Play Pan Flute Online
Click a pipe to play, or click and drag horizontally across the pipes — just like sweeping a real pan flute across your lips. Hold keyboard keys for sustained notes. No download or sign-up needed.
🖱️ Drag across pipes to play a melody · 💻 Keys: A S D F G H J K L ; · Z X · Hold key = sustained note · Toggle Hover to play by moving the mouse
Screen Recording
Record your performance and download it as a WebM video.
Ready to record screen.
✅ How to Use
- Tap any pipe to play that note. Note names are shown at the base of each pipe.
- Click and drag horizontally across pipes to sweep through a melody — the most natural way to play.
- On desktop, hover over pipes to play notes. Hold keyboard keys for sustained notes.
- Press Start Recording, play, then Stop and Download.
About the Pan Flute
The pan flute (also called panpipes or syrinx) is one of the oldest musical instruments in the world — archaeologists have found bone and clay examples dating back over 6,000 years. It consists of a row of closed-bottom tubes of graduated length, each tuned to a different pitch: the shorter the tube, the higher the frequency. Sound is produced by blowing across the open top of each tube, causing the air column inside to vibrate. The player moves the instrument (or their head) horizontally to address different pipes, creating melody by sweeping between notes — a gesture that gives pan-flute music its characteristic gliding, breath-driven quality.
Traditional pan flutes are made from bamboo, cane, or wood. In South America the siku (Andean pan flute) and rondador (Ecuadorian) are central to folk music. In Eastern Europe, the Romanian nai became internationally famous through virtuoso players in the 20th century. The instrument appears in Greek mythology as the instrument of Pan, god of the wild, who fashioned the first set of pipes from reeds to mourn the river nymph Syrinx.
How a Pan Flute Produces Sound
Each pipe is a stopped cylindrical resonator: sealed at the bottom, open at the top. When you blow across the open end at the right angle, a jet of air splits on the edge and creates turbulence that excites the air column inside the tube. The column resonates at its fundamental frequency — determined by the tube's effective length — and at odd harmonics (the second partial is three times the fundamental, and so on). This gives the pan flute its characteristic hollow, flute-like timbre, dominated by the fundamental with modest upper partials.
Real players add vibrato by pulsing the airstream with the diaphragm, and control dynamics entirely through breath pressure and angle. This virtual instrument replicates all three elements: a sine-dominated tone, bandpass-filtered breath noise at the attack, and a slow vibrato that builds in after ~200 ms — the same delay a player needs to establish embouchure on a new note.
Frequently Asked Questions
How realistic does it sound?
The sound is synthesized in your browser using the Web Audio API — no samples are downloaded. Each note uses breath noise, a soft attack, delayed vibrato, and reverb to match the key character of a real pan flute.
How do I play a melody?
Click and drag across pipes — just like moving a real pan flute across your lips. Or use keyboard keys: hold for sustained notes, release to stop. Combine both for two-handed playing.
Can I use a computer keyboard?
Yes — 13 natural notes mapped to A S D F G H J K L ; (C5–E6) and Z X (F6–G6). Hold a key = sustained note, release = note off. On desktop, hover over pipes to play.
What range does it cover?
C5–G6 (13 natural notes, no sharps) — the standard range of a real pan flute.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes — tap any pipe or swipe horizontally across them. Landscape orientation gives more pipes. The pipe area scrolls on small screens.
Pan Flute Note Reference
| Note | Frequency (Hz) | MIDI | Keyboard | Pipe length* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C5 | 523.3 | 72 | A | ~32.9 cm |
| D5 | 587.3 | 74 | S | ~29.3 cm |
| E5 | 659.3 | 76 | D | ~26.1 cm |
| F5 | 698.5 | 77 | F | ~24.6 cm |
| G5 | 784.0 | 79 | G | ~21.9 cm |
| A5 | 880.0 | 81 | H | ~19.5 cm |
| B5 | 987.8 | 83 | J | ~17.4 cm |
| C6 | 1046.5 | 84 | K | ~16.4 cm |
| D6 | 1174.7 | 86 | L | ~14.6 cm |
| E6 | 1318.5 | 88 | ; | ~13.1 cm |
| F6 | 1396.9 | 89 | Z | ~12.3 cm |
| G6 | 1568.0 | 91 | X | ~11.0 cm |
* Approximate tube length for a stopped cylindrical pipe at 20 °C. Actual instruments vary by material and end correction.
References & Attributions
- Sound synthesized entirely via the Web Audio API — no sample files are downloaded.
- Synthesis chain: sine oscillator (fundamental) + 2nd harmonic + sub-octave + bandpass breath noise + delayed LFO vibrato + algorithmic reverb + dynamics compressor.
- Default view: C5–G6 (MIDI 72–91), 13 natural notes — the standard range of a real pan flute.
- Pipe height proportional to acoustic wavelength (λ = c / f at 343 m/s, 20 °C).
- Hard limiter: DynamicsCompressor, −3 dBFS threshold, 20:1 ratio.
Simulation tool for learning and entertainment.