Yeah, I'm pretty sure that "mey" is accurate ... I've even got recordings of it on a few CDs. It looks a lot like a duduk, but with a light, blond wood instead of the dark wood that duduks tend to be made out of. There's a huge double reed, and 6 finger holes and 1 thumb hole. The end that accepts the reed is wider and rounder than the dudks that I've seen photos of. Other than that, I can see and hear no difference ... yet a member of the Armenian National Orchestra practically shoved my mey up my own nose when I showed it to him and asked him the same question. "Nothing similar," he kept saying over and and over again, refusing to elaborate. Then he gave me his business card and said, "If you ever want to learn how to play REAL duduk, come to Yerevan and give me a call." Do you think this is just some Turkish vs Armenian thing that has nothing to do with music?

Ah, yes. Three weeks of wanderjahr bliss. We will start in Istanbul, then make our way down the Aegean coast and then across the Mediterranean coast as far as Antalya, head up to Cappadocia, and then jet back to Istanbul. That's the basic plan, anyway. We're still researching the details. I've got some experience with traveling in the Balkans, but this is still a whole new world for me. Judging from the people we've spoken to, the photos we've seen and the tourbooks we're reading, three weeks will not be enough. And I may have to buy a whole other plane ticket to fly back all of the musical instruments that I plan to buy ...

Next year ... MAKEDONIJA!

Hello again, everybody.
Eric, just as a clarification, I don't play the duduk. Would love to learn duduk, but circular breathing seems to be a big part of it and I just can't get the hang of it with my other wind instruments.
I read somewhere that one has to be VERY careful about buying so-called "professional quality" duduks on the Internet and in catalogs, that the world market is flooded with junky beginner's instruments and tourist souvenirs. The article went on to say that a "true" duduk is only made of plum wood and that the finished flute body is slowly, gradually, gently and painstakingly "roasted" over a low fire to harden the wood and give it its distinctive tone. Who knows? As a kaval player, I've read differing opinions about whether or not the material of a flute makes THAT big of a difference, tone-wise.
Hey, speaking of which ... what is the name of the Armenian end-blown flute? Bloul or something like that? Have you ever played one? Seen one? How is it different from the kaval?
Geez, all this talk has got me aching to put some Gasparyan on. Back in a second ...
Ahhhhh ...
There's just NO opportunity to hear good international music in Richmond, VA. We got a group of Georgian singers and instrumentalists several years ago. Haunting, mesmerizing and other-wordly, like some Armenian music, but very different, too. Hard to explain.