Finger hole
Opening on wind instruments for changing the pitch.
What it means
A finger hole (German Griffloch) is a bore in the wall of a wind instrument that is closed and opened with the finger or by way of a key. When closed, the air column counts to the end of the tube; when open, it ends acoustically nearer the mouthpiece, and the note becomes higher. By opening stepwise from the bottom upward the scale arises. Size, position, and bore of the holes determine intonation and sound and are carefully matched to one another in construction; they follow acoustic requirements, not the convenience of the hand.
Musical use
From this simple mechanism follow the musical peculiarities of many instruments. Simple flutes and historical instruments have six or seven holes and thereby supply a diatonic scale; chromatic notes arise through cross-fingerings or through partial covering but often sound different from the main fingerings — an inequality that was heard along as colour in the music of that time. The key systems of the nineteenth century, above all the Boehm mechanism, moved the holes to acoustically correct places and made them reachable by levers; as a result all keys became evenly playable. Overblowing supplements the system by lifting the tonal space into the next register.
Performance practice
Close holes completely with the soft finger pad; even a small leak makes the note tip or sound too high. Keep the fingers flat over the holes without spreading them far, so that the paths stay short. Cross-fingerings usually sound duller and lower — plan them deliberately in fast passages and compensate with the embouchure. With wooden instruments, condensation collects in the holes and produces gurgling incidental noises; wipe them off and blow them free carefully. With key instruments, check the pads regularly, because leaking pads produce the same faults as badly closing fingers.
Remember that the size of the holes co-determines the response: small holes ease fingering but make the tone more covered, large ones demand exact covering. Historical instruments and reproductions differ considerably in this. Practise half-holing in front of a mirror or with control by a tuner. With wooden instruments, watch for even humidity, because swelling and shrinking change the edges of the holes. You recognize condensation in a hole by a gurgling tone; wipe it off instead of blowing harder.