{"id":3444,"date":"2025-11-20T08:59:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/?p=3444"},"modified":"2025-11-20T09:10:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T09:10:34","slug":"ndehou-simpler-than-a-simple-system-flute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/2025\/11\/20\/ndehou-simpler-than-a-simple-system-flute\/","title":{"rendered":"N\u2019dehou &#8211; simpler than a simple system flute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Question:<\/em> Is there any kind of flute or whistle that is simpler than a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oldflutes.com\/19C-play.htm\">simple system flute<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Answer:<\/em> Well, as it turns out, yes there is. Known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/africanmusiclibrary.org\/blog\/the-ndehou-a-single-note-that-speaks-volumes\">N\u2019dehou<\/a>, it is an end blown single note Pygmy flute that is made of bamboo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Question:<\/em> What can be done with one note?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Answer:<\/em> One could mimic birds I suppose, but it turns out that, in the hands of the right person, much can be accomplished with a single note flute. A great exponent of the N&#8217;dehou is the Cameroonian composer, writer, and musicologist <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Francis_Bebey\">Francis Bebey<\/a> (1929-2001). In the video below he demonstrates what a creative musician with a N\u2019dehou might be capable of. In his words, it is a form of conversation that takes place between the flute and the player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Francis Bebey at Real World Studios\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/c6T6suvnhco?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>How joyful!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is there any kind of flute or whistle that is simpler than a simple system flute? Well, as it turns out, there is. Known as the N\u2019dehou, it is an end blown single note Pygmy flute that is made of bamboo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,5,6,8,742],"tags":[439,744,53,38,743,747,745,746],"class_list":["post-3444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flutes","category-martin-doyle-flutes","category-music","category-musical-instruments","category-video-clip","tag-africa","tag-francis-bebey","tag-instrument","tag-music","tag-ndehou","tag-note","tag-pygmy","tag-single"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3444"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3455,"href":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444\/revisions\/3455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martindoyleflutes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}