Air Instrument

Air Instrument
Item Information
Name	Air Instruments
Na'vi name	Hufwe
Location	Pandora
Created by	Whizzers made from blade of glass or slender leaf. Flutes are hollow twigs, sometimes with hole cut into twig.
Size	Various
Weight	Various
Purpose	Play music
Used by	Na'vi
Behind the Scenes
First seen	Pandorapedia

The Air Instruments (Na'vi name: Hufwe) are ornamental musical toys for children.

Description

Hufwe instruments require a moving column of air to produce a sound. For example, the whizzer is simply a blade of grass or leaf held loosely between the fingers or the teeth. When blown across, the thin strip of vegetation vibrates rapidly to produce a high-pitched whistle.

The cat ear planimal is often used. Leaves of varied sizes can be attached to a base and then tapped with a stick or blown across, which causes air inside to vibrate and generate musical notes. Water added to a leaf reduces the volume of air and changes the note, much like musical bottles played on Earth. An exceptionally skilled player can produce a basic melody, but most of the time the whizzer is used to enliven social dances with brief but frequent whistles.

Occasionally, hollow branches are used as end-blown flutes (like the Terran nay from the Middle East or the mobeke from the Central Africa) but like the whizzer, their construction (with one finger hole at the most) limits their use melodically. These are usually played by children or provide additional ornamentation during social dances.