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All About The Piccolo

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The Piccolo Flute

Welcome to my lens about piccolos. You'll find tips like how to tune your piccolo and how to buy a piccolo without getting ripped off. There's a section about the different kinds of materials piccolos are made of and which kind is best for you.

Everything That's Here...

  1. Piccolo Pictures
  2. Follow flutestar123 On Twitter
  3. How The Flute And Piccolo Are Different.
  4. Why Play The Piccolo?
  5. Tips To Play In Tune
  6. Piccolo Playing Tips
  7. Vote: Do You Have A Piccolo?
  8. Shopping For A Piccolo
  9. Buying A Piccolo Note
  10. Vote: What Brand is Your Piccolo?
  11. Piccolo Fingerings
  12. Piccolos Made Of Many Different Things.
  13. Picture Of The Different Kinds Of Piccolos
  14. Tools
  15. Flute & Piccolo Supplies
  16. Piccolos
  17. What Do You Think?

Piccolo Pictures

Pictures Of My Piccolo

The front of a piccolo.
The back of a piccolo.
A close up of the body of a piccolo.
A close up of the keys on a piccolo.

How The Flute And Piccolo Are Different.


The flute is bigger than the piccolo. A typical flute measures twenty-eight inches versus the tiny piccolo's eleven inches. Size accounts for why the piccolo plays at one octave higher. The piccolo takes some getting used to. You must tighten your face muscles more for the piccolo.

Why Play The Piccolo?


Playing the piccolo gives you special opportunities. In High School Band the conductor may call for a piccolo player. Usually there is only one piccolo player. It is like playing a solo because you have something totally different than the flutes.

Also, It's like playing another instrument without a lot of extra effort.

The piccolo is a fun little instrument that always has a lot of rests. In my experience, the piccolo is usually the flute part, an octave up. In other spots though, the piccolo has the melody.

Tips To Play In Tune

How To Play The Piccolo In Tune.



A


tuner to find out if you are too flat or too sharp and how how far out of tune you are.

Don't roll your head joint in all the way. That will be too sharp. Instead, roll it out a little. A head joint is the part of a flute or piccolo that you blow into.

If you are sharp, pull your head joint out. If you are flat, try pushing your head joint in.

Think of it like this. If you are too sharp, it means that your pitch is too high. If you are too flat, it means that your pitch is too low. An instrument that has a low pitch is bigger, and a high pitched instrument is smaller.

Rolling your flute in makes your instrument smaller raising the pitch and rolling it out makes your instrument bigger, lowering the pitch.

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Piccolo Playing Tips

Piccolo Tips
Playing the Piccolo ~ Panicking Over Piccolo? For all of junior high school, and part-way into high school, I dreaded the piccolo. I had been forced to play it in a marching band during my first-ever music camp, and the frightful experience of playing this high-pitched instrument in unison with 5 (!)

Vote: Do You Have A Piccolo?

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Shopping For A Piccolo

Things To Keep In Mind When Shopping For A Piccolo


When searching for piccolos look for a recognized brand. Stick with name brands you know and trust. Even though I might have never heard of a piccolo brand and I don't mention it, that dosen't mean that it isn't a good brand. Here are the name brands are: yamaha, gemeinhardt, and emerson

When You want to buy a piccolo, look online at places like Craig's List or eBay.
As a beginner, you should get a piccolo with a metal head and a plastic body or an all metal piccolo.

If you are looking at a used piccolo, make sure that the head joint screws in securely. A piccolo is good when your teacher can get a high B out.

Back to the top!

Buying A Piccolo Note

You don't have to necessarily buy a Yamaha, Emerson, or Geminhardt piccolo. You could buy any brand piccolo, but I suggest you buy a piccolo that is a name brand and that has a good reputation for making good quality instruments.

Vote: What Brand is Your Piccolo?

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Piccolo Fingerings


PYou might be wondering what the fingerings for notes on a piccolo are. The answer is: They are the same fingerings! In case you are wondering what a fingering is, there is a great site for looking it up.

Piccolos Made Of Many Different Things.

Materials Piccolos Are Made Of

A piccolo made of metal and plastic is ideal for a beginner piccolo player. A plastic piccolo is used in concerts or in marching band.

The most common piccolo is made of metal. Metal piccolos are also used inside and in marching band. Metal piccolos are used outside in marching band because they will look better with silver flutes.

Professionals use a piccolo made of wood. Often, wood piccolos do not have a lip plate, making them harder to play. Wood piccolos are not used outside because of what they are made of. The wood in a wood piccolo is to sensitive to elements outside.

Picture Of The Different Kinds Of Piccolos


I was trying to add pictures of the different kinds of piccolos for you to see, but I got this message saying "Yikes, this photo doesn't have a commercial license and cannot be added" I couldn't add them. Here are the links to the pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phlewght/144576197/
This link leads you to a picture of a wooden piccolo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/altokingdom3360/2516326336/
Click here to see a pictures of a plastic piccolo.

I can't find a picture of a metal piccolo on flicker. It looks the same as a plastic piccolo, except it's all metal.

Tools

Must Haves For Playing The Piccolo.

When you start playing the piccolo, you need to get some tools.

First, you need cork grease. Cork grease comes in a stick or small round canister.

Also, you should get a piccolo cleaning rod. The rod is used to drive the cleaning cloth into the piccolo head joint and body.

Next, you will need a tuner. The piccolo is a very hard instrument to keep in tune. A tuner is an essential tool.

Lastly, you should get a cleaning cloth to remove moisture from the inside of your piccolo.



Flute & Piccolo Supplies

Managing two instruments can be a royal pain. First you have all of the stuff you need, and then you have two cases to manage. When you actually get to rehearsal, you have trouble managing two instruments. Balancing your flute on your music stand or lap doesn't work, since you're afraid it might fall or roll off. Sticking your flute behind you is annoying too, since it's hard to grab.

I personally really like the Protec METRO FLUTE CARRY-ALL BAG because it is large enough to put everything in. You can fit a flute stand in the back, have enough room for a tuner, pencils, highlighting tape, and every essential you'll ever need.

The K & M flute stands are at the top of the Flute Stand World. They are stable, yet portable. Buy the three legged one over the four. Three legs are more stable, and the one with three legs has rubber feet so it won't slide all over the stage.



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Piccolos

Here are some good beginner piccolos.
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flutestar123

Hi my name is Alexis. I am a flute and piccolo enthusiast. The flute and piccolo are my favorite instruments because I love how it sounds. Learn more... more »

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