I bought a quena several years ago, in a sale of Peruvian goods. I've tried many times since the to play it and I can scarcely get a sound out of it. If I cover all the holes I can just about get a faint tone.

I'm not a flautist, I am a pretty good recorder player, but I know how the sound is produced on a flute and I can do it, I can blow across most bottles and adjust my embouchure to get the clearest sound. But this think is just eluding me. It's not a blow-across-a-bottle mouthpiece, nor do you put it into your mouth like a recorder, it just has a notch in the top cut into a slight curve

I've watched video after video to get the right embouchure, still no tone. Are they really that difficult to play? Is it possible that a flute like this can be cut so that the edge is just in a wrong position to produce tone? It could be that it's one of a batch made for tourists and carelessly made so that it looks nice but that's all - however, it doesn't seem that you could go far wrong making a thng like that.

It's very nice, hand-painted, wood I think not bamboo (has a nice llama on the front)

Hi linda.ff

I've had a couple of quenas. The first one was also a wooden one and very hard to play. I now have a bamboo one and I find it easier. I also made sure to get a quick lesson in the music shop (in Cuzco, Peru) where I bought it.

It makes a difference if it's a proper quena or a souvenir one although, if it's wooden, it should be a proper instrument. Tourist ones are nearly always made from bamboo and often playable but not at all in tune. It could be a fake but less likely if wood.

It can require quite a long time to work out the proper embouchure and angle of wind down into the instrument and a tiny adjustment can make a huge difference. I'm far from expert and not really able to explain on here. Also, it takes a lot of wind, a lot more than you'd use with a recorder. Andean folks have impressive chest cavities and impressive stamina on wind instruments...

I also bought a couple of traverse quenas (i.e. played like flute) which are very likely a recent invention. They were actually easier to play than the traditional quena.


I hope you find the knack and manage to make a sound. It can be a hauntingly beautiful instrument.

Of course you might just have a dud one, but my ordinary bamboo tourist quena (bought for me by my husband without any trial) is OK to play. The embouchure is difficult to explain...definitely, one minute you can't get a sound and the next you can!

Try holding it so that the top of the U-shaped embouchure is almost at the inner edge of your lip, with the cross-section quite firmly against your teeth, so that the quena is sticking out rather than straight down.

I think it's quite similar to a flute embouchure, and the top lip overhangs the bottom a bit.

Hope that helps a little bit.

How dud can you get with just cutting a little notch like that?

It's not quite a "tourist" one as I bought it in England, but from someone whose brother had been dealing with Peruvian imports, mostly gifts, and she'd been trying to sell tham off when her brother had died. But she was around in our city for a few yars after that at craft fairs etc, so either she inherited a lot more from her brother than we'd realised, or quite likely decided that she liked it and bought some more.

I thin it was from there that I bought my goat's hoof shaker as well.

So I may just have to try to find another quena at a fair sme time and see if it's any easier. It's one of my favourite styles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=playe...p;v=gaZwcCYfids

I may be wrong but it looks like the quena on the left is a wooden one. The lead on the right seems to be bamboo.

I think they wooden ones in general sound darker and more mellow. But yes, both lovely.

It may be a case of trying lots of different angles until you find something that works - but in short stints so you don't go mad with frustration, and can maintain the support in the air stream. If you are getting a faint, slight sound, it's likely you are getting there, but need to adjust the pressure or speed of the air stream slightly in order to hit the "sweet spot".

I had a play around with a cardboard centre from wrapping paper around Christmas, cutting a notch in with a craft knife. The notch has rather raggedy edges, but I did eventually manage to get it to sound as a flute (rather like playing a bass flute, to be honest!). When getting the knack right though, I had to block the end of the tube off completely. For some reason this makes it much easier to sound instruments where you need to split the air stream, so it might be worth a shot. Perhaps someone with more technical knowledge can explain why it works! I discovered this when I was first trying to get a sound of a flute on the mouthpiece, but it seems to apply generally.

Had any luck, linda.ff?

I just came across the little booklet they gave me with my quena. It has a diagram of the embouchure, though I'm not sure how helpful it really is. I could scan the picture, though, if you want.