Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Day 2 - Egyptian Double Clarinet - Mijwiz

I own one of these very interesting instruments from Egypt called the mijwiz.  The mijwiz has two cylindrical pipes with a single reed for each pipe.  The player "swallows" the reeds so that you can't even see them.  The two pipes are then played simultaneously.  You may play parallel melodies by covering both holes with your fingers or you may use one of the pipes as a drone while playing the melody with the other pipe.  Most of these instruments have only six or seven holes but pitches can be bent by rolling your finger over a hole.  The mijwiz performer plays the instrument while circular breathing (breathing in through your nose and back out through your mouth into the horn without ever stopping to take a breath).

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