Chiff and Fipple Forums

I like unusual instruments, and recently I've been rather fascinated with the Duduk for its rather unique sound. Does anyone know where to get a decent one? How steep is the learning curve?

Thanks,
RCS

No one? How sad.

I have a duduk, a balaban and three meys, and haven't got very far with any of them. Finding a reed that works with the body you have is the tricky bit. Intonation is an absolute pig.

Greetings!
As Jack said, intonation is really a pain in the neck, especially if you want to play with others. Genereally you can alter every note's pitch by applying more or less of pressure on the reed, so you'll always sound more or less in tune by yourself, but with accompaniment, it does not work anymore.
Thankfully I was able to get mine with a ghamish (reed) made for it. There are a few possibilites on where to get one, yet I personally would stay away from the ebay ones (and ebay in general)
I got mine, which I like very much, from a store called "Gandharva Loka", went to Graz and tested it (unfortunately, the Graz-shop has been closed, but there are a few others around central Europe and one in Berlin)
Another option would be, to go to Armenia or other regions where it is played and contact a local duduk maker, or maybe, if you're lucky, send a friend who know the language xD
If you can try it out or have somebody experienced play it for you, you'd know what you're getting in to.
Now, I don't know what kind of woodwinds you play, but compared with my kaval and all of my woodwhistles as well as traverse flutes, the duduk provides more backpreassure (far more than pennywhistles). So it feels kind of different at first.
As for the fingering, I only play by ear. Have not figured out what scale it is xD Unless you are used to cover the holes with the tip of your fingers (like classical flute players would do with the mechanics) it should not be much of a big deal.
To me, ornamentations came quite quickly; vibrato is performed with the lips altering pressure on the reed, glissandi and trills come naturally from the fingers.
The hardes thing to learn would be the circular breathing, still have not maneged that....
If you have specific questions, I'd gladly try to answer them, yet I am not a professional at all....
btw. there was a instructional video by Gevorg Dabaghian on youtube somewhere, I'll try to find it, it might help you a bit

---Edit----
Found the video, here is the link to part 1. Make sure, that annotations/subtitles are on, because he speaks Armenian here. Hope it helps http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYoDSVvSTCI

Hey there!

I've been playing this instrument for about a year.
I got my A duduk (made by Maestro Karlen Matevosyan) with two reeds from Gevorg Dabagyhan. Just contact Vache Sharafyan (sharafyanv@yahoo.com, the one who sells these instruments). The instrument is excellent, but the reeds had a bad intonation. I got good ones on http://www.dudukinstrument.com/. You could buy your instrument there, I'm sure it's as good as the reeds.

I've got eight different reeds, five of them are unplayable in terms of intonation, two are okay and one is good. It's really just a matter of luck.
Intonation is actually hard, especially without a good reed. I just got a great one and everything has become a lot easier. Also, medium reeds have a better intonation and a fuller sound, but are harder to begin with, so I still recommend soft reeds for beginners.

Tell us what you did!

[Thread revival. - Mod]

Hello everyone,
my name is Vick I am form Armenia
looks like a old forum but wanted to share with you some duduk tips.

Very excited to know that a lot of people around the world
want to know and explore the Duduk world.
I am duduk enthusiast and researcher and spent many years meeting different duduk maker master , pro duduk players and a lot of duduk teachers in Armenia.
Was born in Armenia. At age 21 moved to US , Southfield MI ,to study in the college, and then moved to Vancouver WA ,lived there few years
and returned to Armenia.
I am a tour guide, Interpreter and duduk player. I did and continue to do blogs and interviews with some famous duduk players ,
I constantly come across forums and reviews from people who purchased duduk and reed, and end up with
getting low quality duduk and worthless reeds.
I feel sorry for people who went through what I did, spending over $700 dollars on low quality duduks and reeds.

I am a tour guide, Interpreter and duduk player.
In 3-4 years I met, talk, review, ask for advice form many duduk players and duduk teachers, eventually established relationship with most profound duduk making masters,
I purchased many different instruments , duduk from many masters but came to conclusion that there is only few that make a real, authentic, high quality instrument.

As for reeds for duduk, master who make duduk do not make reeds,and vice versa.
Reed plays very important role,

there is 3 types of duduk reeds.
1 Easy to use, no need for powerful blow, this reed are easy and gentle and pleasure to play
2 Average , these a bit hard to play , any duduk player who plays for over 3-5 years prefer this
3 Hard , these are very hard and require 1-3 month break in period and a lot of power,

I personally know only very few duduk players who use 3 rd kind,
The whole idea around 3rd kind is that ones they break in, they will last a bit longer.( 4-5 years) VS the easy and average ones( 3-4 years)

But in real if you just use them as a hobby, they last much longer.

Feel free to contact me any time.
I will help with duduk and reed buying advice.

Cheers

Wow, after all these years! How cool

Eastern European music is awesome, and I'm glad you've added to the thread so that people searching for duduk information can find you here!