The frula (also known as “svirala”) is the flute-like woodwind end-blown aerophone musical instrument.
It has been traditionally played in Serbia – in the leisure time, rituals, or as the instrument accompanying “kolo”.
The shepherds that would tend their flocks have also played it. It is mainly made of wood and has six (or seven) holes that are used to play. The frula player is called “frulas”.
He plays by holding the bottom with one, and the top of the instrument with another hand; then he blows into the instrument (blowing “t” or “tk”).
The sound is then produced by covering the holes with fingertips (thus blocking the airway) and leaving the desired one uncovered (thus allowing the air to come through it and produce the sound). The holes represent the tones of the musical scale – there are six tones in every scale and the seventh is the same as the first one, except it sounds higher.
All frulas vary in size; this is important because the size affects the pitch of the tones it produces – different size, different key/scale. This is why one frulas needs to have more than one frula if the song he needs to play is in more than one key (which is usually the case).
The color of the frula also matters – frulas that are in one color are easier to play than others are.
Most popular frula players (frulasi) are Adam Milutinovic, Sava Jeremic, Tihomir Paunovic, Velja Kokoric, Borivoje Todorovic, Bora Dugic, Slobodan
Vukicevic, Spasoje Jovic, Andrija and Tomislav Bajic, Radovan Jovanovic and Neda Nikolic.
You can hear how it sounds here:
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