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A tone hole is an opening in the body of a wind instrument
Wind instrument

A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator....
 which, when covered, alters the pitch of the sound produced.

The resonant frequencies
Acoustic resonance

Acoustic resonance is the tendency of an acoustics to absorb more energy when the frequency of its oscillations matches the system's natural frequency of vibration than it does at other frequencies....
 of the an air column in a pipe are inversely proportional to the pipe's effective length. For a pipe with no tone holes, the effective length is the physical length plus corrections for end effects. A shorter pipe, in other words, produces higher notes. An open hole in the side of the pipe shortens the pipe's effective length and therefore raises the pitch of the notes it produces.






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A tone hole is an opening in the body of a wind instrument
Wind instrument

A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator....
 which, when covered, alters the pitch of the sound produced.

The resonant frequencies
Acoustic resonance

Acoustic resonance is the tendency of an acoustics to absorb more energy when the frequency of its oscillations matches the system's natural frequency of vibration than it does at other frequencies....
 of the an air column in a pipe are inversely proportional to the pipe's effective length. For a pipe with no tone holes, the effective length is the physical length plus corrections for end effects. A shorter pipe, in other words, produces higher notes. An open hole in the side of the pipe shortens the pipe's effective length and therefore raises the pitch of the notes it produces. Generally a large hole in a given position reduces the effective length to something slightly larger than the effective length of a pipe cut off at that position; a smaller hole produces a longer effective length. Covering the hole with a finger, or with a pad operated by a key, increases the effective length and lowers the pitch again. However, a pipe with a closed tone hole is not acoustically identical to a pipe with no hole; the closed hole modifies the pipe's shape and its effective length.

When there are multiple tone holes, the first (highest) open tone hole usually has the largest influence on the pipe's effective length. However, closing holes below the first open hole can lower the pitch significantly; such cross fingerings may often be useful. Generally the pitch and timbre
Timbre

In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices or musical instruments....
 of the notes produced will depend on the positions, sizes, heights, and shapes of all the tone holes, both open and closed. Theoretical models allow these effects to be calculated with some accuracy, but the design of tone holes remains to some degree a matter of trial and error.

Most woodwind instrument
Woodwind instrument

A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against an edge of, or opening in, the instrument, causing the air to vibrate within a resonator....
s rely on tone holes to produce different notes; two exceptions are the slide whistle
Slide whistle

A slide whistle is a wind instrument consisting of a fipple like a recorder's and a tube with a piston in it. It thus has an air reed like some woodwinds, but varies the pitch with a slide ....
 and the willow flute
Willow flute

The willow flute, also known as sallow flute , is a Scandinavian folk flute, or whistle, consisting of a simple tube with a transverse fipple mouthpiece and no finger holes....
. Most brass instrument
Brass instrument

A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibration of the lips as the player blows into a tubular resonator. They are also called labrosones, literally meaning "lip-vibrated instruments" ....
s use valves or a slide instead of tone holes, with the rare keyed bugle
Bugle (instrument)

The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure, since the bugle has no other mechanism for controlling pitch....
 and the ophicleide
Ophicleide

The ophicleide is a family of conical bore, brass keyed bugle s....
 as exceptions.