Hi - I just bought myself a duduk on ebay. It was really cheap so I thought it wouldn't serve even as a whistle, but I was amazed how well it sounds (after spending a day trying to figure out how to open up those reeds). I play guitar and want the duduk to come up with melodies, tones, and ideas that would never ever come through my guitar. And in fact that's what it's helping me to do and I am happy about it! I just ordered some reeds from this site because the ones I got from ebay I think are a bit crummy.

I have a few newbie questions - here are two:

1) my duduk is an A duduk. The two songs I've been wanting to try it on are in G major and in A minor (with variations, e.g., sticking in a major 7th, etc). Now, as a total beginner, playing the duduk is ok diatonically (for about five minutes because after that my mouth gives way and I do ridiculous things); but obviously with the A duduk I have to do half-holing to get the chromatics for my scales, and that's where things get yicky. Some half-hole notes I can manage more or less, others almost totally defeat me. I was wondering: do duduk players just change duduk (e.g., switch to a C duduk) when a piece starts getting a lot of sharps/flats respective to their duduk key, or do they just find it easy as pie to get all those half-hole chromatics?

2) my reeds don't look straight on both sides like I've seen in some photos; they are a bit more straight on one side, then on the other they have a little bit like a belly. My questions is, I'm not sure how I should fit the reed into the duduk, with the straighter part in front and belly behind, or vice-versa?

oh, oh, oh - one very important last question: does anyone know of a duduk teacher in Vienna, Austria??

Thanks - this is a very nice and helpful site!!

1) Half-holing usually doesn't have as strong a tone as the notes within the instrument's natural scales so yes, usually you switch to a duduk in the appropriate key OR transpose the music to a key appropriate to your instrument. I understand that a pro player can make half-hole notes sound so good you don't even know they're doing it, but keep in mind there's still a reason many duduk cases are meant to hold more than one.

2) I think the straight side faces you if I understand the description correctly. When looking at the duduk from the side, with the fingerholes facing upward, the reed should appear to curve slightly downward. I don't know if this affects the tone or if it's just for aesthetic or comfort reasons.

Thanks a lot - actually, with some half-hole notes I do manage, and if I get them just right they actually sound with pretty much the same tone as normal ones. Just some other half-hole notes drive me crazy because I just can't get them. For example, I can manage a G and a C, but an F is hell (perhaps because of the finger positioning, don't know). I really can't invest in yet more duduks now, if I can't hardly play the one I've got, so I guess I'll just have to practice and practice until I can half-hole as best as possible and then later on I'll get myself another. Or is this just a way of torturing myself? Anyway, I'll keep it up

Personally I'd suggest just transposing the music. Unless you're playing for someone with perfect pitch and total familiarity with the song you're playing no one will notice if you play the whole song a whole step higher than it's written.

And have you watched the instructional video on half-holing that Duduk.com posted to YouTube? It's very helpful since half-holing on the duduk is slightly different than I've found it to be for other diatonic instruments like flutes. Of course I still can't do it on the duduk anyway, but maybe someday...

Hi Ron - thanks for all this help. I really don't want to transpose, mostly because some of the things I do with the guitar would just get uncomfortable for me, I'd have to use a capo, solos on the higher range would get difficult, etc. (and I'm extremely lazy).

Your tip on checking out the youtube duduk.com instruction on half-holing reaches me right after I had done exactly that, and I am very happy to have hit on that video, because now I realize what was killing me: I was using my finger tips!!! No, this ain't a recorder, it's a duduk! This is great, I've now changed my proto-technique entirely. I have to get into this technique now, it's very different but suddenly it makes a whole world of sense, taking the duduk's big holes into account.

By the way, you can hear some of my music here: http://www.soundclick.com/sergiopines. Perhaps you'll like some song and maybe I could send you the audio files and you can add some fluty impro of your own on it? The latest song I uploaded - "Cette monde triste" - I planned to duduk it, but that's where my poor half-key technique made me collapse and I didn't make it. But now I'm gaining confidence again... hehe. Thanks a million for all the advice,

Sergio