Experimental and numerical techniques to characterize the response of premixed methane-air flames to acoustic waves are discussed and applied to a multi-slit Bunsen burner. The steady flame shape, flame front kinematics and flow field of acoustically exited flames, as well as the flame transfer function and matrix are computed. The numerical results are compared with experiments. The influence of changes in the mean flow velocity, mixture equivalence ratio, slit width and distance between the slits on the transfer function is studied, both numerically and experimentally. Good agreement is found which indicates the suitability of both the experimental and numerical approach and shows the importance of predicting the influence of the flow on the flame and vice versa. On the basis of the results obtained, the role and physical nature of convective flow structures, heat transfer between the flame and burner plate and interaction between adjacent flames are discussed. Suggestions for analytical models of premixed flame-acoustics interaction are formulated. (C) 2009 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.