A friend expressed an interest in Andean pan pipes. His birthday is coming up, so I was entertaining the idea of getting him some as a gift. He played trombone for 2 years as a kid, but nothing else. Are they really difficult for a beginner, and is there a particular kind/set that would at least be playable for a beginner? I don’t want to spend too too much, but would like to get him something that he has a chance of playing. Thanks!
Robin
If you can get one that is single row, rather than double row, they are considerably easier, and more practical for solo performance.
A few years ago we were involved with a group of dancers/musicians from Peru who were performing locally in a dance festival. To our amazement, we found out that when two of the musicians were playing the pipes together, they both played the melody - but each of them only played every other note so that it sounded like only one person was playing! They could do this very quickly. I’ve wondered why they’d do it this way - perhaps to give each note its due without rushing the start and finish of each note by moving the pipes quickly to the next position?
Susan
Susan, this is strange ideed.
Only similar example I konow of is them two crazy Argentinians teaching harpsichord (one In Vienna, the second in Paris Conservatories…) who interpreted a suite of Piazzola in the same manner : interweaving their notes. Which makes sense since harpsichords can’t sustain tones… Now with winds 
I was just informed by someone that Andean musicians alternate notes so that they don’t pass out from lack of oxygen in the thin air! This makes sense, but wouldn’t you think they would be acclimated and this wouldn’t be required?
Susan
If you can blow air across a popbeerwine bottle and make a note, you can play panpipes. Now as for playing tunes, that takes a while. Having played panpipes for quite a few years I have to respectfully disagree with Walden about the ease of playing Antaras (pipes all in one row) versus Zamponas (should be a tilde over the n). Zamponas are much easier to play because you don’t have to travel from one end of the pipe to the other to play a tune at speed, just up and down a bit. To play a scale on a zampona you aternate between top and bottom rows moving across the pipes. If they are Bolivian style pipes the high notes are on the right. Ecuadorian is the opposite.
Most of the pipes you see at import shops are actually not that bad but will require tuning. Most of them are Maltas (longest tube is about 12") and will be in the key of G. Try to find a set that is flat since it is pretty easy to drop popcorn or rice into the tubes to temporarily raise the pitch. Just remember to remove them when done or the tubes will get funky. We tune our pipes before every performance since the ambient air temp and humidity change the tuning drastically.
When buying a set look for straight tubes that are all one piece and thin walled. The thicker tubes often seen on import pipes have a dead sound with no bark to them. Make sure there are no cracks or repaired cracks. Rotate all the tubes if you can to check for cracks since repairs are often hidden on the back. Check the nodes at the bottom of the tubes and make sure there are no splits or chunks missing from when they were cut.
When you get them home clean out the tubes with a bit of oil on a recorder cleaning rod and VERY lightly smooth the edges of the tops of the tubes with ultra fine emory paper (800 or 1000 grit) or 000 steel wool (don’t get any steel wool fuzzies in the pipes!) Your lips and chin will thank you for it later.
As for trading the melody back and forth, the main reason is to conserve air. Pipes take a lot of air to play correctly and if you are playing a bunch of 5-10 minute songs in a row you will get dizzy. It also sounds really cool when you have the two players on seperate channels on the sound system. It also has to do with the feeling behind the music of community, sharing, and cooperation.
When you get good with the maltas move up to sankas (longest tube around 2.5’) then up to toyos with the longest tube around 5’. I would avoid chulis which have a max tube at about 6" since they are really piercing sounding and more difficult to play, the tube diameter is very small and requires a tight air stream. Also avoid the “smoked” pipes in most cases. They look pretty but sound kinda wierd to a traditional player. If you find a set that looks kinda green like the pipes were not aged go ahead and get them they are probably very good pipes. The greenish color is because it is a different species of reed that is used fairly commonly for the better pipes.
Mark V.
Been playing Andean folk for about 8 years “professionally”*.
*make enough money at it for the IRS to care and have two albums out.