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263instruments from Mediterranean region, both reeds are understandably of the samelength, with the identical number of the holes on each reed.Therefore, in discussing double blown instruments, the type of the instrumentmust be taken into the account: are both reeds of the same length? Are all the holesidentical? The answer on these simple questions can provide us with same basicknowledge about the type of music played on these instruments. Therefore,distinguishing structurally monophonic double blown instrument (with identicallength reeds and identical number and system of holes) and structurally polyphonicdouble blown instrument (with non-identical reeds and different system and number ofholes) from each other is methodologically extremely important.Of course, it is theoretically possible (although less likely), that traditional playercould play polyphonic music on the structurally monophonic double blown instrument.The reversed case, when the performer plays monophony on the structurally polyphonicdouble blown instrument (say, with a melodic pipe and a drone pipe), consciously tryingto play in unison, is much more difficult, although we will see later that the skepticism ofscholars sometimes have very little or no boundaries, particularly when it comes toaccepting the presence of polyphony in ancient musical cultures.Sometimes both (polyphonic and monophonic) types of double blown instrumentsare present in the different regions of the same country. For example, Ancient Greeceknew both polyphonic and monophonic types of double blown instrument avlos: (1) theone that was considered to be the purely Hellenic instrument had the same length reedswith the identical holes on them (structurally monophonic instrument), and (2) anotherone was considered non-Hellenic, “barbaric” instrument, it had the reeds of the differentlength, with non-identical set of holes on them (structurally polyphonic instrument) (See:Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1979:710). This fact of the presence of two different typesof the avlos correlates with the fact of the mainstream monophonic singing culture of theAncient Greeks, and the presence of the traditions of vocal polyphony in mostlymountainous regions of the Balkan Peninsula (including Epir and Rhodes in Greece,where the polyphonic tradition was alive in the 20 th century).An important detail in correlation of the traditions of vocal polyphony and thedouble blown instruments is that, double blown instruments seem to become particularlyimportant for the culture when the tradition of vocal polyphony is declining. In Georgia,for example, double blown instruments are found mostly in regions where the vocaltradition is not as strong as in other regions. The absence of double blown instruments invery active polyphonic traditions could be connected to the total domination of vocalchoral practice in musical and social life. For example, musical activity of Pygmies wastraditionally almost exclusively vocal and choral. Seems that blown polyphonicinstruments are becoming more important when social and choral ties in community aregetting weaker. The psychology behind this phenomenon is something like this: “If thereis no one else to support my singing with the other part, I’ll do this for myself”.The readers might interpret this connection between the blown instruments andvocal music as the indication of the general link between the vocal and instrumentalforms of traditional music. Interestingly though, another big group of musicalinstruments, sting instruments, does not show this kind of close connections to the vocaltraditions. Plenty of cultures with the monophonic singing traditions have very developedpolyphony of string instruments. For example, many of the Central Asian cultures with