Craig asked me to forward this to the HG list, because he`s changing the email address registered here...
----------------------- Well, even though I've been playing Macedonian traditional (izvorno) music on Macedonian kaval (end-blown wooden flute) and Macedonian gajda (bagpipe) for over 30 years, I haven't thought of trying it on my Hungarian gurdy. Probably the rhythms would be difficult at first for the cranking arm. When I play cocek on kaval (or other instruments), I usually think of it as an 8/8 rhythm rather than a 4/4, counting it thus: 1 2 3 1 1 2 1 2, or 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 with accents on the first, 5th and 7th beats, but without neglecting that fillip of a quick pick-up on beat 4, just before an accent on 5. There's a lot of traditional and composed (city music) Macedonian stuff that uses the hijaz scale, but there is no one Macedonian scale per se. The cocek often gets associated with Romani musicians and Romani music style in that region. For a sometimes detailed discussion of cocek (much of it about the rhythm), see the archived messages at the EEFC (E. European Folklife Center) listserv (open to non-members) going back to the mid-90s, e.g., http://archive.iecc.com/article/eefc/19971017005 and http://archive.iecc.com/article/eefc/19980417010 http://archive.iecc.com/article/eefc/19980427014 http://archive.iecc.com/article/eefc/19980828002 Craig Packard Kensington MD
