

In more recent years the piccolo has also been made out of a plastic composite material. A popular compromise combines a metal head joint with a body made from wood. Many piccolo players find that wooden piccolos offer a more mellow timbre than metal ones. Piccolos may be constructed out of wood, metal, gold, plastic, or a combination of all of them. The fact that it is so high does not help as it is rather conspicuous when out of tune. Its small size makes it difficult to construct completely in tune and causes what would be small pitch variances in larger instruments to become rather significant. The piccolo is somewhat notorious for being difficult to play in tune, as evidenced by the jokes circulating among musicians that defines a minor second as “two piccolos playing in unison,” or that the only way to get two piccolos to play in tune is to "shoot one of them". It is increasingly difficult to sustain notes in the third octave, especially softly. For example, John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" carries a piccolo solo.

The piccolo can be quite noticeable in concert marches. Also, flute players with large fingers may find it difficult to press the smaller piccolo keys accurately. Though the fingerings are the same, the embouchure and other differences do require a separate effort to learn.
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Not all flute players play piccolo, although most professional players do. Triple-woodwind orchestral works typically include two flutes and one piccolo or three flutes with a piccolo double. (Vivaldi’s concertos, however, were originally for the sopranino recorder). Nonetheless, there have been many concertos and solo pieces written for the piccolo, written by notable composers such as Persichetti, Vivaldi, and Todd Goodman. Thus, it is often used only as an ornamental, "flavor" or "garnish" instrument, or not at all. Often in orchestras, the piccolo player doubles up as a second or third flute because not all orchestral pieces include piccolo parts.īecause the piccolo's sound is in a very high register, it has a potential to be strident or shrill. It is mainly used in orchestral pieces but there are a few pieces specifically for it. In addition to the standard C piccolo, there is a piccolo pitched in D♭ that is sometimes used in bands, and one in A♭, rarely used outside Italian marching bands. Also, many alternate fingerings may be used to tune the individual pitches, as many are consistently out of tune. Fingerings on the piccolo correspond to those of the flute, but sound an octave higher as the piccolo is considerably less than half the size of the flute. Music for the piccolo is written one octave lower than concert pitch. Like the flute, the piccolo is normally pitched in the key of C, one octave above the concert flute.
