pan pipes from hell
As usual I raced into yoga class yesterday just as it was starting, with everyone lying on their backs and doing a little deep breathing and relaxing. It wasn’t until I’d lain down and got comfortable that I noticed a rather drastic change in the usual music. I thought to myself … could this really be Unchained Melody being played on pan pipes? It was. And it got worse. Next up was Feelings and I almost sat up and asked our instructor Ana if this was some sort of joke or what. By the time the third song started we were well into the “sun greeting” and as a group we all groaned. I mean, it was ABBA fer crying out loud. On pan pipes! At which point Ana fessed up that she’d left her music at home and had borrowed a couple of “easy listening” CDs from the gym. And as the pan pipes crescendoed into the chorus of Chiquitita (aiiyayaiiyaiiii) we all burst out laughing and sniggered our way through the rest of the our first routine.
After which Ana put on the second CD, which was more typical easy listening stuff … Pachelbel’s Canon, Enya, etc.
But for awhile it had been like doing yoga in the world’s largest elevator. 
For some reason Vancouver has become a home for a large group of Peruvian pan-pipe players (try saying that 5 times quickly!). Every second transit hub seems to have some fella with his pipes, a hat for change and a stack of CDs for sale. I’ll throw a coin down for a flautist, a guitar player, even a digeredoo-er but the pipe players just get a quick walk by. Same as mimes.
I was gong to try to trick you into clicking a link to Zamfir Master Of the Pan Flute playing My Heart Will Go On, but decided that would be too cruel.
Tell the club to lay in some Windham Hill.
There must be some sort of traditional music from the Andes for which pan pipes are suited, but I’ve never heard any. I mean, seriously … Feelings??? I don’t think I’ve heard that stupid song in twenty years and since yesterday it’s been a very annoying ear worm.
Yes, some George Winston wouldn’t go amiss, Sled. Ana’s music is usually okay, though I wish she’d change the selection more often. The Pilates instructor, Juan Carlos, has some fabulous CDs that he’s put together himself. I look forward to hearing them again in September.
Okay…that made me laugh out loud! Even the Spanish aren’t above a little fromage with their New Age?
How…un-restful!
Songs that would be interesting to hear on pan pipes:
Yello – “Oh Yeah”
Trio – “Da Da Da” (Remember that one?)
Sex Pistols “Anarchy in the UK”
Oh don’t, I’ve just got off the phone where the “on hold” music was the pan pipes version of Love is All Around. Aaaargh!
I like the pan pipes I have heard when it is a group with drums and guitars and playing some hot jazzy stuff. The rest . . . Mke me want to have a nice bonfire.
Another cd you could tell Ana to get is almost anything by Dean Evenson. I am addicted to “Healing Sanctuary” and “Ocean Dreams”. I like Enya okay, but I find that words in musical selections tend to make people less relaxed. Probably because they are focusing on them trying to understand them.
There are words to anything Enya sings?
(I have an “Enya Channel” on my Pandora subscription… for my one client who wants wall-to-wall Celtic Twilight, since I burnt out on playing my Clannad albums over and over, it works perfectly)
Noooooooooo! I can’t bear pan pipes.
I would have had to leave the class… I think I must be a music nazi as well as an art nazi!
I loved this little story. Too funny.
However, I must also stand up in defense of pan pipes. Perhaps because I have never been subjected to “Feelings” or any Abba songs played on them.
Did you know that Simon and Garfunkel’s “El Condor Pasa” is really a traditional Peruvian tune? I like the Los Incas version. (Yes, it’s got pan pipes.)
Whoa, talk about messing up the yoga ambiance! I’m sure there you can find TOOL on pan flute, crazy! No music is best where yoga is involved. I love the silence!
We have Ecuadorian musicians here in Seattle that play the pan flutes and other instruments. Most of the music they play is native to their homeland. Only occasionally will you hear a popular song being played. I didn’t know “El Condo Pasa” was a traditional Peruvian folk song. Now I know why I hear them playing it.
I really want to know you in person?
Edgar Muenala