I want to learn to play a duduk.

Subject: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: GUEST,Azoic
Date: 11 May 11 - 12:45 PM

I want to buy and learn to play a duduk,Has anyone out there had any personal experience with this instrument and is willing to offer advice?

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 May 11 - 01:09 PM

Yep.

Make sure the reeds are soaking wet - Turkish balaban or mey players keep them in a glass of water.

Make sure the reed is matched to the instrument. This is not simple and it's better to buy from someone who knows what to sell you.

They are easy to get a sound from and a bugger to play in tune.

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: GUEST,Azoic
Date: 11 May 11 - 02:21 PM

Thanx for that.Where would I buy one?Mark

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: michaelr
Date: 11 May 11 - 02:28 PM

Heard of Google?

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 May 11 - 03:37 PM

Just listening to some on youtube. What a beautiful and haunting tone.

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 May 11 - 10:34 AM

You're right kat, the sound is indeed beautiful.

However, this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEEQqmxdp8I&feature=fvwrel

makes me think you must need strong lungs to play it.

What do you say, Jack?

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: Jack Campin
Date: 12 May 11 - 01:12 PM

You don't need much pressure. Professional players use circular breathing, so their cheeks need to puff out. Or in the case of Suren Asaduryan, balloon like bullfrogs. It's also common for a solo player to be accompanied by one or two others playing a drone or a very slow-moving pedal ("dem duduk") - the accompanists will circular-breathe too.

Leeneia's link shows a common problem with this stuff. The uploader is a nutcase Armenian nationalist bigot with a huge axe to grind. You don't need to swallow that crap to listen to the music - there are other sources, albeit almost all YouTube videos allowing comments degenerate into a frenzy of multilingual obscenities in three or four character sets. The same music is played by musicians from Armenia, Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan: they frequently collaborate with each other, and I don't know of ANY of them who subscribes to the sort of madness many of their fans go in for.

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 13 May 11 - 12:31 AM

Thanks for the explanation, Jack.

I too despise people who use music to further ethnic divisiveness.

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: michaelr
Date: 13 May 11 - 01:00 AM

(Not to open a can of worms here, but there really was an Armenian genocide by the Turks, on a large scale, so there is a huge ax to grind - because it's being hushed up, can't be talked about by anyone who does not wish to offend Turkey.)

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 13 May 11 - 04:39 AM

Azoic, where do you live? A duduk player lives two doors from me in Lewes, East Sussex. He also plays a wide variety of other bagpipes from Europe and the Middle East.

Valmai (Lewes, Sussex, UK)

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 May 11 - 05:31 AM

It is perfectly possible to be descended from genocide survivors without becoming a fascist who wants to do it to somebody else. (My surname comes from a family who fled after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes: I don't feel any urge to repossess France).

The Armenian duduk players I referred to have, as far as I can tell, a thoroughly sane and constructive attitude to their history. The nutters who post the obscene comments don't.

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 13 May 11 - 12:03 PM

Yes, there has been much genocide.

If you want to grieve, grieve.

If you want to say 'never again,' say 'never again.'

But if you want to say 'I despise you because of what your great-grandfather did to my great-grandfather,' then I say the hell with it.

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: GUEST,Azoic
Date: 07 Jun 11 - 12:30 AM

Yes,To the person who asked where I live:Portland,Oregon.I am fearful of ordering mail-order as I suspect there are poor imitations ,but I don't know of anyone in Portland or the PNW with any duduk experience.

Subject: RE: I want to learn to play a duduk.
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Jun 11 - 06:01 AM

There aren't many suppliers and the ones in Armenia look like the real deal to me. (I got mine from shops in Turkey). I once found a site in Georgia for the duduki but didn't feel like trying to navigate in Mkhedruli script.

You may find with instruments like this (and particularly the Turkish mey) that the bore is rough and splintery as it comes from the supplier. Since it's a tube open at both ends, it's very easy to fix. Glue some sandpaper on a dowel and once it's smooth enough use the other end of the dowel as an oiling rod. (A length of threaded steel rod is also useful as a bore polishing tool).

The reed is more critical than the instrument. Duduk reeds with the little leather binding strips up the sides are much better (mey reeds don't come that way - balabans can use duduk reeds). Get the best reeds you can afford and MAKE SURE THEY MATCH.