Flute, Nose
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The Nose Flute is a bamboo pipe common throughout the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The nose flute is blown with one nostril, rather than the mouth, and the other nostril is blocked with a rag, tobacco, or a hand. This unusual way of playing the instrument may have a religious or superstitious explanation ; people in some areas of the Pacific believe that breath from the nostrils has special magic powers.
| Family |
| Woodwinds |
| Pitch range |
| Variable. |
| Material |
| Bamboo, wood, or bone. |
| Size |
| Variable. |
| Origins |
| People of the islands in the Pacific Ocean have played simple flutes made from natural materials, such as bamboo, wood, or bone, for many thousands of years. |
| Classification |
| Aerophone: an instrument that produces its sound by the vibration of a column of air. |
| And also... |
| A nose flute was one of the numerous objects that the English navigator, explorer, and cartographer Captain James Cook (1728-1779) brought back with him when he returned from the Pacific island of Tahiti. |
