
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.