Frequently asked questions

List of frequently asked questions

• How can I book Tever for a performance?

  To book me, write via Contact and tell me the date, location, and type of event. The more detail you include upfront, the quicker I can give you a clear answer.

  I work in several formats: the traditional pair of gaita and drum, full band, and the lecture-concert — where I play and explain the music as we go. Each format fits different contexts, from village festivals to institutional events, theatre stages to private celebrations.

• How do you cover the punteru holes correctly?

  With the pad of the finger, flat — not with the fingertip held vertical — because the pad covers the hole completely and seals it better.

  Keep your fingers curved and close to the punteru: the fingers that aren’t covering a hole stay a couple of millimetres away, ready for the next note. The movement comes from the knuckle, not from the whole hand.

  And you don’t need force. Pressing harder doesn’t seal better — it just tires your hands and causes stiffness. A clean seal is about coverage, not pressure.

  I work through the first notes and this technique step by step in The punteru: your first notes.

• How is the Asturian gaita tuned?

  The Asturian gaita is named by the reference note of its punteru. The most common tunings are C (Do), B-flat (Si bemol) and D (Re), and each one changes the timbre and the repertoire. I explain how to choose and how to tune it in Tuning the Asturian gaita.

• How many drones does the traditional Asturian gaita have?

  The traditional Asturian gaita has a single roncón, that is, one low drone beneath the punteru’s melody. Models with two or three roncones are not traditional in Asturies: they come from Scottish influence. I go into it in the glossary, under Single roncón.

• How many notes does the Asturian gaita have in total?

  In C tuning, the gaita asturiana has 12 notes: 9 base notes plus 3 requintu notes (D, E, and F in the upper register). These 12 cover the natural diatonic range of the instrument.

  With modern chromatic punteros, that map expands to cover the full equal-tempered scale — all semitones included — which is what the Oviedo Conservatory now teaches as standard.

  I map out the full range and how each note is produced in How many notes does the Asturian gaita have?.

• I want to learn to play the Asturian gaita: where do I teach?

  I teach the Asturian gaita at EMTI Fervienza, the traditional music school I founded in 2026. There you will find how the teaching works, what is on offer and how to enrol: emtifervienza.com. On this site I write about my music and my craft as a gaitero.

• Is the CHALGA project still active?

  No. The Verkami campaign was funded at 128% with 74 backers in 2022 and was fully delivered. The CHALGA workshop ran until the summer of 2024, when it closed.

  Today CHALGA is the workshop where the XIBLA was born — not an active project. The XIBLA itself remains the practical outcome of that work: a 3D-printed learning flute for the gaita asturiana that came out of those three years of craft and experimentation.

  I tell the full story in CHALGA: lutherie, 3D printing and the XIBLA flute.

• Is the muiñeira Asturian or Galician?

  It’s a musical form shared by the northwest Iberian Peninsula: it appears in both the Asturian and Galician songbooks, with its own variants in each tradition. It doesn’t belong exclusively to either.

  In the Asturian gaita repertoire it has its own place, but it’s not the most representative form of the Asturian songbook — that role goes to the alborada and the xirandilla. The muiñeira is part of the repertoire; it’s just not the center of it.

  I put it in context alongside the other key forms in Traditional Asturian repertoire: where to begin.

• What are the differences between the Asturian gaita and the Galician gaita?

  The Asturian gaita and the Galician gaita belong to the same family of bagpipes with a bag, but they differ in tuning, repertoire, timbre and technique: each has a sound identity of its own. I compare the two in detail in Asturian gaita vs. Galician gaita.

• What formats does Tever perform in?

  I play in several formats: the traditional one (gaita and drum, roots repertoire), the lecture-concert (I play and explain), gaita with piano and gaita with a pop-rock band. Tradition and contemporary production coexist without picking sides. You can hear samples at Music.

• What is the Asturian gaita?

  The Asturian gaita is the most representative bagpipe in the traditional music of Asturies. It has four parts: soplete, fol, punteru and roncón. I tell the whole story in What is the Asturian gaita?.

• What is the difference between an alborada and a xirandilla?

  These are two distinct forms within the traditional Asturian repertoire.

  The alborada is a dawn piece, associated with the opening of festivals: a broad melody, solemn character, unhurried tempo, ceremonial function. It’s the piece that marks a threshold — the start of something.

  The xirandilla is a dance piece: lively, strongly rhythmic, built to move feet, with a festive character. Where the alborada speaks, the xirandilla moves.

  Neither is better or more representative than the other — they serve different moments. Understanding both is understanding the repertoire. I cover them in context in Traditional Asturian repertoire: where to begin.

• What is the requintu of the Asturian gaita?

  The requintu is the upper register of the gaita asturiana’s punteru. These are the highest notes on the instrument — D, E, and F in the upper octave — obtained by increasing air pressure and adjusting the fingering relative to the base notes.

  Playing cleanly up into the requintu is one of the markers of a gaitero’s technical maturity. It requires precise fol control — especially for the F requintu, which is the highest note of the instrument’s natural range and the most demanding to produce cleanly and stably.

  I map out the full note range and how the requintu fits in How many notes does the Asturian gaita have?.

• What is the requintu on the Asturian gaita?

  The requintu is the three highest notes of the punteru: D, E, and F in the upper range. They’re produced with higher air pressure from the fol and different fingering from the main register.

  Mastering them requires more bellows control than the base notes — the fol needs to be more active, more precise. The upper F is the highest note in the standard scale and the one that demands the greatest precision to produce cleanly.

  Making the transition from the base register to the requintu without breaking or going sharp is where you see the gaitero’s craft. It’s where technique becomes visible.

  I explain the full note map in How many notes does the Asturian gaita have?.

• What is the XIBLA?

  The XIBLA is a learning flute for the Asturian gaita, made by 3D printing and created at the CHALGA workshop in Teverga. It reproduces the same fingering as the punteru of the Asturian gaita and is tuned in C major. It serves to learn finger placement without having to buy a full gaita: the barrier to entry drops to a fraction of the cost. It is not a miniature gaita or a toy; it is the melodic tube on its own, which is exactly where learning starts.

• Where can I listen to Tever?

  You can listen on Spotify and YouTube. My EP Suañu de Gaita (2021) collects my original compositions for gaita asturiana — that’s the best starting point if you want to hear what I do.

  I gather all platform links at Música.

• Who is Tever Díaz García?

  I’m Tever Díaz García, a professional Asturian gaitero, composer and teacher. I play the Asturian gaita from Asturies, I teach how to play it and I publish my own work: my EP Suañu de Gaita came out in 2021. You’ll find my full biography in About me.

• Does one maker's payuela work on another maker's gaita?

  Not always, and for a physical reason, not one of quality or brand. Two punteros can share a nominal key — both in C, say — and still have slightly different builds between them: variations in interior reaming, diameter, or the exact point where the tube is truncated. The payuela has to match the specific acoustic length of that specific tube, not just “the key” in the abstract. That’s why a payuela that fits one punteru perfectly can respond differently — or outright poorly — on another of the same key made by a different maker. It isn’t an absolute rule: plenty of payuelas are interchangeable between similar gaitas, but there’s no automatic guarantee just from sharing a key.

• Why is the payuela the length it is?

  Because the real punteru isn’t a complete cone: it’s truncated at the top so the payuela can be fitted into it, and that piece has to acoustically “complete” the part missing from the tube. In the case of the C punteru, the real tube measures around 330 mm, and the payuela contributes an acoustic length of around 85 mm — not a physical measurement, but the one corresponding to the note the payuela produces when blown on its own — adding up to the 415 mm the cone formula predicts for the note that comes out with every hole covered. It isn’t a measurement decided by tradition or taste: it’s a physical relationship you can verify with a tuner.