Aerophone

A free aerophone lacks the enclosed column of air yet, "cause a series of condensations and rarefications by various means."

The organ and the mouth harmonica are also aerophones, both supplied with free reeds, which are blown by a mechanical system.

Additionally, very loud and impulsive sounds can be made by explosions directed into, or being detonated inside of resonant cavities.

[citation needed] According to Ardal Powell, the flute is a simple instrument found in numerous ancient cultures.

Fragments of bone flutes can be found at the burial sites of the Jiahu settlements of ancient China, and they represent some of the earliest known examples of playable instruments.

The flutes were efficient enough to produce sound in a nearly accurate octave, and are thought to have been used ceremonially or for ritualistic purposes.

These flutes were known as Dizi's or simply Di (笛) and typically had 6 holes for playing melodies that were framed by scale-modes.

[17] An example of a plosive aerophone is the scraper flute which has tubes with ridged or serrated edges so that they can be scraped with a rod to produce sound.

[18][19] Another example of a percussive aerophone is the so-called thongophone, consisting of a cylindrical pipe that is struck by a special mallet, somehow equivalent to a flip-flop (thong).

Woodwind instruments are often made with wood, metal, glass or ivory, with examples being flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, recorder and the saxophone.

[4] A flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening, usually a sharp edge.

These flutes demonstrate that a developed musical tradition existed from the earliest period of modern human presence in Europe.

Unlike all other aerophones, brass instruments can be "muted", in other words, their sounds can be somewhat suppressed as one would use a silencer on a firearm.