Ron Korb is a world renowned flute virtuoso and composer. He has travelled around the world and collected over 100 flutes and woodwind instruments. Ron uses many of these flutes on his 10 internationally released CDs and a DVD and the over 50 TV and major motion picture soundtracks on which he has played. We present some of the flutes in Ron Korb's collection in this instrument gallery.

Flutes from Flute Traveller CD

Asian Flutes

European Flutes

Flutes of the Americas

Flute From the Flute Traveller CD

Ron Korb plays the following bamboo flutes, Japanese flutes, Irish whistles, and Chinese flutes on his Flute Traveller CD.

Purchase the Flute Traveller CD at Ron's On-line Store

Ba Wu - This is a folk clarinet from the mountain people of Yu Nam in Southwest China. It is made from bamboo with the sound being produced by a single harmonica reed. It is used in solo and ensemble music and to accompany dance and singing.

Di Zi- The Chinese transverse bamboo flute dates as far back as 1122 BC. However, the characteristic reedy sound produced by a thin membrane vibrating between the mouthpiece and the first finger hole was not introduced until the Ming Dynasty a thousand years later. View fingering chart (pdf)

Moroccan Fipple Flute - A popular folk instrument widely distributed in the Mediterranean, this flute is made from a single piece of cane. The decoration and the finger holes are burnt into the wood.

Irish Porcelain Flute - In the late 18th century the flute was very popular among the gentry in Europe. When the masters grew tired of this instrument the flutes were usually given to the servants of the great houses. As the popular folk music in Ireland was the country fiddle music, the flute soon was adapted to play the same repertoire. During the height of its popularity, attempts were made to make flutes out of different materials including glass, although typically they were made out of dark tropical woods. View fingering chart (pdf)

Mayan Clay Recorder - This flute is a replica of one found in a temple during excavations at Teotihuacan, near Mexico City.

Mocheno - This whistle flute from Bolivia is similar to a Slovakian instrument called the Fujara. The instrument is so long that a mouthpiece extension is needed to make it possible to reach the finger holes.

Native American Flute - This instrument is a duct flute like a recorder and is usually made out of cedar or walnut. This flute was used in courtship and is often referred to as the love flute. A young man wishing to win the heart of a woman would ask her uncle to fashion a flute for him. The holes were placed where the suitor's fingers went naturally, thus giving each flute its own unique scale.  View fingering chart (D minor pdf)
View fingering chart (pdf)

Panpipes - This flute takes its name from Pan, the Greek god of herds and flocks, and is one of the most ancient musical instruments. It is made up of several pipes bound together and arranged in order of size. Each tube is closed at the bottom and open at the top where the sound is produced.

Ryuteki - The ryuteki, or dragon flute, is of Chinese origin and came to Japan via Korea during the Nara period (710-794). It was said that its tone was like the cry of the dragon. The ryuteki is used in the ancient style of orchestral music known as Gagaku. The aesthetic of Gagaku with its slow even tempos is meant to be like the broad, majestic and graceful Yangtze river.

Shinobue - This thin bamboo flute is often used in Japanese festival music, accompanied by drums and gongs. In a style of music known as nagauta, where the voice and the shamisen provide the basic melody, the shinobue plays an obbligato.  View fingering chart (pdf)

Silver Flute - This flute developed out of the simple six-holed folk flute brought from the East to Europe in the 1300s. To meet the special demands of western music such as volume of sound, accuracy of pitch and easy facilitation of chromaticism the tone holes had to be increased in size and repositioned in awkward places. To compensate for this an elaborate system of levers and pads was invented. View fingering chart (pdf)

Suling - The suling is a bamboo flute found throughout Indonesia. The design and sound of this instrument varies from region to region. The instrument on this recording is from West Java and is used as part of the gamelan orchestra. It is also used in conjunction with voice and a zither called the kacapi.

Chilean Ocarina - The ocarina is a vessel flute found in many parts of the world and dates from as far back as the ancient Greeks. Hand-fashioned from clay and then fired in a low-fire earthenware kiln, these flutes were played in the major temples along the Andes at the time of the Spanish conquests.

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