Hello all.
This might sound like a silly question but I want to know what is the differences of a flute and a fife? Aren’t they the same? They are both sideblown right?
Well, brace yourself for an onslaught of arcane information and conflicting opinions. But basically the fife is one type of flute, small and high-pitched. From what I can gather from around here, any instrument with a low note of G or below is called a flute, those which bottom out at A, B flat, or high C are considered fifes, those in high D are piccolos.
The military or regulation fife is usually pitched B flat and generally played in the middle and high octaves, up almost into the dog whistle range. It is a hindrence to bat navigation. I personally love playing the thing, but my wife and neighbors wish I wouldn’t.
That’s about the clearest explanation I’ve seen that ran under three pages.
internet discussion described with stunning accuracy in a mere dozen words. 
Dr. Arcane says, “No, no, no. It is much more complicated than that!”
I don’t think that there is a definitive answer to this question that keeps popping up. Search for fife in the C & F archives.
The big difference is that I am a
Fyffer
If the thing I played were a Piccolo, I’d be a
Piccoler!!!
I have always wanted to play Cooperman’s 8th century French fife in D to see if the third register B could make dogs howl and hinder the mating of mosquitoes.
Bravo!!
okay.. so basically a fife and a piccolo is a flute except they are in different keys? hehehe, sorry but I only vaguely get it.
The other thing is…isn’t the flute the same as the tinwhistle except that with the flute, it is actually blown sideways. Is the fingering for a piccolo the same as a ‘high d’ tinwhistle?
A fife is a purely cylindrical form of flute, used for battlefield communications before being replaced by the bugle. Extremely historical - Swiss fifers were in big demand in the 16th century.
Because modern “fifers” are more concerned with musical purposes rather than signalling, many have adopted flute construction (a taper either in body or head) to take advantage of the better intonation and tone of a flute. So these are actualy flutes, even if fifers call them fifes. (Rather like sax players call their saxes “horns”, even though they are woodwinds and not brass. Even if made of brass!)
19th century companies such as Rudall & Carte and Boosey & Co offered both fifes and flutes in the same pitches, making it quite clear that they knew the difference, and that there was still a market for the fife at that time.
The Italian word piccolo translates as “small”. It is an adjective, not a noun; you can’t actually have a “small”. (Almost - the English used to refer to their underwear as “smalls”.)
In English, piccolo is an abbreviation for “piccolo flute” (there are other instruments that exist in piccolo versions). So literally “small” flute, specifically a flute an octave above the usual flute. Not to be confused with a fife, because fifes have plain cylindrical bores.
Terry
Thank you Terry! Your explanations make so much sense, I went Ah, Ahh, Ahh! all the way through your post!
No doubt others will disagree, but I hope yours will be the definite answer as to the difference of fife and flute.
~Hans
Terry’s comments are along the lines of the way I use the word fife.
Perhaps the problem is that no one has defined "flute" past it's very broad definition. Technically it is a family of instruments (correct?). Usually understand what kind of flute, you mention the style. IE Renaissance, Baroque, Quartz, Boehm, Classical/Modern/Romantic. And what do you call those Viennese-style Romantic flutes that are being made without keys?
Just thinking out loud.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I have seen modern reproductions of so-called Renaissance flutes, which appear to be cylindrical, one end to the other. So, apparently these really should be known as Renaissance fifes, even though they are about the same length as a keyless D flute.
Anyway, thanks for the input, good to know.
I think only the military ones would qualify as fifes (regardless of pitch)…the distinction was military vs non-military in those days. (and NO…I’m not “quite” that old…)
With all due respect as to your observation, Sir, I must consider the opinion of a professional flute maker as having a certain degree of “gravitas”. Moreover, and on further reflection, I believe said professional is at least technically correct, in that a fife could be defined as being a cylindrical-bore instrument.
However, Sir, I must also agree with you, in that the, so-called fife, in all of its known permutations, apparently has, at one time and another, been pawned-off on a cash-at-hand bearing public in whatever haphazard fashion as could be commercially convenient.
..I’m not “quite” that old…
Actually the avatar is Jack when he was younger. He is that old.
I should have been more specific…by “in those days” I meant the Renaissance…they were all cylindrical then… 
Terry is correct of course…fifes, as far as I know, have always been cylindrical (could be wrong but…as far as I know)
Another country heard from…(almost a contemporary) 
Actually, (from what I have read) some of the Renaissance flutes were scraped out to help bring them up to tune and were not completely cylindrical. Undercutting of the tone holes helped to bring it further in tune. To my knowledge this was not done to the fifes of the time, which were usually inexpensive lower quality instruments.
I had the chance to play a renaissance flute in A and it felt alien to me even though it is a half step away from my fife.
Makes sense to me…