Piccolo

:This article is about the instrument. For the Dragon Ball character, see Piccolo (Dragon Ball).

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A piccolo is a small flute. Its name in Italian means "tiny". Like the flute, the piccolo is normally pitched in the key of C, but written music for the piccolo is written an octave lower than than the sounds desired in order to avoid too many leger lines above the staff. The range of the piccolo is about an octave higher than that of the flute. Fingerings on the piccolo correspond to fingerings on the flute, but sound an octave higher. Also, many alternate fingerings may be used to tune the individual pitches, as many are consistently out of tune.

Related Topics:
Flute - Italian - Key - Octave - Leger line - Staff

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In addition to the standard C piccolo, there is a piccolo pitched in D flat that is sometimes used in bands.

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