Ney : Egyptian musical instrument

The ney is an Iranian or Persian end-blown flute, which figures prominently in the music of the Middle East. In some of these musical traditions, this is the only wind musical instrument that is in use. The musical instrument has continuously been performed for about 4,500 to 5,000 years now, making the musical instrument one of the oldest musical instrument that is still very much in use in the modern day.

source: turkishemporium.co.uk

 The Persian nay is made up of a hollow cylinder with finger holes. Sometimes, a brass or plastic mouthpiece is placed at the top of the instrument to protect the wood from getting damaged, but this performs no role in the production of sound from the musical instrument. The ney is made up of a piece of hollow cane or reed that has 5 or 6 finger holes and one thumb hole. Modern versions of the musical instrument could be produced of a metal or plastic rather. The pitch of the musical instrument differs depending on the region and the finger arrangement on the ney. A highly-skilled player of the ney could reach more than three octaves, but it is more common to have many helper neys that will cover different pitch ranges or to enhance playing technically difficult passages in other magams.

Turkish and Arabic versions of the musical instrument have about 7 holes; 6 holes in the front of the instrument and one thumb hole in the back of the musical instrument. The typical Persian version of the musical instrument has 6 holes; 5 holes in the front of the musical instrument and one thumb hole in the back of it. 

The intervals between the holes in the ney is a semitone, but microtones are reached through partial covering of the hole, alters of embouchure or positioning the angle of the musical instrument. Microtonal inflection is common and important to different traditions of the taqsim.

The neys are carved in different keys. In the Arabic system, there are 7 common ranges; the longest and the lowest-pitched of all of them is the Rast that is approximately equivalent to C in the Western equal temperament system, this is followed by the Dukah in D, the Busalik in E, followed by the Jaharka in F, followed by the Nawa in G, the Hussayni in A and then followed by the Ajam in B. skilled players of the musical instrument will typically own a set of many versions of the ney, but it is possible to perform fully chromatically on any version of the musical instrument. A slim exception to this rule is seen in the end lowest range of the musical instrument, where the fingering is seen to be so complex and the change from the first octave to the second octave is rather difficult.

The ney in the Arab world is traditionally used in pastoral areas, showing a preference for smaller, higher pitched versions of the instrument. Commonly, the lower-pitched versions of the musical instrument are used in scholastic and religious surroundings. The Turks used the longer versions of the ney reflecting a preference for graver sounds.