Contemporary 'extended' techniques

Jazz musicians of the early 20th century deliberately played outside the 'proper' limits of tone and pitch, and used improvisation in place of written compositions. In a similar way musicians looking for fresh sounds invented new techniques for blowing and, fingering the flute, and even using its percussive possibilities, during another experimental period in the 1950s and 60s.

The 'extended' techniques include microtones and multiphonics, whistle-tones and whisper-tones, humming, slap-tones, unpitched air noises, and electronically manipulated sound.

Mats Möller's New Sounds for Flute page

Robin Mason Horne's Extended Techniques Resource Page

An ordinary open-hole flute can play many microtones, but special types of flute have also been developed to extend the possibilities. Read more on the Modern flute page.