Creating a pan flute- need help!

[Itisnotlogical]

I'm not sure this is the right category for this thread, but since media encompasses music I figure this is the best home for it.

I'm thinking of creating a pan flute in my high school Woodshop class. Nothing especially fancy, but there's one problem. I have no idea how the acoustics of such an instrument would work!

I only intend for there to be five pipes of equal diameter (for simplicity), and I need to know the various technical aspects of how to make one, like are the ends of the pipes capped or not, are there any holes required along the pipe's length, etc.

Also is it possible to create one with rectangular pipes?

 

[M'Sharak]

You may want to start by simply Googling "making a pan flute" or something similar and looking at some of the search results (there will be plenty.) One of the first things you'll find is that there's more than one way to do it - you'll probably want to try one of the simpler approaches first, using readily-obtainable materials.

Acoustically, the main thing is the length of each pipe relative to the others, as a scale describes a set of mathematical relations between pitches which can usually be represented as simple fractions or ratios (e.g., to raise the pitch one octave, make the tube half as long, etc.) This page gives you the lengths for a five-note set of pipes made of PVC tubing; I'm sure you can find other how-to pages which will give similar sets of measurements. You may also want at some point to do your own calculations and tune your own set of pipes.

Square tubing might affect the tone quality--the "color" of the note, so to speak--but there's no reason it wouldn't work; many old wooden pipe organs have pipes which are essentially long square boxes. (Here's a page showing a present-day square-pipe organ someone built himself, so obviously square pipes don't present a problem, acoustically.)

 

[ancientone51]

Seems like a cool project. My first thought was to use bamboo, as that seems to be the material used in all the ones I ever saw way back in the day.

Good luck and post pics when done.