Construction of the Persian Ney

Construction of the Persian ney

Searching for the right piece of Arundo Donax

The Persian ney is made out of a piece of Arundo Donax, a bamboo-like grass. A piece piece is selected containing seven segments, hich defines the length of the ney. !onditions must be "ust right to procude the right thickness and length. #or this a hot dry climate such as in the area$s south of %sfahan &ran is needed. The cut piece is dried for several years, and cleaned out, and ' holes are burnt in it at the right spots. &t has been said that only () of the neys produced this ay actually sound good, so it is a time consuming  process despite the simplicity of the instrument. &t is also possible to make a ney out of other materials, ith excellent results. &$ve made some neys out of P*! and acrylic pipe hich are as good as a nice cane ney, though not +uite as good as the best neys & have. The best materials & found so are (. The light light P*! pipe pipe used for electrical electrical conduit conduit in %urope. %urope. The The pipe & use use has outer diameter (mm, inner diameter ('mm, so the alls are (.mm thick. This is called /('mm P*! pipe/ in 0olland, here & bought it. The exact thickness is not so important, but this is the material & used. 1. %xtr %xtrud uded ed acry acrylic lic pip pipee from from http22.tapplastics.com http22.tapplastics.com.. 3ook under the plastics section under /4od, Tubes, and Shapes/. 5nder clear acrylic tubing, they sell a si6e that is (2(' all, 27 &D, 829 :D. &n millimeters, this orks out to be (.7 all, (.7; &D, (. This ney plays in Bb =B flat>. Cou can scale the length, to make neys in different keys. &f  interested, ask me for measurements from neys in other keys. They scale approximately linear =i.e., all proportions remain the same>, but not completely. Smaller neys than ! don$t play ell in the upper register. The longest ney &$ve made is # =!-kuk>.

# ney =!-kuk>

This ney is so long that & can$t reach the fingerholes. 0oever bending the ney at the nodes a bit, making a kindof 6ig-6ag pattern brings the holes ithin reach. &$ve also offset the holes from the center to bring them ithin reach of the fingers. The sound is very good.

Sari from brass

#inally make a sari. !ut a piece of flexible plastic, -ray film material is popular. The  plastic from inside the collar of men$s shirts is :E too. :r a soda-pop bottle. rap it around the top, sticking out slightly. This is your mouthpiece =called /sari/>. &t is sometimes made from brass, but this is very bad for the teeth and does not improve the sound in any ay.

@aking a sari from -ray film

Some players ho have no gap beteen their front teeth to insert the ney in prefer to make a small cut in the sari, alloing the ney to enter further in the mouth. &$ve experimented ith many shapes of cuts but in the end prefer to play ithout.

Belo are measurements of several neys. Eeep in mind the lengths can vary by about ( cm depending on the inside structure. ?arroer nodes give a loer pitch, smaller fingerholes give a loer pitch too. h( =back>

h1

# =!7;; 1< ('  kuk>

9;

1 7; '( '7 ;9 1 191 9