circa
2000bc
Introduction
A panpipe is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube,
consisting usually of five or more pipes of gradually increasing length (and, at times,
girth). The pan flute has long been popular as a folk instrument, and is considered
the first mouth organ, ancestor of both the pipe organ and the harmonica. The pan
flute is named for its association with the rustic Greek god Pan. The pipes of the pan
flute are typically made from bamboo or giant cane; other materials used include
wood, plastic, and metal. Some indigenous peoples make them out of vegetable
tubes or bones. In my case I used PVC and Copper.
The reason I choose a panpipe was because I love the eerie and beautiful sound of
the pipes. Also I fell in love with the sound when I was in Peru and it just brings me
back there when I hear the sound. South American panpipes bear many names:
Siku, Semi Toyo, Zampona, Antara, Malta, and Chuli, just to name a few.
Materials and tools used
The following is a list of materials that I used for the construction of the Panpipe:

Copper piping

PVC piping

Insulating Tape

Coins

Cardboard

Keyboard to help with tuning

Markers

Sandpaper

Sharp Scissors

Copper Cutters

Pen

Ruler

Hacksaw
Tips / ideas
I discovered a few tips from various websites such as:

Tubes are better too long than too short

The longer the pipe, the lower the pitch

The shorter the pipe, the higher the pitch

Ideally have the external diameters between 1.2 & 2.2cms

If you are using wood, the harder and tighter grained the wood , the better

Romanian panpipes are the best kind for playing western style music, as they
have a larger range.

South American and Asian panpipes are more for their own ethnic music.

Closed pipes are easier to sound than open pipes

Closed pipes sound an octave lower than open pipes
Constructing the Instrument
The first pipe I made was constructed with PVC.
The following is a list of steps I took in the construction process.
1. First I measured the desired lengths of PVC pipe. The lengths of these I got
from various websites. This is discussed further on in the report.
2. Then I cut them to size with a hacksaw. This was a bit more difficult than I
thought as it was very tricky to cut it evenly across the top.
-
Trying my best to cut it to
shape.
3. I then filed down the edges at the top using sandpaper, so the area where you
place your mouth was smooth.
4. Then I covered the base using 20 cent pieces and secured them with the
insulating tape.
5. The next step was to assemble the pipes in order of length and stick them
together. For this I used the insulating tape again.
-
On them I marked the
pipe no and the note they
played
And now they were ready to play. (I wanted to make open-ended pipes with the
bottom oblique or ‘v’ shaped but I couldn’t do this without the use of power tools)
The sound the pipe produced was quite low so I decided to use another material to
get a clean sharper sound. I choose copper.
The construction of the copper panpipe was done in the exact same way as the
PVC. The only difference was how I cut it. I couldn’t use a hacksaw so I used
copper cutters instead (shown below). This proved very easy and gave me a very
even finish. The tops still needed to be sanded as before.
The sound from the copper pipes was much brighter and the copper resonated a lot
more than the PVC.
I then decided to make an 8 tube Panpipe using copper again. I wanted to raise the
pitch and through research found this can be achieved by lengthening the tube. This
was made in a similar fashion to the previous pipe but instead of using coins I used
cardboard cut-outs (shown below). It was a bit more difficult to ensure no air
escaped at the bottom with the cardboard. The coins I used earlier were a perfect fit
and I didn’t have to worry about air leakage once the tape was on. To block the air I
needed a lot of insulating tape, it took a while but I managed to block the air coming
out.
The Technical Side
Copper and PVC Panpipe using 5 Tubes
I based my 5 pipe instrument on the C Major Pentatonic Scale as shown below.
To achieve the notes I cut the lengths of pipe to the following specifications.
Cms
15.4
13.6
12.0
9.8
8.7
Note
C
D
E
G
A
-
I got these figures from a
website where the person
had already measured and
tested the lengths to achieve
the notes.
When I had the lengths cut to these specifications, I doubled checked them by
playing the note on a keyboard I had at home.
Some researchers say a ratio of between 10 to 1 and 15 to 1 for length to bore works
well. Good sounding pipes can diverge from this value and still sound well, which is
a good thing because I had to work with the diameters of the material I had.
Copper Panpipe using 8 Tubes
I wanted to build a bigger Panpipe this time with longer lengths and bigger bore
widths in the hope of getting a richer sound. So I decided to build an 8 octave
Panpipe with a full scale on it – Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do.
I based my pipe lengths on the following calculations which I got from a website.
Do = L (length) - Choose and arbitrary length eg. 21 which I choose.
Re = L X .9
- My length 18.9
Mi = L X .8
- My length 16.8
Fa= L X .73
- My length 15.33
Sol = L X .66 - My length 13.86
La = L X .6
- My length 12.6
Ti = L X .53
- My length 11.13
Do’= L X .5
- My length 10.5
Tuning
In the traditional South American style, pipes are fine-tuned to correct pitch by
placing small pebbles or dry corn kernels into the bottom of the pipes. Contemporary
makers of curved Romanian-style panpipes use wax (commonly beeswax) to tune
new instruments. This beeswax is pressed into the tube bases using a dowel which
will fit into the tube in question. The wax needs to be pressed firmly home; a little
moisture at the dowel end will prevent the wax from sticking to it. Where a tube has
been tuned too high, a little wax can be removed using a dowel with an end shaped
into a "cutting edge" which will remove wax when it is inserted into the tube and
twisted gently. Corks and rubber stoppers are also used, and are easier to quickly
tune pipes.
My tuning consisted of blowing across the pipe, hearing the note and then playing it
on a keyboard to make sure it was right. A crude method compared to above but it
worked!
Always leave tuning until after any bevelling or shaping of the tube tops (as such
modifications will alter any earlier tuning).
The following is a table of lengths for professional tuning sticks:
Tube
G1
A1
B1
C2
D2
E2
F#2
G2
A2
B2
C3
D3
E3
F#3
G3
A3
B3
C4
D4
E4
F#4
G4
Length-(cm)L
28
25
23
21
19
18
16
15
14
13
12
12
11
11
10
10
10
9
9
9
9
9
Diameter-(mm)
23
22
21
20
19.5
19
18.5
18
17.5
17
16.5
16
15.5
15
14.5
14
13.5
13
13
12.5
12.5
12.5
Acoustic Properties
The acoustic properties of the pan flute are in the Helmholtz oscillator class of closed
tube acoustics. It shares acoustic properties with other instruments, such as the
Ocarina and Gemshorn. Generation of a fundamental frequency is produced by
blowing across the open end of the tube, thus creating a Von Karman vortex street
by means of a siphon effect at the top of the tube. The tuned resonator body then
supports this frequency. An overblown harmonic register is near a 12th above the
fundamental in cylindrical tubes, but can approach an octave jump (8th) if a
decreasing taper is used. The formula for calculating the length of a pan flute tube is
TL = (S/F) / 4 (the "theoretical length" [TL] equals the speed of sound [S], divided by
the desired frequency in hertz [F], that quantity divided by 4). Because of a property
of compression within the tube, the length must be a little shorter to correct flat pitch..
multiply the bore diameter by 0.82 and subtract this value from the tube length. This
compensates for internal compression slowing frequency and the lips partially
covering the voicing. Only tiny adjustments will be needed then to adjust
fundamental pitch for air density and temperature. (Ref/"Music, Physics and
Engineering" By Harry F. Olson, "Secrets of the Flute" by Lew Paxton Price and
"Horns, Strings and Harmony" By Arthur H. Benade)
Acousticians say that the sounding length of a stopped tube (such as a panpipe
pipe) is 1/4 the wavelength of the sound produced. In actual practice, the open end
of the pipe "loads" the resonating chamber. The following is formula produced from
simple tests using Lucite tubes of various lengths
Sounding length = 2.4123*Wavelength, Wavelength = speed of sound /
frequency
Given a sea level speed of sound of 345 meters per second, this produces the
following graph. The red line is an idealized curve of all notes between F#3 (261.63)
and A#6 (1864.66). The dark blue indicates values physically determined from cut
Lucite tubes, and the green line are the intervals from Henry Thomas's Bull Doze
Blues, which is a early blues recording featuring the rare American panpipe, the
Quills.
Note
Frequency (Hz)
Calculated wave Pipe length
length (mm)
(mm)
Pipe
width
(mm)
F#3/Gb3
185
1864.9
449.87
40.90
G3
196
1760.2
424.62
38.60
G#3/Ab3
207.65
1661.4
400.80
36.44
A3
220
1568.2
378.30
34.39
A#3/Bb3
233.08
1480.2
357.07
32.46
B3
246.94
1397.1
337.03
30.64
C4
261.63
1318.7
318.11
28.92
C#4/Db4
277.18
1244.7
300.26
27.30
D4
293.66
1174.8
283.41
25.76
D#4/Eb4
311.13
1108.9
267.50
24.32
E4
329.63
1046.6
252.48
22.95
This table is used
to calculate the
values for the
idealized curve
shown in the
graph above.
F4
349.23
987.9
238.31
21.66
F#4/Gb4
369.99
932.5
224.94
20.45
G4
392
880.1
212.31
19.30
G#4/Ab4
415.3
830.7
200.40
18.22
A4
440
784.1
189.15
17.20
A#4/Bb4
466.16
740.1
178.54
16.23
B4
493.88
698.6
168.51
15.32
C5
523.25
659.3
159.06
14.46
C#5/Db5
554.37
622.3
150.13
13.65
D5
587.33
587.4
141.70
12.88
D#5/Eb5
622.25
554.4
133.75
12.16
E5
659.26
523.3
126.24
11.48
F5
698.46
493.9
119.16
10.83
F#5/Gb5
739.99
466.2
112.47
10.22
G5
783.99
440.1
106.16
9.65
G#5/Ab5
830.61
415.4
100.20
9.11
A5
880
392.0
94.58
8.60
A#5/Bb5
932.33
370.0
89.27
8.12
B5
987.77
349.3
84.26
7.66
C6
1046.5
329.7
79.53
7.23
C#6/Db6
1108.73
311.2
75.06
6.82
D6
1174.66
293.7
70.85
6.44
D#6/Eb6
1244.51
277.2
66.87
6.08
E6
1318.51
261.7
63.12
5.74
F6
1396.91
247.0
59.58
5.42
F#6/Gb6
1479.98
233.1
56.23
5.11
G6
1567.98
220.0
53.08
4.83
G#6/Ab6
1661.22
207.7
50.10
4.55
A6
1760
196.0
47.29
4.30
A#6/Bb6
1864.66
185.0
44.63
4.06
Playing the Panpipes
The pan flute is played by blowing horizontally across the open end against the
sharp inner edge of the pipes. By overblowing, that is, increasing the pressure of
breath and tension of lips, odd harmonics (notes whose frequencies are odd-number
multiples of the fundamental), near a 12th in cylindrical tubes, may also be produced.
The Romanian panflute has the pipes arranged in a curved array, enabling the
player to easily reach all the notes by simply swiveling their head. These instruments
can also play all the sharps and flats, with a special technique of both tilting the pipes
and jaw movement, thus reducing the size of the pipe's opening and producing a
change in pitch. An advanced player can play any scale and in any key. There are
two styles of vibrato possible, hand vibrato and breath vibrato. In hand vibrato, the
player applies a gentle motion to one end of the panflute (usually the high end) in
much the same way as the violin vibrato is achieved by rocking the hand from the
wrist. Breath vibrato is the same technique used by players of the flute and other
woodwinds by use of the player's diaphragm.
Points to Note:

When playing a narrow tube will sound "reedy", while a wide one will sound
"flutey".

When playing purse your lips and add tension to increase air speed and
decrease the size of air stream to increase your octave.

To play a lower note, slide your chin to the end of the panpipe with the longest
pipes.

To play higher notes, slide the pipe across your chin to the smallest pipes.

Sharps and flats can be played by tilting the pipes, but this should only be
attempted after all whole notes are mastered.

If you're a beginner, try an 8-tube one.

Closed pipes are easier to sound than open pipes
Here is Mum playing the PVC Panpipe
Here I am playing the copper Panpipe
Conclusion
Firstly I thoroughly enjoyed making this instrument. I had a lot of fun constructing it
and even more fun playing it with my family. I would have liked to have more time to
explore more materials and their different sounds and to experiment with really long
lengths and varying diameters. Maybe if I get some time over Christmas I could
construct some more tubes.
So what I have learned from this project?
Well the first thing was it’s not easy to build and tune your own instrument. It was a
challenge at times to get the pipe lengths correct and to have them even at the top.
Also playing it proved a bit more difficult than I thought. At first when I played it, it
made just a whisper sound. The more I practiced the better I got, as is true for all
instruments. Getting the right technique is very difficult because to obtain a correct
note you need to really concentrate on pursing your lips and applying pressure in the
right area. I found if I blew down just after the opening it gave me the desired sound.
This project definitely inspired me to explore more ideas for other instruments.
Maybe if I have time I might try to make some wind chimes with the left-over pipe
ends. Again if I have time, I hope to decorate it with my pictures from South
America.
References
Books
Sound-producing instruments in oceania – Hans Fischer
Gravicords, Whirlies & Pyrophones, Experimental Musical Instruments – Bart Hopkin
with the Foreword by Tom Waits
Experiment Musical Instruments Journals in the Library – Volume VII and IX.
Weblinks
www.wikipedia.com
www.panflutejedi.com/david-pighills-tutorial.html - How to make your own
www.sohl.com/Acoustics%20of%20Pan%20Pipes/Pan%20Pipes.htm - Practical
Acoustics and the pan Pipes.
www.philtulga.com/Panpipes.html - How to make a 5 Pipe Panpipe
www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/Bose_Master_7.pdf - Making Panpipes
www.britarch.ac.uk/yac/leaderdocs/leaders2007/make_panpipes.doc - How to make
Panpipes.
www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/woodwind.html - How do woodwind instrument work
www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/pipes.html - Pipes and Harmonics