Most Irish flute players tend to strive for a dark and reedy tone in comparison to classical flautists. Due to its wooden construction, characteristic embouchure and direct (keyless) fingering, the simple system flute has a distinctly different timbre from the Western concert flute. Most flutes from the Classical era, and some of modern manufacture include metal keys and additional tone holes to achieve partial or complete chromatic tonality.
The Irish flute is a simple system, transverse flute which plays a diatonic (Major) scale as the tone holes are successively uncovered.
