The five-key flute is a musical instrument once common in school marching bands, and composed of wood with metal keys. It is a transposing instrument

Transposing instrument

A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which written notes are read at a pitch different from the corresponding concert pitch, which a non-transposing instrument, such as a piano, would play. Playing a written C on a transposing instrument will produce a note other than concert C...

, most commonly in Bb, this variant being known as the Bb flute and sounding one tone below the orchestral piccolo

Piccolo

The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...

. The next most common variant is the Eb flute, sounding a fifth below the Bb flute and used as its bass instrument in band harmonies.

As the name suggests, the five-key flute most commonly has five keys, similar to the simple system flute

Simple system flute

Simple system flute most commonly refers to the type of flute manufactured and favored by classical European musicians during the Classical era. This type of flute is the direct precursor of, and was made obsolete within the art music world by, the introduction of the Boehm System flute...

 that was the standard orchestral instrument before Boehm keying and bore became the standard. It uses the six-hole fingering system of the fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

 for its natural scale, with the metal keys adding the ability to play the full chromatic scale

Chromatic scale

The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone apart. On a modern piano or other equal-tempered instrument, all the half steps are the same size...

 and therefore making it possible to play in any key.

The keys are (starting with the hole closest to the mouthpiece):

1. The C key, a long key running along the back of the instrument (the side closest to the player) and operated by the right index finger.
2. The A# key, a short key running along the bottom of the instrument, operated by the left thumb.
3. The G# key, running across the top of the instrument and operated by the little finger of the left hand.
4. The F key, running across the back of the instrument and operated by the third finger of the right hand.
5. The Eb key, running across the top of the instrument and operated by the little finger of the right hand.

The five-key flute is conical in bore, with a cylindrical head joint and a body that tapers to become narrowest furthest from the mouthpiece.

French five-key flutes were once the preferred flute for use in charanga

Charanga

Charanga is a term given to traditional ensembles of Cuban dance music. They made Cuban dance music popular in the 1940s and their music consisted of heavily son-influenced material, performed on European instruments such as violin and flute by a Charanga orchestra....

bands due to their distinct tone and facility in their third and fourth octave