Turkish ney

A rim-blown, oblique flute made of giant reed (Arundo donax), the Turkish ney has six finger-holes on the front and a high-set thumb-hole on the back.

A feature that distinguishes it from similar instruments of other cultures is the flared mouthpiece or lip rest, called a bashpare, traditionally made of water buffalo horn, ivory, or ebony, but in modern times many are plastic or similar durable material.

The Turkish ney is played by pressing the bashpare against nearly-closed lips and angling the flute so that a narrow air stream can be blown from the center of the lips against the interior edge to the left or right, depending on whether the flute is left- or right-handed in construction.

It is speculated that the ney's close identification with the Mevlevi Sufis might be the origin of this usage (God made Adam out of mud, and then "blew" life into it).

The following is a description of how fingering, blow angle and blow intensity (roughly represented with symbols for wind speed and direction borrowed from USNWS) are combined to create the tones in a popular scale ("Hüseyni") on a common Turkish ney type (Bolahenk).

A dozen of the most common scales account for an important majority of all Turkish classical music, while many are seldom used.