Play Ney online
A wind instrument made of reed, with six holes in front and one at the back; it is the voice of Sufi and classical Turkish music.
Dizi
On a keyboard, the keys A S D F G H J K play the eight pitches of the scale.
We welcome your ideas.
Turn your phone sideways or switch to full screen to see the instrument larger.
Keyboard keys
Add it to your home screen as a separate app: opens with one tap and works offline too. Free.
Keyboard: the up and down arrows select a course, Space or Enter plays it, plus and minus move the selected course's mandal by one comma.
Tap or swipe on the right side; tap the labels on the left to select a course. No sound on iPhone? Turn off silent mode.
Mandals
Lower or raise each pitch one comma at a time with the mandal levers. The setting applies to every course that has no setting of its own.
Course mandal
Tune a single course separately from the pitch setting. Courses you don't adjust follow the pitch setting.
About the Ney
In brief
- Family: Wind instrument; reed flute blown obliquely across the rim
- Origin: Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt; the name comes from Persian nây (reed)
- Earliest evidence: Egyptian and Sumerian evidence going back about 4,500 years
- Body and materials: Cane with nine segments; horn mouthpiece (başpâre), metal ferrules (parazvâne) at the ends
- Holes: 6 in front, 1 at the back (thumb hole)
- Tuning / range: A master neyzen exceeds three octaves; by length, pitch levels (ahenk) such as Şah, Mansur, Kız
- Music: Mevlevi ayin, Sufi and Turkish classical music; Arabic and Persian music
- 16th–17th centuries: Mentioned in Revani's İşaretname; Evliya Çelebi speaks of twelve kinds of ney, and the names he lists include şah, mansur, bolahenk and süpürde[1, 2, 3]
Getting started: types, sizes, tuning
- Construction: Made from a single piece of reed with nine nodes; it has seven holes, one of them on the back.
- Ahenk (pitch sets): The main neys are kız, mansur, şah, dâvud and bolâhenk, a whole tone apart; with the intermediate neys they make 12, and with the half-length nısfiye 24.
- Protection: Metal rings (parazvâne) fitted on the first and last nodes keep the reed from cracking.
- Choosing a ney: In the ney module of the Turkish Ministry of National Education (MEB) music schools, being able to choose a ney suited to one's height and arm and finger length is listed as a learning outcome.[1, 4]
History
A wind instrument made of reed with a history of thousands of years. In the Mevlevi tradition it is regarded as the symbol of divine love; Rumi's Masnavi opens in the voice of the ney.
Construction
It is made from a reed with nine segments; six holes are cut in the front and one in the back. A mouthpiece (başpâre) of water buffalo horn or bone is fitted to the upper end. Its pitch varies with its length (Kız, Mansur, Şah, etc.).
How it's played
The başpâre rests lightly against the lips and air is blown obliquely across the edge of the reed. Comma intervals are obtained by turning the head, half-covering holes and varying breath pressure.
Useful while you practice
Project notes
- Pitch system: Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek pitches are shown on a scale dividing the octave into 53 equal parts (the Holder comma, ≈22.6 cents), a close approximation of the theory's Pythagorean-ratio pitches. Each pitch is computed as its letter position plus the mandal shift; reference A4 = 440 Hz.
- Interval abbreviations: B = bakiye (4), S = küçük mücenneb (5), K = büyük mücenneb (8), T = tanini (9), A = augmented second (12–13 commas).
- Sound: real kanun recordings, retuned to comma precision for each pitch. With the synthesis option, each course is generated as three slightly detuned strings.
- Mandals: per-pitch tuning is the default; any course can also be tuned separately. Makam presets are per pitch.
- Known limitations: pitch names are referenced to Rast (G); makam presets are awaiting expert review.
Frequently asked questions about the Ney
How do I play the virtual ney?
In the realistic view, the ney is drawn horizontally: the body at the bottom plays the first octave, and its faded twin above plays the second. You play by tapping the holes or sliding your finger; you don't need to blow. On the keyboard, A–K plays the first octave and Q–U the second. On a phone, turning the screen sideways or going full screen makes the ney bigger and the holes easier to tap.
How does the virtual ney produce the makam's commas?
On a real ney, commas are produced by breath strength, head angle and half-covering the holes. The virtual ney plays every pitch of the makam you choose directly at its comma value; you can choose from more than 150 makams in the makam strip. The tonic and dominant are marked in color, which makes it easier to see the pitches a taksim rests on.
Is the sound in the virtual ney a real ney?
Yes. The sounds were cut one by one and processed from the “Scale of Huzzam Makam” recording shared on Freesound by Ajay Srinivasamurthy for the CompMusic project (CC BY 4.0). Each pitch is tuned with comma precision from the nearest recording. Until the recordings load, synthesized sound plays; with the “Synthesis” option you can switch to generated sound whenever you like.
Can I practice ilahi and âyin melodies on the virtual ney?
Yes. If you choose the ney in the “Play it yourself” step of the “Learn this piece” section of a piece in the sheet music archive, the virtual ney opens with the piece's makam. While you are learning to produce a sound on a real ney, getting to know the positions of the pitches and the makam scales in advance on the virtual ney speeds up your practice.
Sources
- TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi
- Wikipedia
- ozanyarman.com
- tymm.meb.gov.tr