following will result in a sharper/higher pitch:
- Shortening the length of the pipe
- Narrowing the pipe bore
- Positioning the finger hole closer to the head (or mouthpiece or embouchure hole or blow hole)
- Increasing the size/diameter of the finger hole
- Increasing the area of the embouchure hole
- Increasing the temperature of the pipe (by playing longer or blowing into the pipe beforehand)
Other factors include:
- Pipe wall thickness
- Plug position?
- Position of other (open) finger holes
Note: There is no need for the finger holes to be aligned along the length of the pipe. This means for example that you can place the finger holes for your little finger (pinky) off to the side so they can be covered more easily.
- Physics of Music - Lab - Constructing a PVC Flute which discusses:
- factors affecting the pitch of a note
- tuning
- effective length
- cents
- drilling
- Mark Shepard | How the Flute Works | An Intro to Flute Acoustics
- University of NSW | Flute Acoustics
Many of these books are available from several book stores - not only the one(s) I've listed.
- Make your own Mr Curly & Other Clarinets (AU$5 - $10)
- Air Columns and Toneholes: Principles for Wind Instrument Design by Bart Hopkin
- author's page
- author's books
- book store's page
- book store's price list
- book store's order form
- referenced by DIY Flute - Finger Hole Marking video
- SIMPLE FLUTES: A Guide to Flute Making and Playing by Mark Shepard
Also:
- Musical Instrument Design by Bart Hopkin
- author's page
- author's books - same as above
- book store's page
- Making Musical Instruments with Kids: 67 Easy Projects for Adults Working with Children [Book with audio CD] by Bart Hopkin
- author's page
- author's books - same as above
- book store's page
- FLUTECRAFT: An Artisan's Guide to Bamboo Flutemaking by Mark Shepard
- Shakuhachi Flutes | Flute Craft Manuals & Books - price list
- Mark Shepard | Good Books for Getting Into Flute Playing and Making
Online calculator: http://www.anycalculator.com/pvcpipeflute.html
Features:
- any number of holes
- any scale/interval
- no need for hole diameters to be identical
- calculator plus extra building advice e.g.:
- cutoff frequency should be well above twice the target note if you wish to play the second octave
- Schedule 40 & 80 PVC pipe dimensions
- assumes you:
- know the pipe length
- know the embouchure hole position
- know the plug position
- can blow/play the pipe (without finger holes) to give the base note
Online calculator: http://iotic.com/flutomat/
Features:
- any number of holes
- gives the embouchure hole (blow hole) position
- any scale/interval
- no need for hole diameters to be identical
- calculator plus extra info via the red "i" icon (including successfully made/measured examples)
- assumes you:
- know the pipe length
- know the plug position
- can blow/play the pipe (without finger holes) to give the base note
Online calculator: https://www.zahniser.net/physics05/MrZ/WhistleCalculator.html
Features:
- any number of holes
- assumes major scale
- assumes all hole diameters are identical
- calculator only (no extra building advice)
- assumes you:
- know the pipe length
- know the embouchure hole position
- know the plug position
- can blow/play the pipe (without finger holes) to give the base note
Downloadable Java app: https://sourceforge.net/projects/twjcalc/files/
- Middle C is C4; the note below it is B3.
- Tuning - Frequencies for equal-tempered scale
- Scientific pitch notation
- Musical Note to Frequency Conversion Chart; claims the note below middle C is B4