Tieu


Tieu is a kind of popular vertical flute of Viet majority. Tieu is made from a hornless bamboo tube with one node-covered end. The tube is about 45 cm long and 2 cm diameter. At the edge of blowing end, a semi-moon shaped hole is pierced served as a blowing hole that is straightly arranged with 4 finger holes. Two more finger holes are located at the other side of the tube and in charged by flutist's thumbs. The reason, for which, two more holes are made at the other side of the tube is the body of Tieu is quite long and wide diameter, therefore, in order to get needed tones, finger holes must be in big distance with each other, and if the 6 holes were straightly located, the flutist's fingers could not reach out to cover all.

Text and Photos courtesy by Vietnam Datacommunication Company (VDC)
and Vietnamese Institute for Musicology (V.I.M)