Beta. This tool is still a work in progress, so there may be bugs. Please let me know if something is off.

Overtone Flute Arranger

Adapt melodies for overtone flute. The tool analyses the notes and finds the best transposition for your instrument.

The seljefløyte is a Norwegian overtone flute that plays natural harmonics. Similar instruments are found all over the world, especially in Europe: kalyuka, koncovka, fujara and pitkähuilu. The tool works for all of these.

An overtone flute can only play the notes of its own natural harmonic series. Notes that fall in between are moved to the nearest one it can sound, and the match score shows how well your tune fits.

See also the overtone flute calculator, which calculates pitch and cutoff length for overtone flutes.

Melody

How to write ABC notation?
ElementABC syntaxExplanation
NotesC D E F G A BOctave 4 (uppercase)
High octavec d e f g a bOctave 5 (lowercase)
Octave changeC,   c’Comma = down, apostrophe = up
LengthC2   C/   C3/2Double, half, dotted
Restz   z2Rest (same length as notes)
Bar lines|   |:   :|   |]Normal, repeat, end
Accidentals^C   _B   =FSharp, flat, natural
KeyK:D   K:AmD major, A minor

Using notation software? MuseScore can export ABC via the ABC plugin. Other programs (Sibelius, Dorico, Finale) can export MusicXML, which you can convert to ABC at xml2abc.net.

Full ABC reference →

The tunes come from my sheet music archive. You'll find more there.

Drag MIDI file here, or choose a file below

The MIDI file must be monophonic (one voice/melody). Do you have notes as a PDF? Open them in MuseScore (free) and export as MIDI.

Settings

Adaptation result

Show original

Adapted for overtone flute

Overtone tablature

The tablature shows each note to play, with partial number (which overtone), end hole position and cent deviation from equal temperament. The partial number indicates how hard to blow. Low numbers (2–4) need gentle air, high numbers (8–16) need stronger breath.

Swipe to see more →

Show details

Want to build the flute yourself? See the overtone flute calculator →

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