Serbians consider themselves a musical nation – this belief is grounded on a centuries old heritage of music that has been formed under the influence of both the East and the West.

As the country was caught between pieces of the Roman Empire, Hungary, Byzantium, near the Ottoman Empire and Venice, Serbia was influenced by a variety of other cultures; which affected the music so that it contains elements that are characteristic of the Balkan area.

“He, who sings, thinks no evil” is an old Serbian saying that will describe Serbian’s attitude towards music in the best possible way.

People used to sing all the time and in various occasions, and songs created in the field or at festivities would spread around followed by the sound of the fifes, trumpets, drums and bagpipes. Some of them survived until this day reminding us of the past times.

• The “gusle”: a single-stringed musical instrument and the “frula”: a musical instrument resembling a flute, are typical folk musical instruments in Serbia.
• There is also “tamburitza”: a kind of guitar, typical for the region of Vojvodina.
• The accordion and the violin, even though extremely popular now, came into use much later.
• The trumpet has gained large popularity, and is celebrated especially at the Guca Brass Festival and on Serbian weddings as well.

Photo by Aleksandar Janjanin wedding photographer / AjproFoto

The post “He, who sings, thinks no evil” first appeared on Tourist Wedding - Destination wedding story.

It was mainly played at the weddings, accompanying “frula”, in “kolo“, and other events

The gajde player is called “Gajdas“. He plays by covering the wholes thus blocking the airway, and leaving the the desired one uncovered so it can produce the sound. The number of holes can vary depending on the variant of the instrument itself – some have a double-bored chanter (which has eight holes, etc.)

A very important piece of gajde is the flea-hole. It is the whole on the chanter which when uncovered changes the tuning of the instrument by a semitone, therefore allowing the musical ornamentation to be played. Without ornamentation, the folk music would lose its unique character.

Bagpipe family of instruments is interesting, because bagpipes do not require blowing into them the whole time. That is why they have bags – when a player blows into them, the bags fill with air thus supplying the instrument with the air while the player gets a breath.

You can hear how a Gajdas is playing gajde on the clip below:

The post Gajde – serbian traditional music instrument first appeared on Tourist Wedding - Destination wedding story.