The piccolo is a small flute. Its name in Italian, "flauto piccolo" means "small flute". Like the flute, the piccolo is normally pitched in the key of C, about one octave above the concert flute (making it, effectively, a sopranino flute).

 Music for the piccolo is written one octave lower than the sounds desired in order to avoid too many ledger lines above the staff. Fingerings on the piccolo correspond to fingerings on the flute, but sound an octave higher. Also, many alternate fingerings may be used to tune the individual pitches, as many are consistently out of tune. Description taken from Wikipedia

Please use the media player below to hear examples of music made famous by the Piccolo.