Flute & Piccolo
The standard or concert flute is a C instrument and does not transpose. There are many members of the flute family of which the commonest are the piccolo, G treble, concert flute, alto flute and bass flute. Recently contrass and sub contrass (and lower) flutes have been developed to extend the family. Student flutes are usually silverplated nickel with the various levels of the hierarchy incorporating increasing amounts of silver or other precious metals e.g. platinum or gold. Flutes are the only non-reed members of the woodwind fmaily. The concert flute plays from middle C, the alto flute from G below middle C and the bass from C below middle C. The piccolo (Italian for 'small') plays from D on the fourth line of the stave.