page_title: Kuisi
section_title: Kuisi bunsi and kuisi sigi
hierarchical_section_title: Kuisi / Kuisi bunsi and kuisi sigi
caption_attribution_description: Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto
context_page_description: A kuisi is a Native American fipple flute made from a hollowed cactus stem, with a beeswax and charcoal powder mixture for the head, with a thin quill made from the feather of a large bird for the mouthpiece. Seagull, turkey and eagle feathers are among the feathers commonly used.
context_section_description: There are male and female versions of the kuisi (or gaita, the Spanish for pipe).  The female kuisi bunsi (also rendered kuisi abundjí in Spanish) is also commonly known as a gaita hembra in Spanish, and has 5 holes; the male kuisi sigi (or kuisi azigí) is called a gaita macho in Spanish and has two holes.
  Players often use wax to close fingerholes and alter the sound of the flute, blocking one or other tone hole on the kuisi sigi, and on the kuisi bunzi either the upper or lower fingerhole so that only four holes are in use at any one time. The change of wax from one fingerhole to another alters the fundamental tone and series of overtones that can be produced. A photograph of the paired flutes of the Cuna Indians of Panama shows that their hembra has only four fingerholes.
caption: Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto (2012)
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