The pan flute, known as 排箫(pinyin pái xiāo) in China, is a traditional musical instrument especially frequently used in folk songs or melodies. It is also known as panpipes or syrinx in west. In China, pan flutes are often made with bamboo, normally from10 to 24 bamboo pipes with different length tied together and each one is tuned to one key note. The pan flute is played by blowing horizontally across an open end against the sharp inner edge of the pipes.
Chinese bamboo pan flute or paixiao
The world’s eldest found pan flute so far is a 3000 year old Chinese pan flutes which was believed to be made in the early Western Zhou Dynasty in ancient China. Though the world eldest panpipes was found in China, china is not the country that plays the panpipes best. Today, the pan flute playing is mainly well performed by Romanian musicians and South American musicians such as the famous panpipes master Gheorghe Zamfir from Romania and Leo Rojas from Ecuador.
Pan flute msucians on the street
Classical Works 《The Lonely Shepherd》（《孤独的牧羊人》）Gheorghe Zamfir 《My Sweet Indian Child》（《我可爱的印第安小孩） Leo Rojas 《A morning in Cornwall》（《肯尔沃的早晨》）