Quena Lesson #1 — Introduction, Exercises and Videos

Greetings, fellow quena players! In this first lesson, we will introduce chords, working only on the G major scale, which is the most accessible one for this instrument, being the standard tuning—all holes completely closed.

First of all, I’d like to note that, according to the equal-tempered scale—which comprises virtually all of the music we listen to—there are just twelve notes. That’s what we call the “chromatic scale,” where the shortest distance between two notes equals a semitone. For example, C-D♭, E-F. We’ll also use the one-tone distance, which equals two semitones. For example, C-D, E-F♯.

What is included in this lesson:

• A very common and helpful exercise to listen to and identify intervals consists of playing the “scale in thirds,” which would be playing all third intervals.
• Another approach would be to play all “perfect” triads, i.e., adding the octave after the triad’s arpeggio.
• Finally, a very interesting exercise is to play “connected triads,” i.e., an ascending triad...
• Ejercicios Bonus!!! These consist of playing the scale in groups of three conjunct motions...
• 6 short instructional videos