Kaval Pro: Shepherd Flute

Kaval Pro is a realistic kaval for musicians who play folk and makam music. Every note comes from recorded kaval notes, every perde sounds at its true pitch on the 53-koma grid, and a dem kaval holds the drone under you. With usul rhythms, a makam tuner, seyir practice, ear training and 53 folk songs to play along with, it is a complete daily practice instrument.

The kaval is the end-blown shepherd flute (çoban kavalı) of Anatolia and the Balkans. Kaval Pro is made for kaval players, ney and other wind players, makam (maqam) students and teachers, and composers who need a microtonal flute voice. Dilsiz Kaval is now Kaval Pro, rebuilt from scratch.

The instrument
• Five kaval sounds made from recorded kaval notes: Kaval, Çoban kavalı (the warm shepherd's kaval), Balkan kaval, Kaval tavrı (a master's ornamented playing style) and Frullato (a flutter-tongued effect)
• Two ways to play: the perde board, with the makam's perdes as keys, or the kaval itself with seven front holes and the thumb hole
• On the holes, half-hole for the komas and blow on the breath bar: blow harder to overblow into the second register (the octave) and the third (the twelfth), about two octaves and a third in all
• On the perde board, slide from perde to perde to slur, rock your finger for vibrato, and play higher on a key for more breath
• Add çarpma grace notes, or use the breath lock while your fingers play
• Choose your kaval by its key, from La to Sol# (a Re kaval by default), fine-tune it by up to a quarter tone, and set concert A to 440, 442 or 432 Hz

Makam and ayak
• More than 50 makams and folk ayaks with their AEU perdes, durak and güçlü, and the perdes that change on the way down: Rast, Uşşak, Hüseynî, Hicâz, Kürdî, Nihâvend, Sabâ, Segâh, Hüzzam, Karcığar, and folk ayaks such as Kerem, Garip and Bozlak
• Every makam card shows its çeşnis, its seyir and its scale in komas
• Name the perdes your way: perde names (Dügâh, Segâh, Nevâ), Do Re Mi or C D E with koma accidentals, or komas
• Perde tuning: move any perde of a makam by cents to match your own practice (Pro)
For Western musicians: one Holdrian koma is 1/53 of an octave, about 22.6 cents.

Türkü archive
• 53 Turkish folk songs (türkü) written for the kaval, among them Kâtibim, Sarı Gelin and Çayda Çıra
• Listen to each türkü on the kaval with the dem and its usul on the drum
• Then play along on the perdes or the holes: the next perde glows and waits for you, and you earn stars

Dem and usul
• A dem kaval holds the durak, or the durak and the güçlü together (Pro); strings and choir drones too
• 21 usuls and folk rhythms, from sofyan and düyek to aksak, curcuna and ağır aksak, with halay, karşılama and zeybek
• On darbuka, bendir, def, kudüm or davul

Practice
• Makam tuner: play your own kaval or any instrument and read the nearest perde of the makam in komas and cents, against a dem reference tone
• Seyir: hear each makam's path on the kaval with its dem, then play it with the glowing guide
• Ear training: koma intervals, the koma between Segâh and Bûselik, çeşnis and makams
• Record with the dem and every koma kept; share as WAV, or as MIDI with the komas as pitch bends (Pro)

Free and Pro
Free: the main Kaval sound, 13 makams and ayaks, the türküs Kâtibim and Sarı Gelin, the dem kaval, 6 usuls on darbuka and bendir, the tuner, seyir practice, two ear-training exercises and 3 recordings, with a small banner ad under the instrument. If you choose to watch a short video, it opens a locked makam, türkü or usul until you close the app.
Kaval Pro is one purchase with no subscription: every kaval sound, makam, türkü and usul, the double dem, perde tuning, all ear training, unlimited recordings, WAV and MIDI export, and no ads.

Works offline. No account needed.

Looking for a simple, casual kaval? Try Kaval by Alyaka.
Questions or ideas: alperkah@gmail.com

Recent changes:
Fixes a crash at launch on some Android 9 and 10 phones, and other stability improvements.