This research is a treatise exposing analytically a large pallet of playing techniques of the Andean quena notched flute. In recent years the quena has become a global musical instrument, played in a wide variety of musical contexts. Thus, its distinctive sound is just as likely to be found Jazz, World and Contemporary music as it is in traditional Andean genres. 

This work is the result of twenty years of personal research, and in 2007 was published as a book through the sponsorship of the Music Fund of the Ministry of Culture of Chile. 

The book illustrates through tables, acoustic analysis and sound clips the different playing techniques of the quena, their applications and their notation in Western music script. The content ranges from "traditional" playing modes, such as vibrato and glissando, to the so-called "new techniques", such as multiphonics and percussive sounds like ram and pizzicato. The text iis written in both Spanish and English and each technique is illustrated through an audio track on the accompanying CD.

 

 

 

 

 

A composition featuring some of the extended techniques approached by the book : Flatterzung, overtones, multiphonics,  aeolian tone...