Hi guys,just had an email from Vulkan in Turkey,he is a film music composer and plays whistles and Kaval and Shevi.These are Turkish and Armenian whistles/flutes.
Check his site at www.volkangucer.com/winds.html
Some music to listen to at www.muzikalonline.com
also some more music at www.dreaministanbul.com
I’m just checking it myself so we can talk about it later.
Phil.
I’d never even heard of some of those instruments, such as a suling.
That Phillipino bamboo flute is gorgeous, though. I want it. 
I’ve got a suling and a couple of duduks laying around. The duduk is a seriously difficult instrument to play… I have one by one of the foremost makers but I think the reed is practically dead due lack of use, and I have chosen not to pursue that obsession anymore. It took me years to find a good one. It plays a scale basically like Dm.
You can get these things (the armenian ones) from www.duduk.com. My duduk is a Ruben duduk, purchased back before they had a real web store.
The Romanian Fluier is very similar to the pennywhistle, but the fipple is on the underside of the instrument.
I have one of those, but I never knew what it was called, till now.
Is yours playable? I got mine in Romania in 1995, but I think it is basically tourist junk. Very, very weak tone. I wish I’d had a chance to look for a good one.
I have the bulgarian equivalent. It’s decent, plays in C, and isn’t hard to play. I never use it, though. I got it from Shark in the AM.
Yes, it is actually. But I don’t really know what key it’s in. It seems to be “about” B-flat. I got it randomly on eBay, if I remember correctly.
At the bottom of the flute page is a flute from Korea called a shakuachi. I just got to play one of those recently. It plays a pentatonic scale of about 2 octaves and you can’t half hole to get any others.
The really difficult thing is you have to blow across the side that is away from you. The top is just an open hole but there’s a bladed edge on the front. So instead of blowing across the top like you would across a jug, you cover the hole with your chin and try to find the spot where your breath goes across the blade just right so it makes a sound.
I found it was easiest to do if I braced the bottom of the instrument on my leg (it’s about the size of a low D whistle). But I still could never find the right spot consistently. Don’t know that I’d ever get one myself but it was interesting to play with for a while…