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From jfriesen@cyberdelphia.com Fri Mar 14 11:37:25 CST 1997
Article: 2487 of rec.music.arabic
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From: Jon Friesen
Newsgroups: rec.music.arabic
Subject: Re: Need help playing a nay flute
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 00:37:42 +0500
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Xref: geraldo.cc.utexas.edu rec.music.arabic:2487
Ahlan,
Good luck with your nay; I'm a self‐taught American nay player myself,
so what I tell you may be totally false :) I hope it helps:
The mouth:
This is hard to describe; without a teacher, I spent a week of
trial‐and‐error trying different positions until I could make a noise
:) The important thing is to press the flute against your lips not in
the center of your lips, but off the the right side a little, so that a
seal is formed on the right side of the mouthpiece. If you blow a
stream of air straight ahead at this point, the airstream should be
split in half by the left side of the mouthpiece, with half of the air
going into the flute and half of it escaping the mouthpiece. This is,
at least, how I imagine it. :) The force of the air should be the same
force that you would use to cool a spoonful of hot soup. If you play
the european flute, the aperature of your lips should be a little large
and more relaxed than you would normally use. If you try all day and
still can't make a sound, don't be frustrated. Like I said, it's hard
to describe, and you'll probably have to experiment until you find what
works for you!
The fingers:
For now, you should always keep the thumb hole covered. Later it
will be useful in certain maqamat (like saba) for grace notes and trills
>from the fourth tone to the fifth tone of the scale. You'll also need
it for the bottom‐most octave of the instrument, to reach certain
notes. I'm struggling with that particular octave currently :) Let's
skip that octave and look at the fingering for the two easiest registers
of the instrument. I'm going to assume you have a "D" nay; if you
compare your pitches to a piano and find they don't match these
fingerings, adjust the char accordingly.
The holes start with top of the instrument (left hand) and work down to
the bottom of the instrument
O = open hole
X = closed hole
C: X X X X X X
D: X X X X X O
E flat: X X X X O O
E half‐flat: X X X O O O
E natural: X X / O O O
F: X X O O O O
F sharp: X O O O O O
G: O O O O O O
G (alt fing):X X X X X X <‐‐ start of next register
A: X X X X X O
B flat: X X X X O O
B half‐flat: X X X O O O
B natural: X X / O O O
C: X X O O O O
C sharp: X O O O O O
D: O O O O O O
D: X X X X X O
E flat: X X X X O O
F sharp: X O X X O O
G: O O X X O O
A: X X X X X O
B flat: X X X X O O
C: X X O X O O
D: O X O X O O
If you compare these fingerings with the ones I mentioned above, you'll
see that the pitches remain the same, but the stability of the
instrument and your facility increase, because the first finger of your
right hand is *always* down! (until you start modulating or sliding
between notes, that is)
I hope there's a *real* nay player reading this who can undo the damage
I'm causing here :) :)
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