About the Instruments
The guitar traces back to Spain. Many, many variations of it are played all over the world, including the charango from Bolivia and the cuatro from Venezuela that are played by Colibrí. The guitar is made of wood and six strings. The strings are either metallic or nylon. The style of guitar that Colibrí plays has nylon strings and is called a classical guitar because it is used to play classical music as well as Latin American rhythms.
The charango is a very small guitar from Bolivia. It was originally made from the shells of armadillos. Now it is usually made from wood. Even though it is small, the charango has ten strings that create a high-pitched sound.
The cuatro is a small guitar that is played in Venezuela and Colombia. It has four strings, which is why it is called cuatro, which means four in Spanish. The strings of the cuatro are plucked and strummed like on other guitars. Some of the rhythms are very fast and players also use their right hands to tap or slide on the wood or strings, creating a very percussive effect.
Zampoñas, panpipes in English, are rows of bamboo tubes that are tied together to make a flute. Colibrí plays a style of zampoñas that comes from the mountains of Peru and Bolivia. In this style there are two rows of tubes that alternate, or trade off, the notes in an octave. Each musician plays only one row, sometimes blowing into the tubes to play a note and sometimes waiting while the other musician plays a note. This manner of playing is called trenzado, weaving the melody together like a braid or trenza.