Hold a tube and the air starts to flow; slide across the raft and the melody follows your finger. The light and dark tubes show the two rows of the Andean siku, which two musicians share note by note, and the breath control lets you choose between a pure tone and the airy sound of the mountains.
A pan flute note is not struck, it is blown: it lasts as long as your breath. Here it lasts as long as you hold it.
Press a tube and the note starts with the little puff of air players call the chiff, then settles into a breathy tone that lasts while you hold. Slide your finger along the raft and the notes connect, as when the player moves the flute under the lips.
The breath slider goes from a round, pure tone to the airy, rushing sound of a cane tube played hard. Keep a note and a slow breath vibrato comes in; switch it off for a straight tone.
The Andean siku is split into two rows, arka and ira, which hold every other note of the scale. In the Altiplano, two musicians each take a row and build the melody together, note by note. The light and dark tubes show which row each note belongs to.
Each tube is closed at the bottom, which makes it sound an octave lower than an open tube of the same length and gives it mostly odd harmonics, the hollow sound of the pan flute. The tubes are drawn to their real proportions.
Altiplano Morning and Windy Pass, two originals written by GOONS, and public-domain melodies such as Ode to Joy. Listen, then play along: the next tube glows until you blow into it.
Hold a tube with a finger on a phone or tablet. On a computer, the middle row of letters plays the tubes from the longest, the top row continues; hold two keys and release one to go back, like a trill.
Press and hold the longest tube on the left: that is the lowest note, E.
Keep holding and slide to the right: the notes climb and connect.
Move the breath slider and play again: from pure to airy.
Choose Altiplano Morning, press Listen, then Play along and follow the glowing tube.
| Type | Andean pan flute (siku, zampoña, panpipes), playable on this page, free |
|---|---|
| Tubes | 13 stopped tubes; E minor from E4 to C6, or A minor from A3 to F5 |
| Rows | Arka (7 tubes) and ira (6 tubes), alternating notes, as on the siku |
| Playing | Hold to blow, slide across the tubes, breath control, vibrato |
| Sound | Stopped pipe synthesis with odd harmonics, breath noise, attack chiff, large room reverb |
| Songs | Two GOONS originals, public-domain melodies; listen and play-along modes |
| Keyboard | Middle and top rows, read by position on QWERTY, AZERTY and QWERTZ |
| Requirements | Any modern browser with Web Audio - Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari |
A pan flute is a set of tubes of different lengths bound together, each closed at the bottom and blown across the top. Its name comes from Pan, the Greek god of shepherds, but pan flutes are played all over the world, from the Romanian nai to the panpipes of the Solomon Islands. In the Andes of Bolivia and Peru, the siku, also called zampoña, is made of cane and split into two rows, arka and ira.
Because each row of the siku holds only every other note, a melody passes from one row to the other. In the traditional way of playing, two musicians, or two whole groups, each hold one row and answer each other note by note, so the tune only exists when they play together. Soloists can also hold both rows, one behind the other, and move between them.
For a very different breath, try the didgeridoo of northern Australia. The steel drum brings another sound of the Americas, and the world music studio puts every instrument on one map.
Yes. The pan flute at the top of this page is free, with no account and nothing to install. It runs in your browser with the Web Audio API.
Keep holding the tube, with the mouse, a finger or a key: the note lasts as long as you hold it, with a slow vibrato after a moment.
The two rows of the Andean siku. Arka usually has seven tubes and ira six, and they hold alternate notes of the scale, so a melody moves from one row to the other. Light tubes here are arka, dark tubes ira.
The longer the tube, the lower the note. A closed tube sounds an octave lower than an open one of the same length, which keeps the pan flute compact.
Yes. Altiplano Morning and Windy Pass are originals written by GOONS, and the other melodies are in the public domain.
The pan flute is free, with no account. GOONS Studio adds a looper, synths, drum machines and a sequencer that play together - free for 7 days, no card required.
Free on this page, no account. Play the online didgeridoo →