ney

Ney is a traditional end-blown flute used in several Middle Eastern, North African, and Central Asian musical traditions. The instrument is typically made from a hollow reed (Arundo donax) and measures about 50 to 60 cm in length. It has six finger holes on the front and one thumb hole on the back. Sound is produced by blowing a focused airstream across a notch at the edge of the blowing hole, creating a breathy, modal tone with wide microtonal inflections. Mastery of embouchure, breath control, and finger technique allows access to the instrument’s microtonal possibilities within regional scales.

In performance, the ney appears in solo repertoire and within traditional ensembles that also feature instruments such as the oud, saz, tanbur, or daf. It is particularly associated with Persian classical music and Turkish traditional music, as well as Sufi devotional practices in various regions. The ney is capable of a broad expressive range, from contemplative melodies to ornamented, virtuosic passages, and is frequently used for improvisation within modal systems.

As a transliterated term, Ney may also appear in Latin-script names or transliterations of other languages, and, when capitalized as Ney, can refer to people or places in some contexts. The spelling ney, nay, or nei varies by language and tradition, reflecting different phonetic interpretations of the instrument’s name.