Flutes are made from a variety of materials. Student flutes are normally made from silver plated nickel while more qualitative flutes are made from silver (or even gold!), sometimes the body and the head and sometimes only the head.

I was wondering how the material influences the quality of the instrument. I always thought that maybe silver is easier to handle when manifacturing the flute and make the perfect form. Especially for the lip plate I can understand how this can be the case, but for the body and keywork I see less of a reason why this should be done in silver.

I don't think that the material of the flute influences its accoustics because it's not the flute that vibrates (like the wood of a cello) but the air in it. But maybe I'm mistaken.

Or is it just that because of the higher value of silver only better made flutes are made in it?

Flutes are made from a variety of materials. Student flutes are normally made from silver-plated nickel, while better quality flutes (sometimes the body and the head and sometimes only the head) are made from silver, or even gold!

I was wondering how the material influences the quality of the instrument. I always thought that maybe silver is easier to handle when manufacturing the flute, and makes the perfect form. Especially for the lip plate I can understand how this can be the case, but for the body and keys I see less of a reason why they should be done in silver.

I don't think that the material of the flute influences its acoustics because it's not the flute that vibrates (like the wood of a cello) but the air in it. But maybe I'm mistaken.

Or is it just because of the higher value of silver that only better flutes are made of it?