Guanzi, Hichiriki, Piri ?

[Gawn]

Hi folks,

I have been playing the Oboe and Armenian Duduks for some time and I’m curious to try a new double reed.
Shawms, Surna/Zurna/Suona and Bombardes for my taste have a too piercing, too shrill sound. Rather I am interested in the softer sounding “Duduk” group including Korean Piri, Japanese Hichiriki and Chinese Guanzi - the Guanzi being my favorite.
Has anybody experiences playing these instruments and can comment on their playability (for somebody who is not totally new to double reeds in various sizes), their musical qualities: range one or more octaves? What keys? pentatonic? chromatic? …? Any stories to tell?
Does somebody know reliable sources for good quality instruments?

Greetings,
Georg

[O_Gaiteiro_do_Chicag]

I own both hyang and dae piri, I had a friend buy them in Korea for me back when I got my first daegeum. Piri is pretty easy to get a sound on, but it’s range is limited to one octave. The notes don’t exactly fit with a western scale so it’s a bit hard to explain the fingering. I’d really only recommend it if you intend to learn jeongak music, as that’s what it’s designed for. My classical training is in bassoon and the dang piri reed is similar sized to that of a contrabassoon, the dae piri has almost a duduk sized reed. The embouchure is more or less the same as bassoon too.